DC United need to quickly start a new post-Rooney project

Over the past few years, DC United have created an image of instability in MLS, with plenty of incomings and outgoings as they ride around in circles season after season. Wayne Rooney’s exit, which was confirmed after the side failed to make the 2023 playoffs, was the latest chapter in a long line of turbulence.

Rooney’s arrival in 2018 was an injection of character and personality for the team, who initially reacted well to the drive and ambition of the coach to achieve a place in the playoffs in MLS. However, Rooney leaving the club just 18 months after joining from Derby County has sunk the club from the capital to new depths.

Rooney tried to give the club a new lease of life

The ex-Manchester United player is gone, and the taste in the mouths of the fans is bittersweet, who believed that success was possible with him at the helm. For many who watched DC United, the manager left the project half-completed in a decision that makes him appear a traitor to some.

In July 2022, Rooney came back to Washington but with a very different outlook on things as team manager. However, the feelings around the franchise were different to before: everything felt like Rooney had accepted the role as a stop-gap to bigger and better things in the future, signing a contract until December that year. The idea of a lack of commitment was, however, quickly thrown out when it was realised that Rooney had left his family on the other side of the pond.

DC United are swimming in circles

Plenty of objectives have not been completed as Rooney boards a plane to Birmingham in England’s second division. Despite winning 13 more points than his predecessor, the fact that the team failed to qualify for the playoffs put the nail in the coffin for a manager who lost more games than he won.

“What could have been” is the feeling that rings around the ground in Washington as the club look directionless once more: it has been four years since they have made it to the post-season and the team that has 4 MLS Cups have fully lost their way.

“I did everything that was in my hands to get the club to the playoffs”, said Rooney. The key to everything, at the end of the day, is the fact that performance dropped due to a lack of investment in the side, something Rooney repeatedly asked for nut never recieved.