Wayne Rooney has been called many things.

Wunderkind footballer, wayward human being. A generational talent but temperamental and tantrum-prone.

Disloyal to his wife and his clubs, he was often his own worst enemy.

A deep-thinking, tactically astute, potential saviour of a great club in crisis isn’t one of them. Until now.

As second favourite to be Everton’s next permanent boss, Rooney, now 36, and already a grizzled second tier manager, is being looked at in a fresh light.

Former Manchester United teammate Rio Ferdinand said this about him after a recent Sky sports interview:

“I saw a different Wayne Rooney to the one I grew up with and saw grow up at United, it was a real positive experience.

“It was the confidence and I didn’t expect it from such a young coach.

“I thought there’d be a lot of ‘erm’ – you see the interviews, no disrespect – but he was just so calm. I was so impressed. The results he is getting off the back of it, I’m not surprised.”

The results are extraordinary.

Since taking the reins at Derby in the Championship, Rooney has had to deal with not one but two points deductions (totalling 21 in all) for financial infringements – none of his doing.

He has also been forced to let several of his best – and best-paid – players leave to balance the books.

It was for cooking those books in an unashamedly blatant fashion that Derby incurred these penalties. But they deny any wrongdoing.

To get around Financial Fair Play regulations, ex-chairman Mel Morris came up with the ruse of selling the stadium to a company he owns – for an inflated £80m. Then leasing it back.

Not surprisingly, he was rumbled and the club are also being sued by two rival clubs: Middlesbrough, for denying them a place in the playoffs, and Wycombe, who were relegated by a single point last season.

There’s much understandable antipathy to the club in the Championship, but only praise for Rooney.

He was even nominated for ‘Manager of the Month’ in December.

Having joined as a player-coach in January, 2020, Rooney took over as manager when Philip Cocu was sacked in November of that year.

Few expected the legendary England and United star to stick around at an unglamorous and apparently doomed club.

But stay he has, sometimes sleeping in his office, so late has he worked while operating on the shoe string that the administrators allow him.

He has simply rolled up his sleeves, ruffled his beard and got on with it.

Being forced to promote junior players has worked in his favour.

Some are young enough to be his sons but old enough to have seen him play; they hang on his every word.

Much to the amazement of many, he comes across as a wise owl, father figure who has been there and done it – record goal-scorer for Manchester United and England – like few others.

But there’s more to him than a rabble-rousing team talk.

According to Ferdinand, “Wazza is good at detail, his game was about detail. People would think it was hustle and bustle and bang, a shot out of nowhere.

“But to be the player he was you had to understand details and it is about translating that into the team.

“He was taking people off to the side saying, ‘I want this, I want that’, and it was really good. I’m not saying he’s the next Sir Alex or the next Pep but he’s on the right track.”

If he keeps Derby up, his stock will rise for it would be a truly epic achievement against the odds.

And Everton, who he has always supported and played for at the beginning and end of his career, are in dire need of something heroic.

The sacking of Rafa Benitez brings to six the managers who have failed since billionaire owner Farhad Moshiri took over in 2016.

And it is now almost £50 million the club has spent in payoffs.

That Roberto Martinez was the first yet is now favourite to return sums up the impulsive, chaotic regime.

But to go back to Goodison Park, the Belgium boss must forgo the World Cup with a stellar squad that is still ranked No.1 in the world.

Any reluctance to do that may catapult Rooney into the job alongside caretaker Duncan Ferguson.

The fans are restless but to see two former heroes at the helm may placate them for a while.

Whatever happens, it seems Rooney’s destiny is to take over one day.

The job has become a poisoned chalice as Moshiri gets ever more desperate to close the gap on Liverpool.

For decades Everton have been the poor relations in the city. As the Reds cement their status as one of Europe’s giants, the Blues stack up severance pay for failed managers.

But even that doesn’t begin to tell the scale of the frustration that goes with it.

Last relegated in 1951, Everton, who have won once in 13 games, are too close to the drop zone for comfort.

In contrast, Derby still look odds on to go down into the third tier of English football despite lifting themselves off the bottom of the table last weekend.

They are still eight points adrift of safety but Rooney has already done enough to make his name as a budding manager.

He will have sterner tests with the egos of top Premier League stars, but as one of the all-time great players, he has the stature to make his voice heard.

As great as he was, the feeling persists that he should have been even better: untimely injuries and impetuosity costing him dear.

Could it be that he’s going to make up by joining that rare breed who follow a career as a playing great by becoming a great manager?

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.