Rotherham United hoping to keep going Dutch whilst growing their own late bloomers

Two of their' best players this season have been Denzel Hall and Ar'Jany Martha.

Hall recently qualified to play for Jamaica, whilst Martha is a full international with World Cup-bound Curacao who arrived from Belgium. Both, though, are Dutch born and raised and have brought some Oranje juice to League One.

Director of football Rob Scott was surprised to sign the pair but hopes it can be the start of a more regular flow of talent.

"Ar'Jany and Denzel were both similar in that I went twice over the last couple of years to watch games in Holland," he recalls. "I didn't think Ar'Jany would ever be one we would get because he was playing for Ajax at the time, the same with Denzel (a Feyenoord product).

"But we did a little bit more work on a few other players and spoke to agents who had players in their stable. They mentioned Denzel and Ar'Jany, who we had parked for a while because we didn't think we'd get them unless we were in the Championship.

"It just was a bit of a perfect storm. Ar'Jany took the step to leave Ajax because he wasn't getting enough game-time, went to Beerschot, they kind of fell off a cliff in the top league in Belgium and got relegated, all of a sudden he becomes available

"Denzil, went to Heerenveen, didn't get in because the manager had four right-backs and a newer manager brought one with him."

And if Rotherham can get Martha to a World Cup and both up the English pyramid, hopefully their reputation in the Netherlands will spread.

"You create relationships with agents and clubs and these guys will speak to players they've played with and say it's a good route in," argues Scott. "We're not going to have 20 non-UK-based players but we might have five or six.

"They both are primarily Dutch players although they have the eligibility to play for other countries. Sometimes when you go to World Cups you see the histrionics the Dutch squads have and they fall out.

"I genuinely believe that's because they're so desperate to win. That becomes kind of infectious.

"You've got to extend your footprint further than the British Isles because if you're trying to sign players that are in League One or League Two, the finances are ridiculous.

"If we tried to sign a right-back from Newport, for example, I'm pretty sure they'd ask for similar or more than what we got Denzel for. There was very little outlay initially.

"If you look at Holland, once you get to the bottom half of the league, they struggle financially. They're almost amateur clubs.

"Would we get someone from Turkey? No, because of the money there. Two players from here have gone to Turkey’s second division – Jonson Clark-Harris and Mallik Wilks. There's a bit of a boom there.

"The difficulty is to keep finding players and then shifting that focus from the area that's become saturated to a new one.

But for any club looking to make the most of their resources – as those with Rotherham’s budget simply have to – tapping into the academy is vital too.

Being from the town, manager Matt Hamshaw is acutely aware of it, and has brought centre-back Hamish Douglas through in 2025, but the modern eco-system means only those who develop late are likely to make the Millers' first team.

"The fans want nothing more than singing, 'He's one of our own.' They love it," says Scott.

"But it's difficult because anybody playing in our scholarship programme that shows any signs of development... in the past players have got Man United, to Wolverhampton Wanderers, Man City – their scholarship contract is only bound by a recompense set by the powers that be, not by us. You don't want them to develop too early.

"Then the trick is being able to give them the opportunity to develop later and that means giving them a long enough contract.

"We haven't got an under-21s, we've got a youth academy and then first team so the gap's huge. We decided probably two years ago the pathway was loans but you're battling agents and sometimes players thinking 'I'm better than that level.'

"A loan isn't about the level, it's to play men's football and understand the pressures with playing for a manager that needs three points.

"Hamish went to the Northern Premier League with Gainsborough and played lots of games. The following season he went to Warrington in the league above, played 30-odd games and did quite well.

"They got relegated but he was good enough to play week in, week out and there's important experiences at the bottom of the end table.

"I wish some other players would take the same attitude."

Academy youngsters with a touch of Dutch – it sounds like a good plan.