Former Derby County striker Colin Kazim-Richards suggested that former Rams player and boss Wayne Rooney should have played him more in his time at Pride Park.
Kazim-Richards was at the club for the 20/21 and 21/22 season, when the rams were going through a lot of ownership problems under former owner Mel Morris.
Rooney, who has recently taken charge at Birmingham City, took over at the club following the sacking of Phillip Cocu after a poor start to the season, and was in charge when the club were relegated to League One in 2022.
Kazim-Richards was a key player for the Rams in the 20/21 season, but did not play as much in the second season, which was a surprise.
Colin Kazim-Richards suggests he should have played more when Wayne Rooney was in charge
Speaking on the YouTube channel Filthy Fellas, Kazim-Richards suggested that Rooney should have given him a few more appearances in the 21/22 season, but understood with his job being ‘difficult’.
“At that time there were so many different variables, you could not imagine what was going on at Derby at the time.
“As someone who was young as him in his first job, it was difficult. Do I think the second year he should have played me more? Maybe.”
Colin Kazim-Richards hails Rooney for man management
Despite this, Kazim Richards was full of praise for Rooney, commending him for the way he dealt with the issues off the pitch, in what was a horrid time for the club.
“What he was good at was assessing the situation, assessing how people’s minds were, assessing how people’s feelings were, because that is 90% of coaching.
“The people that run the club are the most important, clubs can’t run without them people. Now they don’t know if they have jobs, the cleaning ladies that were there, that had been there 10/12 years. All the cooks, groundsmen, not been paid. Wayne’s got to deal with all of that.
“We went into administration, so now there is no owner, all you deal with now is the administrators. So I think you can’t really judge Wayne off stat wise what happened at Derby, even though he did well.
“I think you have to judge him off his impact and now he was working with the players and the staff, which he did great, I give him that, 100%.
Kazim-richards also thinks Rooney has a big future ahead of him in management.
“I think he can go as far as he wants to go, what a big name! The greatest player for me that England has ever produced!”