PW was 100% in charge for 60% of our championship planned relegation. We are now in a poor 3rd division and doing OK. IF we ever get back to the championship we will see if he can hold his own in a league that will test the benefits of fitness and a happy dressing room.
Don't subscribe to the "Pep could not have kept us up" brigade - there was something woefully wrong with the championship campaign with 4 even perhaps 5 managers leaving under a cloud with PW being forced into the job as a yes man.
Just watching our league on TV and yes it's a poor league where basic fitness and group integrity makes a difference - but we'll see when the going gets tough.
Come off it bornamiller give PW credit where it's due , he's improved players from last season Mattock,, Semi, Vaulks,Forde the players he's brought in have all improved while theve been with us .
Although you have every right to your opinion I reckon you are being a little to critical towards Warney for the job he's doing .
Not bad for a fitness coach.
At some stage BAM you have to let it go. You, I or no-one else on this board has any idea what went on behind closed doors last season. All we do know is what we saw on the pitch and my deductions from that were that Stubbs brought in a woefully inadequate group of players who played dreadful football. Add to that the manager having no personality or appeal to the crowd whatsoever (qualities that can make a real difference to a team's performance) and the result was disastrous. The minorJackett intervention did nothing to stop the rot and it then rested with an untried and tested fitness coach to steady a ship in danger of sinking for which he had no responsibility. He failed, most if not all would have done in the cir***stances.
We're now in a different ship and in different waters with a Captain whose reputation, skill and know-how are developing by the week. The teams around him are not of Championship standard, that's why they're in League One, but there are no push-overs and with teams like S****horpe you really have to get the best out of your players to overcome them. Warne did that with great competence and to achieve an unbeaten run of 11 in any league is a major achievement.
Forget the past, enjoy the present and if the future doesn't bring you what you want, I'll be happy to listen to your misgivings.
-- Edited by GlennMiller on Sunday 11th of February 2018 09:14:50 AM
If Warne was in charge for the first 60% of last season then that would be one thing. But when you inherit a team that is up against it anyway in terms of size and resources after the transfer window is closed when it is rock bottom of the league and on its backside in terms of confidence it is another. Of course nobody in authority ever said it but we were doomed by the time he took over. We didn't have the money to rebuild last January and nobody worth having was likely to join a sinking ship even if we had anything to spend.
I disagree with all the 'League One is rubbish' talk. It is worse than the Championship but no worse than League One ever is. It felt amazing when we came up from League Two only a few short years ago and marched through League One via the playoffs. Those players and that manager were lauded as heroes for finishing fourth. Nobody was saying then that League One was rubbish. Now we might be on target to do something similar playing the same sort of football against the same calibre of opposition but some people want to dismiss the achievement. In some ways it is a bigger achievement. Evans (all credit to him) had a team with a winning habit and momentum. Warne has had to break a losing habit and create momentum.
In any case, I think it is time for the post mortem analysis of last season to end. Hopefully we have learned some lessons from whatever went wrong but apart from that, it has gone. Fifth in League One and on the charge to try and get back up is not a bad place for RUFC to be. We have a fairly young squad, a young manager and seem to be heading in the right direction. Can we all get behind that?
I like many other are finding this humble pie chewy. Warne has surprised everyone and apart from the blip we had in October who also coincided with frecks injury. It since Bristol we have now have team with out our talisman frecks. Now warne is building a team of Many parts not just relying on one player
When it came apparent that Ipswich would recall Moore. Many wondered where the goals can from.
Ironic he got sent off against Bristol rivers the last game we lost. David ball came into his own and scored two against Blackpool.
Moore went chasing the championship dream with Barnsley. It may come back and haunt him but that was his choice.
Warne went and bought a player Smith from bury whose own fanswanted to drive him over
I wonder if they need a slice of crow pie now cos he has scored 2 in 3 starts for us and playing well filling the gap left by moore really well.
We have got Palmer from Burton the frecklington of the future and once age on his side
3 point against Oxford and results go our way we could end up 4th
Yes will have potential banana skincoming up but I can see us challenging for 3rd maybe automatic
Blaming the managers ( any manager ) last year is redundant due to the woeful budget TS gave all of them. But PW was an equal - he was a manager in the championship and failed big style. The two long term club builders were planning on long term solutions - with youth development at its core - both managers - given 3 years to rebuild - in a very tough league and a crap budget were both sacked after a stupid amount of games into a 3 year rebuild ( where long term decisions were made NOT SHORT TERM ).
Then TS changed the business plan to what Barnsley have copied this season and the rest is history.
So far so good in a crap league - our goals were shocking for the S****horpe defence to let in.
Feel good factor - fine - but the benchmark for club progress is the championship and erm....we'll see.
There was no-one more critical of PW than me last season, I thought he was woefully out of his depth. He said "judge me on my team". I am & he is doing an exceptional job. Ironically losing Kieffer Moore wasn't the disaster most fans thought it would be, we're playing much better football & winning more games. I'm more than happy to admit I was wrong.
Blaming the managers ( any manager ) last year is redundant due to the woeful budget TS gave all of them. But PW was an equal - he was a manager in the championship and failed big style. The two long term club builders were planning on long term solutions - with youth development at its core - both managers - given 3 years to rebuild - in a very tough league and a crap budget were both sacked after a stupid amount of games into a 3 year rebuild ( where long term decisions were made NOT SHORT TERM ).
Then TS changed the business plan to what Barnsley have copied this season and the rest is history.
So far so good in a crap league - our goals were shocking for the S****horpe defence to let in.
Feel good factor - fine - but the benchmark for club progress is the championship and erm....we'll see.
Are you just a negative person or are you one of these floaters from another local club who is jealous of what we are now doing?
