James Milton: Rooney and Lampard struggling to find golden touch as managers

Frank Lampard starts his new job as Coventry manager this weekend with the Sky Blues struggling towards the bottom of the Championship table.

Cov have taken 17 points from 17 league matches this season – an identical record to that of Wayne Rooney's Plymouth side, who were hammered 6-1 at Norwich on Tuesday night.

Following the carnage at Carrow Road, Rooney said: "I could probably put the under-18 team out there and they wouldn't concede six goals, so I'm very disappointed, angry and frustrated."

After an ill-fated spell at Birmingham last season, the Plymouth job probably represents Rooney's final chance to establish himself as a manager.

England's so-called golden generation of players from the early 2000s have struggled to make any impact in the dugout.

David Beckham, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen are among the stars who swerved a move into management. A harrowing four-month stint at Valencia was enough for Gary Neville, while Saudi Pro League club Al-Ettifaq are the current beneficiaries of Steven Gerrard's apprenticeships at Rangers and Aston Villa.   

Not many great players develop into great managers. Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Carlo Ancelotti, Pep Guardiola and Didier Deschamps are the obvious exceptions. Zinedine Zidane briefly threatened to add his name to the list and Xabi Alonso is well on his way to joining the exclusive club.

But Rooney and Lampard, two of England's greatest footballers of the 21st century, are focusing their energies on the Championship relegation scrap.

Glenn Hoddle reportedly struggled to coach players who couldn't trap a football as skilfully as him and Rooney must have faced similar challenges during his transition from player to manager.

At the age of 16, he was thumping a shot past David Seaman at Goodison Park; at 18 he was scoring a Champions League hat-trick on his Manchester United debut.

Having spent his entire playing career at the elite level, it must take a serious feat of empathy and imagination for Rooney to comprehend the potential and the limitations of Plymouth's players.

Lampard may well inspire a short-term improvement from Coventry's players who remember his stellar playing career for Chelsea and England.

But it cannot be a coincidence that so many of the best managers of the Premier League era have not been illustrious ex-players.

Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Jurgen Klopp were all obsessive, driven outsiders who started their coaching careers without a reputation in the game. 

Thomas Tuchel spent his playing days with Stuttgarter Kickers and SSV Ulm. After spells in charge of Borussia Dortmund, Paris St-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich, he will start as England manager in January. And Liverpool's Arne Slot was a journeyman midfielder who flitted between the top two divisions in the Netherlands.

Is it too simplistic to suggest that managers who have not enjoyed top-level success as players just want it more? Need it more, even?

The demands of modern-day football management – the hectic schedule of training, travel and fixtures, the endless data, the media scrutiny – are relentless.

Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard, like so many big-name players searching for a new challenge, undoubtedly started their coaching journeys with the purest of intentions.

They were committed to becoming the best coaches they could be, imparting the wisdom of their glorious playing careers to the next generation.

In one respect they were fortunate, blessed with contacts and a profile that brought opportunities which lesser players would not have received.

But they were also at a disadvantage, compared with Wenger, Mourinho, Klopp and Tuchel, because they had nothing to prove.

Wenger's appointment as Arsenal manager in 1996 was greeted by the infamous Evening Standard headline 'Arsene who?' 

But Wayne Rooney will still be Wayne Rooney even if Plymouth are relegated. No Liverpool supporter is going to think any less of Steven Gerrard if he gets sacked by Al-Ettifaq. And Frank Lampard's legacy in English football will not be defined by his success or failure as Coventry boss.

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