Rooney pressure to rise as he faces ‘gem’ in ‘Pep of the Championship’ in latest managerial test
Wayne Rooney had a playing career Marti Cifuentes could only dream of, but the ‘Pep of the Championship’ is the clear prodigy in terms of coaching.
Wayne Rooney has been told a “gem” of a manager stands between him and a first Championship win with Plymouth.
Rooney is the headline attraction at Queens Park Rangers when the England goalscoring legend locks horns with a man who never played professionally.
However, after less than a year in English football, Marti Cifuentes has built a coaching reputation Rooney is still striving to match.
Inheriting a QPR team in the deepest of relegation holes the little-known Spaniard led his team to safety, losing just four of their last 19 games and thrashing Leeds 4-0 to guarantee survival.
Some Rs fans labelled him the ‘Pep of the Championship’, as much due to the slick passing game he got his team playing as the fact he and Guardiola hail from the same neck of the woods.
Cifuentes is quick to reject any comparisons with the likes of Guardiola and Mikel Arteta, telling Catalan paper Mundo Deportivo: “Pep and Arteta are the best in the world – they are top level.
“I distance myself from this list because they are very proven coaches. I have just arrived and I have to work hard. Maybe in time I will have the opportunity to face them.”
These are indeed early days as Rangers, like Argyle, were well beaten on opening day before recovering from two down to force a draw with 10 men at Sheffield United.
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But former England star Andy Sinton, who once helped QPR to their highest Premier League finish of fifth, sees a rare quality in Cifuentes.
“He has come in and given everyone a lift with his style of football,” Sinton tells Football365. “I’ve been really impressed with everything about Marti.
“He arrived when we had lost six in a row, not won in nine. He’s a real attack-minded coach but he got the team solid and organised, in and out of possession, defending from the front.
“The impact he has had is there for everyone to see. As a coach, but also with how he deals with the media, links in with the fans, buys into the history.
“He’s very open. He asks questions. He wants to know about Rangers: previous years, previous players. If you ask me, the club has unearthed a gem.”
Ask Cifuentes for his coaching influences and he will tell you Johan Cruyff and the team of stars the Dutch maestro put together to dominate European football in the early 1990s.
“I grew up with the Dream Team and I soaked up that philosophy,” the 42-year-old explains. “I even spent some time at Ajax to learn. The line of coaches that goes from Cruyff to Pep is the one I like.”
Sinton, QPR ambassador since 2015, has seen it all at Loftus Road. He scored the first goal at Old Trafford in a 4-1 hammering of Manchester United on the first day of 1992.
The following season Rangers led the inaugural Premier League in the early stages and would finish above Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea and Tottenham.
Sinton contributed six goals from midfield, assisted Les Ferdinand in bagging 20 and went to the European Championship in Sweden with England.
“We hit the heights,” Sinton recalls. “How far away are we from those times? Well, quite a long way. We were in the Premier League, we finished fifth. But I do think the club is on the up.
“I played at a time where there was some brilliant games and the stadium was rocking. And when Loftus Road rocks, with the fans so close to the pitch, it is some place to play.
“We saw a return to that at the back end of last season with full houses every game. Our fans were absolutely incredible, home and away, getting behind the team the way they did in what was a difficult season.
“Everyone bought into the style Marti was bringing and now a clear structure and support network has been put in place, not just for the next six months but the longer term, and I feel we’re in a position where we can start to really look forward.”
Things change fast in football. A fortnight ago Rooney was warning his players a repeat of their performance in the 4-0 opening day loss at Sheffield Wednesday and they would not play again. They have beaten Cheltenham in the Carabao Cup and drawn with Hull since.
QPR were also well beaten first up, by West Brom, but bolstered by the arrival of season-long loans Karamoko Dembele and Koki Sato, gave an altogether better account of themselves at Sheffield United.
“The championship is the hardest second tier in world football,” says Sinton. “Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, it’s so relentless. On any given day anyone beats anyone.
“So many teams that have been in the Premier League believe they can get back there but reputations count for nothing. You’ve got to be at it all the time. If you’re not, you get beat.”
For the first time in many years the ante-post favourites were not a club relegated from the Premier League. Leeds headed the list.
“I don’t really see a team that’s going to run away with it,” said Sinton, although Burnley’s start suggests they could take a bit of stopping. “It’s too early to say, people are still doing their business, the window is open for another week.
“We’ve just got to build on what we did at the back end of last season. I’m a great believer you go into the next season trying to better what you were. If we can do that we will be in good shape.”
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