Totally want Rotherham to be brilliant and trust me I have a box full of rose coloured glasses BUT.
I just can't get too euphoric about our run of form and strong squad yet until they are tested in a decent league. Look - to take the reality check a little further - if we were presently in league two we would probably walk it - breaking records on the way.
OK - so far we have a nice set of lads that get on and can play a bit. But that's not enough in the championship where we want to be.
TS hasn't managed the team to be good enough for the championship he's done a marketing job and changed the goalposts. Club NOT getting stronger - benchmark tests becoming more forgiving.
I see where you're coming from BM, but we are where we are, competing, playing well and winning, giving us all something to cheer about. I think thats a very good position to be in. That said we are only as good as our last game and it might all go belly up next match we play, such is the game, therefore we have to enjoy it while we can.
I too am angry about the way the club conducted itself when in the Championship, and yes Warne didn't/couldn't stop the rot, but last season he was not a manager, this season, well I'd say he's doing ok. A good manager in the making perhaps? He has conducted himself very well indeed considering the brickbats he had to endure from many of us and it must have been hurtful too, but he has come good. Many would now be sticking two fingers up to the lot of us.
That said, I am dissatisfied because I don't buy into the notion that we are just and always will be a L1 club.I grew up supporting the Millers when we were a steady Div 2 (Championship) club and I think we can be a good established Championship club again given the right formula and drive. But until that time I'm happy in 5th place looking up.
Question BAM what do you want from the club?
Me I just want to see a team putting a good shift in ,playing decent football ,scoring goals ,not letting to many in .
All that =the Miller's ,and all that makes me a happy Miller.😊
I think we all know TS changed tack and the appointment of PW was a symptom of that - however - he's hung in there and made a team from what was left and the meagre budget he has to play with. I think TS deserves no credit for this team but PW deserves all the plaudits he's getting for building a promotion challenging bunch in spite of setbacks such as the loss of Moore and limited investment in the club.
Good call NY.....as for what do I want - well that's long gone. The hope of building a strong club that can attract quality young players into our academy. We don't have the infrastructure or ( more importantly ) the personnel required.
I just think we're back to square one and the three year "project" days are no more. We're just a club who lacks the finance or imagination to think big.
I hope that this "rebuilding" is just phase two of the failed original project. Just another way of getting to the promised land that is - for us - the championship.
UTM
-- Edited by Bornamiller on Sunday 11th of February 2018 09:20:58 PM
I've not been posting for a long time but I rather like this thread so here goes. I don't subscribe to the view that this is a poor league. In fact, changes in player fitness, the weight of the ball, pitches and training methods have led to some outstanding League 1 football this season: any perception that this is a poor league is, in my opinion, a result of the way in which the Millers have taken a massive step forward in quality.
Football has been in transition in recent years: many traditional smaller northern professional clubs have diminished significantly e.g. Halifax Town, Darlington, Hartlepool, Southport etc. During the last Millmoor days, I thought we might be next. But we have kept pace in this new world without having mortgaged our future and without having sold out to oligarchs, sheiks or yanks - hurray for that. Essentially, we are still in the league which we proudly occupied from 1951 to 1968 - the Second Division. The present Championship is the old First Division. The Premier League is just a strange competition for international footballers which happens to be located in England (and 5% in Wales temporarily).
So I say hats off to Tony Stewart, Paul Warne and players who keep going until they have spilt so much blood that there are no shirts left - all in the Millers tradition and long may it last.
I've not been posting for a long time but I rather like this thread so here goes. I don't subscribe to the view that this is a poor league. In fact, changes in player fitness, the weight of the ball, pitches and training methods have led to some outstanding League 1 football this season: any perception that this is a poor league is, in my opinion, a result of the way in which the Millers have taken a massive step forward in quality.
Football has been in transition in recent years: many traditional smaller northern professional clubs have diminished significantly e.g. Halifax Town, Darlington, Hartlepool, Southport etc. During the last Millmoor days, I thought we might be next. But we have kept pace in this new world without having mortgaged our future and without having sold out to oligarchs, sheiks or yanks - hurray for that. Essentially, we are still in the league which we proudly occupied from 1951 to 1968 - the Second Division. The present Championship is the old First Division. The Premier League is just a strange competition for international footballers which happens to be located in England (and 5% in Wales temporarily).
So I say hats off to Tony Stewart, Paul Warne and players who keep going until they have spilt so much blood that there are no shirts left - all in the Millers tradition and long may it last.
Welcome back TL. With that level of reality and optimism, you'll fit in well on MB! I like your opinion of the Premier League- it generally bores the pants off me and always irritates the hell out of me.
....and I've had a magnificent view of 33 league goals at NYS so far this season, having consumed £167 of my season ticket price (concession, Ben Bennett Stand, ES5), i.e. approximately £5/goal. Nothing else in life comes close to that for value. I'd have willingly paid a hundred times that but don't tell Tony.
Only joking. But I have to say that some of the league one games I've seen and the attacking / defending I've seen on the channel 5 is quite frankly a disgrace. This has flattered our position as our opposition attackers should have punished some poor defending we've done and our goals for column is good because we've played some really bad "teams".
You can only play what's in front of you yes but as a lifelong player I can only wince at some of the "quality" out there.
Momentum is growing though and let's hope for a good consolidation season. Team spirit does go a long way but that's exactly what Barnsley had when they beat us at Oakwell.
With Barnsley copying our business plan and our momentum growing and getting us points we might be entering a period of YOYO seasons - alternating with Barnsley.
Wouldn't be a bad thing - better than mid league mediocrity.
-- Edited by Bornamiller on Monday 12th of February 2018 11:35:19 PM
