By Nick Ware

17th Dec, 2021 | 4:10pm

talkSPORT host: Wayne Rooney ready to accept if Everton offer manager role

Sam Matterface suggests Wayne Rooney would jump at the chance to join Everton if the Premier League club offered him the manager’s job.

Rooney, currently in charge at Derby County, has been linked with a return to the place where he broke out onto the football scene, and where he returned for one final season during the 2017/18 campaign.

“If the job becomes available and they offer it to him he’s not going to turn it down, that’s for sure,” Matterface said via talkSPORT on Thursday morning (16 December), when asked if Rooney could make a second return to Goodison Park.

Turning the tide?

Rafa Benitez led Everton to a superb 1-1 draw at Chelsea on Thursday night (16 December) and the Spaniard will hope that result signals a change in fortunes for the Blues and quashes recent speculation over his future.

Everton still only have one win in their last 11 games, but claiming a point at the home of the European champions, with no Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison or Demarai Gray, is some feat.

In fact, only four of the starting XI at Stamford Bridge – Jordan Pickford, Ben Godfrey, Michael Keane and Abdoulaye Doucoure – can lay claim to being a first-choice pick in the Blues first-team.

Benitez handed 20-year-old striker Ellis Simms his first Premier League appearance by starting him last night while a pair of 18-year-old’s – Lewis Dobbin and Tyler Onyango – featured off the bench.

That’s what Evertonians want to see – a team fighting for every ball and academy graduates in the side.

As long as Everton replicate that level of fight in the upcoming games, then Benitez can feel safe at Goodison Park.

In other Everton news, the Blues are plotting a bid for this Dutch sensation ripping up a European league.

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