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Wayne Rooney insists he would ‘walk’ directly to Manchester City if Pep Guardiola offered him a coaching role – despite the anger it would likely cause among Manchester United fans.

Rooney’s early years as a manager have brought mixed outcomes, with the former United and England striker walking into some difficult circumstances. A year-and-a-half long stint at DC United was sandwiched between unsuccessful periods in charge of Derby County and Birmingham City, the latter of which he left in January.

Still only 38-years-old, he is relatively inexperienced as a coach and still has plenty of time to develop. Under few managers would there be a better opportunity to do so than Guardiola, and Rooney would not hesitate to join United’s fierce rivals in order to further his personal career.

“It depends [on whether I’d ever be an assistant] – if Pep Guardiola comes in and asks me to be his assistant, you’d walk there!” Rooney told the Stick To Football podcast. “But you see what [Mikel] Arteta is doing now and I strongly believe a lot of that is from learning what Guardiola was doing and so it depends on what the situation is.

Watch the latest on United’s pursuit of Newcastle sporting director Dan Ashworth here.

“I watched one of our games back [for United], against Liverpool from about 15 years ago, and the difference to how the game was played then to how it is now is massive,” Rooney added. “For me, the best manager is Pep, and you look at how he adapts – how they [City] are playing now is not the same as how they were playing four years ago.

“He keeps making these subtle changes, and then you see everyone else trying to do the same. It’s important to have your own principles and ideas of what you want to do and that’s what I’ve tried to do at Derby, DC [United] and at Birmingham, but unfortunately it didn’t work.”

Having spent two seasons at a crisis-stricken Derby County, who were relegated to League One under his stewardship after being docked 21 points altogether, Rooney spent a year-and-a-half at DC United before joining Birmingham City in October. The former striker was sacked in January and has been out of work since.