ROONEY AND THE RAMS

JOHN WRAGG TAKES A LOOK AT THE CHALLENGE FACING THE ENGLAND LEGEND AT PRIDE PARK

WAYNE Rooney has become Derby County. Not since Brian Clough has there been so much interest in the club.

Clough won the league for Derby in 1972. But first things first, he won the Second Division, and with it promotion in 1969.

That’s where Derby are now, a second tier club looking to be bigger and pinning their hopes on one man: Rooney.

There is another parallel because the Clough years ended in tears when he took on the Derby board and lost.

Phillip Cocu, Clough’s successor 47 years and 25 managers on, won’t need to take anyone on if playing Rooney doesn’t equal promotion.

Clough’s chairman Sam Longson ran a haulage business in Derbyshire and took no messing.

Cocu’s chairman, Mel Morris, is another local man and he’s worth squillions having sold the gaming app Candy Crush for £450m.

He took total ownership of Derby five years ago and has seen off 12 managers.

Morris, obviously, takes no messing either.

If Cocu isn’t to become unlucky manager No 13 he needs Rooney to be a huge success.

“I hope we can help steer this club back into a sustainable place in the Premier League,” is what Morris, a lifelong fan, said when he bought Derby from American ownership in September 2015.

It hasn’t happened, and Rooney is the latest attempt to get Derby into the Premier League after a 12-year absence.

They lost the 2014 play-off final, missed the play-offs by a point the next year, lost in the semis in 2016, dropped dramatically out of contention in 2017, went out yet again in the semi-final two years ago and last season lost in the play-off final, to Aston Villa, once more.

This season has been a nightmare.

Cocu was hired to replace Frank Lampard when he did the inevitable and decided to manage Chelsea instead.