Comment: New school and old school - a profile of the epic Paul Warne tenure at Rotherham United as he leaves for Derby County

Almost six years on and what a job it has been. Currently eighth in the Championship for a club whose traditional home is in the top half of League One. He leaves for Derby County with his head held high. His work is done.

But just as there is a time to arrive, there is a time to leave.

Tellingly, after his final game in charge at Middlesbrough, Warne was questioned about the Millers' start to 2022-23, their best opening to a second-tier season since 1965-66.

Amid the backslaps, he said: "We are still only four points off (the bottom three). Maybe because I am a football manager, I catastrophize all the time and always see a problem coming down the road."

Things can turn in a bad Championship week. What he would have never deserved was getting stick from supporters if the Millers instead plummeted down the table and were on a bad winless run as winter approached. It could easily happen. Leave while the going is good and the memories strong.

Millers fans will lament his departure, for sure. Yet how long could he realistically continue to pull rabbits out of hats and turn straw into gold at this level?

More especially with a number of players out of contract next summer, including the big three of Chiedozie Ogbene, Ben Wiles and Dan Barlaser. Look at the other big-hitters who have also regularly left the club in his time there.

A club with an average attendance of 27,000 have called and it ticks boxes in terms of power, resources, location and ambition for a manager and coaching staff in their peak years.

A club in Derby who are embarking on a road to redemption and a new chapter, just as Rotherham were when Warne arrived amid those dark times at the tail end of 2016.

Warne's skill since has been his ability to be old school and new school. A modern-day manager with proper traditional values.

It used to be said that ex-England cricket captain Mike Brearley had a 'degree in people', such was his sharp intellect about just what makes professional sportsmen really tick. The same could easily be said about Warne, a trained teacher.

He has regularly said that managing a group of footballers is like looking after a classroom full of schoolchildren. His class was a happy one at Rotherham United.

Happy work-places usually breed success. Three promotions in his case, while on a couple of other occasions he was very close to securing Championship safety with the Millers in 2018-19 and 2020-21. In one case, heartbreakingly close at Cardiff.

For a parallel as to what survival would have constituted, consider a promoted Championship side of modest stature staying up in the Premier League the next season. Without the benefit of parachute payments.

Warne gained respect from a demanding audience - if you think kids can be unforgiving and vicious at times when they sense weakness, try a group of footballers at any club in the land.

He proved he is worth following. He takes pride in the long list of ex-players who keep in touch with him. They will always be his players.

What made Warne 'work' with his Rotherham players was his honesty and lack of bullsh*t. Players can see through spin and self-promotion and managers treating themselves too seriously and out for themselves at a hundred paces.

There are plenty of them. What you see with Warne is what you get and why it is easy to buy into.

Spend time in his company and his views are enlightening, thought-provoking, self-effacing and funny in equal measure. He could speak about a topic of the day every bit as perceptively as football.

There is also perspective. Football is important, but not life and death. Warne did not moan when talk surfaced of making the 2019-20 league season null and void when Covid struck with his side in the automatic promotion positions in League One.

The Covid break was a time when he led the club in many respects. He was a part-time agony uncle to stressed players and staff, he delivered shopping to housebound supporters. He was a part-time quizmaster as well, compering 'Covid' quizzes to lift spirits.

He likes good players, but good human beings, first of all. Michael Smith was one of his best, Warne famously once quipped that he is the sort of person he'd be happy to see marry his daughter.

He clearly thinks the world of Chiedozie Ogbene, his duty of care extending to offering him an invite for Christmas dinner to his family home one year when he feared he might be spending December 25 alone.

The careers of both Ogbene and Smith were going nowhere until they linked up with Warne. Plenty of others too.

A fitness fanatic, Warne is also well read on sports psychology and stories surrounding the New Zealand rugby union team and legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi. All Blacks mental skills coach Gilbert Enoka famously introduced a ’no dickh**ds’ policy and there were very few at Rotherham in Warne's time either. If there were, they did not last long.

Warne could also be zany. He once tried to convince a new signing to join by sending him a picture of himself up Mam Tor with the message: 'this is how I will be if you sign, top of the world.'

He played George Michael's song Faith in the team hotel before a season-defining game at West Brom in April 2019. There was always a method behind the madness.

The legacy he bequeathed Rotherham was much more than three promotions.

When he took over, the dressing room was a shambles with many players in it for themselves. Warne changed that and created a positive, proper culture to admire.

On the floor of the home dressing rooms at the AESSEAL New York Stadium, there is a huge club badge. If you throw a sock on the floor or another piece of kit, you get fined.

For Warne, it was about standards and he was the standard-bearer.