Wayne Rooney makes new Derby County points deduction admission | OneFootball

Wayne Rooney has opened up on what it was like to be Derby County's manager during their period of heavy points deductions, which eventually led to them being relegated to League One.

The Rams' stint in the third tier of English football looks set to end this weekend, as all they need is a point at home to Carlisle United, who are bottom of the league, to secure promotion back to the Championship. But the journey down to this level certainly won't be forgotten.

Derby had a total of 21 points taken off their tally in the 2021/22 season. They were handed nine for breaching profit and sustainability rules, and then another 12 when the club went into administration, as per the Derby Telegraph.

Had they not been given these heavy penalties, then they would have finished 17th in the second tier, instead of 23rd.

The man in charge of Derby's team, at the time, was the former Man United and England legend. This was his first job as a manager in professional football, and, even though he wasn't able to save them from going down, the now 38-year-old made a right good go of it.

The former Rams boss has opened up on what it was like to be at the helm of a team that was in freefall due to its financial issues.

Wayne Rooney on what it was like to be Derby manager during points deductions

The former England forward was one of the pundits for the Merseyside derby between Everton and Liverpool on Wednesday night. Everton have had two points deductions this season due to breaches of financial regulations, which have taken eight points off their overall tally.

Rooney was asked by presenter Kelly Cates about what it was like to lead Derby during the hard times, as his boyhood club are currently going through. "It's difficult," said the former Birmingham City boss. "Similar to Everton, we had it in two different spells. We got 12 points [deducted] and then nine points a few months later.

"It's very difficult for the staff around the place. Staff members were losing their jobs and getting made redundant. All you can try and do is keep everyone calm and be honest with the players and staff about what the situation is, and try and give them as much information as you can."

"I think Sean [Dyche] has done a really good job [with Everton]. Without [the points deduction] they'd be quite comfortably safe. So, I think he's done a good job."

He was then asked by Jamie Carragher whether he tried to use the deductions as motivation for the players. He replied: "I think you try and create a mentality. [Jose] Mourinho was the best at doing that - the everyone is against us. You do try and create that, but I didn't like to bring it up that much.

"I was more positive. We could control what was on the pitch, there was nothing we could really do about what happened off the pitch.

"And just encouraging the players about how they've trained, how good I felt that they could play, and how good I felt they were. So it was more going down an encouragement route."

Wayne Rooney almost keeping Derby up should be talked about more

Seven points. That was the gap between Derby and safety in the 21/22 campaign. That's only a third of the amount of points that they had been deducted across the season.

Overcoming a points deduction isn't easy. Yes, teams like Everton, and Reading in the EFL, have been able to do it this season, and their siege mentality, as Rooney referred to, will have helped them a lot. But that doesn't take away from the mammoth challenge that the Evertonian was asked to overcome at Pride Park.

The season before they got relegated, Derby survived the drop by one point, and, had Sheffield Wednesday not had 18 points taken from them that season, then the Rams would have been down a season earlier than they were.

Rooney wasn't working with a loaded team. This side wasn't near the levels of the 18/19 side that lost to Aston Villa in the play-off final.

And yet Rooney managed to, in effect, get the team to be 11 points better off than they were in the prior season.