Wayne Rooney: Plymouth Argyle appointment ‘not to improve club’s profile’

Hallett says Argyle will be able to provide the 38-year-old with the foundations to succeed as a head coach.

The club won the League One title last year despite having a budget less than many other clubs, and survived in the Championship this season while again being at a financial disadvantage.

“I completely understand that people would just look at the results and draw their conclusions from that,” he said.

“I’d absolutely say give Wayne a chance. I think in the Argyle environment we’ll see if he has the makings of a great head coach.

“We’ve had this motto of ‘Only one Argyle’ for quite a time now, and I think in the past five or six years we’ve massively outperformed our budgets.

“Football is an industry where what you pay is at least in part what you get, and if you don’t pay very much you don’t get much.

“There are ways of outperforming the budget, but they rest particularly on the kind of unity at the club and the environment behind Wayne.

“I think the ‘Only one Argyle’ concept has been critically important in helping us achieve what we’ve done over the last five years.

“Very few teams in the English Football League have won more games than us over the past five years.

“It’s clearly not because we’re paying the top dollar in terms of squad wages.”