Parlour claims Rooney ‘wouldn’t be a bad fit’ for Everton amid reports
Premier League winner Ray Parlour believes Wayne Rooney “wouldn’t be a bad fit” for Everton amid reports linking him with the club.
The Toffees are currently managed by former Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez. He won the Champions League with the Reds during his time at the club.
Everton started the 2021/22 season well but they are on a poor run of form.
Everton: The most confusingly chaotic club in the land
They have won only one of their last ten games in the Premier League. On this run, they have been beaten seven times.
Benitez’s side are now 14th in the table and they are just seven points above the bottom three. They travel to face Chelsea on Thursday night.
It was reported on Wednesday that Rooney “could make a sensational return” to Everton.
The Englishman has been Derby County manager since the end of 2020. The Rams are in financial turmoil at the moment. But under Rooney, they have lost just seven of their 22 games this season.
As cited by HITC, Parlour has told talkSPORT that he thinks Rooney would work well at Everton:
“Rooney has done the best he can with the resources he’s got,” said Parlour.
“He’s got Everton in his heart, that’s where he started his career. So that wouldn’t be a bad fit for me.
“I think that would probably work.”
Parlour went onto suggest that Duncan Ferguson has a “big influence” at Everton:
“Duncan is certainly a big influence on that team,” Parlour adds.
“When he had his spell as the caretaker manager, he did really well. I think most Everton fans would say; ‘well, we’d rather have Duncan back as a manager, not as a number two’,”
“Whether Duncan would want that role, I don’t know.”
Elsewhere, Danny Murphy thinks that Benitez is “doomed” at Everton:
“He’s doomed. He doesn’t have the squad to pull it round.
“He can’t take Everton to a level he needs to for the Evertonians to be happy with that squad.
“When he first went in there I thought from a footballing perspective, what he’s done before, it looked like a decent appointment.
“I forgot, not living in the area and not thinking about it, about the Liverpool connection and the things he said about Everton, it was always destined to end in turmoil.”
On Richarlison’s situation, Murphy added: “Rafa’s got a history of falling out with players who don’t tow the line.
“Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres, John Terry, at Real Madrid you had Ramos, Ronaldo and Alonso being the obvious one at Liverpool.
“What he’s done with Digne, he’s cut his nose off to spite his face. Maybe he’s not playing because he’s questioned him.
“But he’s put Ben Godfrey, who’s a centre-back, at left-back. And he can’t play at left-back, Jordan Ayew destroyed him.”