How the individuals of Plymouth will MISS Wayne Rooney after his brutally Argyle sacking: Former England ace, dubbed an ‘honorary Janner’, was usually seen belting out karaoke in naval port metropolis

They will miss Wayne Rooney in Plymouth. He was regarded by many as an ‘honorary Janner’ – the name for someone from the city – at least he was before he brutally lost his job as Plymouth Argyle’s manager on New Year’s Day.

Multiple sources in the city talk about him as ‘approachable’ and ‘patient’ with fans, and speak of his ‘humble’ demeanour.

‘He won everyone over,’ says a local. ‘He lived in the heart of Plymouth and was out and about a lot, always happy to chat and do a selfie.’

A member of staff at the Seco Lounge cafe bar, where he was a regular, added: ‘He was kind of low key.’

Not then for Wayne, 39, the grandness of the Beckhams, who swoosh around in luxury cars, with security and an entourage, and live well out of the public gaze, splitting their time between a £65million waterside mansion in Miami and a £12million converted barn development in the Cotswolds.

Rooney lived quietly in an apartment in the Royal William Yard development on the waterfront and was regularly seen out having a drink in the pubs there and elsewhere in the city.

He was apparently fairly often observed at the ‘Skiving Scholar’, a favourite of the local university crowd which stays open until 6am. He was also spotted belting out songs on karaoke night at the Cider Press pub.

It’s thought that Wayne’s flat actually belongs to the football club, and that he was sharing it with other club coaches. It’s hard to imagine any of the other superstars of his era being happy with that distinctly down to earth arrangement.

The club’s players, many of them children when he was in his prime, and arguably the best player of his generation at Manchester United and England, apparently also found him inspiring.

But sadly that goodwill didn’t translate into results and, following a string of losses and with the club at the bottom of the Championship table, the axe fell on Wayne’s £500,000 a year contract after barely seven months in the job.

He has now returned to his mega-mansion in Cheshire, where his wife Coleen and their four children live.

Here there’s a football pitch in the back garden and, as a recent documentary about Coleen revealed, a room full of bespoke cabinets displaying all the many trophies he won in a stellar career. 

A neon sign in their enormous white and grey kitchen reads: ‘Welcome to the madhouse.’

Home is vitally important to Wayne, who was brought up a Catholic in Liverpool like Coleen, 38. One of the only blips in his standing in Plymouth came when he went up to see her in Manchester and visit Christmas markets there on December 18th.

Fans had believed that he would be attending a meet and greet in Plymouth that morning and were crestfallen to be informed that he would not.

And earlier this week his time in the city was brought under another potential cloud when it was reported that Wayne had let a ‘mystery blonde’ into the Plymouth flat. 

It turns out to have been an innocent meeting with a woman and her husband that took place last summer and at a point when his son Kai, 15, was staying with him.

Wayne posted a vehement denial of wrong-doing on social media. Indeed, it’s a shame that his track record is so chequered that people find it easy to jump to the wrong conclusions.

The trouble, it seems, is that Wayne turns to drink for solace when he is bored or lonely, and it’s in these situations that good judgment is more likely to go out of the window.

As Wayne himself has observed of his younger days, when ‘there’s alcohol involved you’re gonna make bad decisions and you’re going to have to suffer and deal with the consequences’.

Meanwhile, Coleen said of her husband’s difficulties in a 2022 documentary: ‘I do think that alcohol is a lot to blame and still is …’ adding with heroic understatement: ‘It’s not a good thing for Wayne to be unsupervised.’

This point has been painfully proved to her several times over in the past after his liaisons with various other women.

Yet as Coleen has written on Facebook: ‘A few people are probably thinking [I] am stupid for staying in my marriage. I am not stupid, I know my own mind and it’s something I want to try and work on.’

In 2022, she tweeted: ‘I am who I am… He is who he is… We are what we are and that’s that!!! … it’s OUR life no one else’s.’

Clearly, they are determined to make things work in their own way.

Coleen was desperately homesick and unhappy when Wayne moved to Washington to manage DC United in 2022, and later talked about crying herself to sleep. However, she stuck it out for 15 months.

While he was in Plymouth they stayed close by developing a routine where Wayne would come home to Cheshire on Wednesdays and Sundays most weeks.

Now, events have conspired to bring him back home long-term.

There’s speculation in some media circles that Wayne, having lost four management jobs in short order – at Derby County, Washington DC, Birmingham City and now Plymouth Argyle – will become a house husband, making the situation permanent.

You can see why. As his star has fallen, so Coleen’s has risen. She won her many fans when she came second in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! which concluded on December 9.

Having spent so long out of the spotlight it was a surprise for many to see her on the ITV reality show.

But, having unwillingly taken on Rebekah Vardy in court following the tumultuous Wagatha Christie affair – in which Rebekah sued Coleen for libel, and lost, after the latter identified Vardy’s Instagram account as the source of leaks about her life – Coleen felt that the time was right to do something just for her.

She said of her decision: ‘I was ready to go in. My kids are that little bit older and I felt like I could leave them and be at ease. And also, within myself, I have had a lot going on in the past and I haven’t felt ready.

‘Whereas I thought, ‘You know what, give it a go’. I love the show and it was a challenge. I don’t regret anything.’

Not only did she walk away with a reported £1.5million appearance fee but she also endeared herself to many with her down to earth nature and willingness to face the bushtucker challenges head on.

She is now considering a number of lucrative television proposals, from joining the panel of Loose Women to an ‘At Home With The Rooneys’ style documentary about family life.

Apparently she and Wayne are weighing everything up together. There are believed to be at least five offers on the table, one of them ‘very big’ and sources say it looks likely that she will say yes to at least one of them.

There is, however, no question, I’m told, of Wayne becoming a stay-at-home dad.

Friends of the couple say that he hasn’t given up on a career in football and would ideally like another managing job.

He will consider offers of punditry work, and he appeared on the BBC’s coverage of the Euros last summer, but managing is where his heart still lies despite his failures so far, and in the coming weeks he hopes another opportunity will come his way.

Perhaps not being asked to offer opinions on any of the England games in 2024 stung a little – Wayne, who has 120 England caps, ended up covering dire games such as the Belgium-Ukraine 0-0 draw.

He diplomatically said at the time: ‘I’ve done TV in the past but spent quite a bit of time here (in Germany), it’s been different but I’ve enjoyed it. Unfortunately I haven’t had any of the England games to talk about and the games I’ve done haven’t been the greatest, but it’s nice to spend some time here.’

Might he move abroad to manage a club in, say, Saudi Arabia? Nothing is ruled out. The principle, though, is simple, which is that all decisions will be made as a couple, and with consideration for the family and their sons: Kai, Klay, 11, Kit, eight and Cass, six.

I’m told: ‘This isn’t about her rising as he falls. There are ebbs and flows, it is what happens in a long marriage. They will do what they always do, which is work out what is best for them as a family.

‘Wayne is not going to be a house husband and Coleen is not going to stop being a very involved mum.’ There is no revolution afoot in the Rooney household.

The stage seems set then for them both to grasp a turn in the spotlight – but who will end up the bigger star?