Extend the season, but no need for ‘circuit break’, says Rotherham United boss Paul Warne

His talents also extended to being the compere of a weekly online quiz night.

The Millers manager has always been quick to acknowledge the importance of the club to the mental health of its supporters.

It is why he feels it is now important that the ‘show must go on’ and football must continue, despite calls to the contrary, with talk of a ‘circuit break’ rife amid a surge of Covid-19 cases.

Even if he is the first to admit that a break would potentially possess advantages from a personal perspective.

As ever, Warne is looking at the bigger picture and football continuing to provide – if at all possible – a chink of light for many people during the darkness of a third indefinite lockdown.

Offering his thoughts on a potential short break in the football calendar, Warne said: “Personally and managerially are two different things.

“Managerially, I don’t see the benefit of a circuit break because when we come back in, the problems are still going to exist. And I honestly believe what we are doing (now) might bring some joy to some people in our town.

“There is a social responsibility that we want to keep going because if we are pleasing people, then that is a good thing and makes me feel good and get out of bed, to be honest.

“But from a personal point of view, I would love a circuit break because January is horrendous as a football manager, accompanied with everything else going on (at the minute).

“I would love just to have a week not thinking about training and transfer windows and everything. But that is just being selfish.

“I just do not see how a circuit break would help. My personal opinion would be to extend the season and not make us play so many games in such a quick time. That is a better thing from my point of view.”

As it stands, Rotherham – who saw two games called off over Christmas due to a Covid outbreak with the home game with Cardiff on January 2 falling victim to the weather – must fit in 26 games between now and the scheduled end of the season on May 8 – under four months away.

The Millers are scheduled to only reach the half-way point of the Championship season towards the end of this month.

A rough calculation means that the Millers must play every four and a half days between now and the season’s end date.

The window of time is further reduced by a two-week international hiatus in March with the potential for further disruption due to the coronavirus situation and maybe even the weather during the rest of the winter.

Should that occur, then an already demanding itinerary will turn into something resembling a logistical nightmare.

Warne believes that the sensible approach by the EFL overlords would be to extend the season and he is not just speaking from a Rotherham perspective.

He added: “A bit of common sense has to come into it. I’d expect or anticipate the Euros may be put back and there might be an argument that the EFL season runs another month.

“I am not saying there needs to be a two-week break or anything as we will still come back into the Covid situation. But it (extending the season) would just allow a little bit of runway, as it is so tight.

“I understand the pressures of the EFL and Premier League wanting to get the fixtures on.

“But for us, it is difficult because we do not have an Under-23s (squad) we can dip into and some of the bigger clubs can.

“There has to be a bit of reasoning where if you have three players out (with Covid) in your starting 11 or 18, that should be enough to postpone it (a game) because if not, the tournament you have played in over 46 games at the end of the season is not fully representative of the squads out there.

“It can make a little bit of a mockery of it.”

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