Know that I can have good management career because of Derby County, proclaims Wayne Rooney

After a 21 point deduction at the start of the season, many expected Derby County to be the first side relegated even before the season started. However, somehow, Wayne Rooney has turned things around for the Rams and while they still sit in the relegation zone, the club are in with a shout of surviving the season. However, the club continues to face an uncertain future as their takeover saga continues but that hasn’t stopped Rooney from staying.

The Manchester United legend has asserted, in the past, that he is determined to keep help Derby survive and admitted, recently, that he believes they will do that without a shadow of a doubt. Rooney also added that managing the Rams over the last year or so has been a journey for him which has definitely helped make him a better manager and someone who could, one day, manage a top Premier League side.

"Everything that has happened at Derby has made me think even more that I can have a good career in management. I believe that 100 per cent. I believe we will stay up," Rooney told Mail on Sunday.

"I think I could go into the Premier League and manage at a top club now. I have no worries about that. I know what my strengths are and, more importantly, I know what my weaknesses are.”

The former England captain also opened up about his struggles as a player and his battle with binge drinking during his playing career especially after his breakthrough as a young star. Rooney also admitted that he tried to work things out on his own but is determined to learn from his mistakes. 

"I had made a lot of mistakes when I was younger, some in the press and some not in the press, whether that's fighting or whatever. For me to deal with that, deal with stuff that was in the newspapers, deal with the manager at the time, deal with family at the time, was very difficult.

"In my early years at Manchester United, probably until we had my first son, Kai, I locked myself away really. I never went out. There were times you'd get a couple of days off from football and I would actually lock myself away and just drink, to try to take all that away from my mind.

"Locking myself away made me forget some of the issues I was dealing with. It was like a binge. It was just a build-up of everything, pressure of playing for your country, playing for Manchester United, the pressure of some of the stuff which came out in the newspapers about my personal life, just trying to deal with all that pressure which builds up. I was trying to figure out how to deal with it by myself,” he added.