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Roy Hodgson believes Wayne Rooney should consider management after retiring

Wayne Rooney
Image: Wayne Rooney: On course for England's goal-scoring and appearance records

England boss Roy Hodgson would love to see Wayne Rooney go into management after he hangs his boots up.

Injury permitting, Rooney will become the ninth player to win 100 England caps when he leads the Three Lions out against Slovenia at Wembley next month.

At just 28, Rooney looks almost certain to then go on and surpass Peter Shilton's all-time 125-cap record for England by the time he retires.

And after the striker has called it a day, Hodgson is convinced the striker could become a successful manager having been highly impressed by the leadership skills Rooney has illustrated since being appointed captain in September.

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"Wayne has a lot of playing time left so I can't think he has given retirement much thought,” Hodgson said.

“But when you have had a career like he has had, or the likes of Gerrard, Lampard, Terry or Cole have had, and you are that good a professional, then I would love to see them all stay in the game in a coaching or management role because they have so much to offer.”

Rooney had 14 shots against San Marino and fluffed two good chances against Estonia in Tallinn in England’s latest European Qualifiers.

But the striker still scored two crucial goals to help England maintain their 100 per cent start to the qualification campaign and Hodgson wants to see an improvement from his captain and the rest of the team in England's next qualifier against Slovenia.

"I'm sure all of them when they watch the game back will think: 'I could have scored there'," Hodgson added.

Goals

"It's nice to play some good football and have some nice moves but really the whole point of that is to score goals and Wayne was in the same boat as the others."

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Three days after England host Slovenia on November 15, they travel to Glasgow for a friendly against old foes Scotland.

Much of the focus will be on that game, but Hodgson made it clear his priority is the qualifier against Slovenia.

"It will be a very competitive fixture, but I know which side my bread is buttered on - it's on qualifying. That is the most important thing," Hodgson said.

"If we don't win it we don't get any points towards qualification and if we lose we don't lose anything.

"It's the three points against Slovenia that's important."

Hodgson could even consider naming completely different teams for the Scotland and Slovenia games.

The likelihood of that happening will depend on whether the likes of Theo Walcott, Kyle Walker and Daniel Sturridge are fully fit by next month.

"We had seven players who are integral members of the wider squad who weren't here this time but if those seven come back I will have a big pool of players so if I wanted to do that I would certainly have that option," Hodgson said.

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