Stewart planning two steps ahead all the way to the top

Sir Alex Ferguson is famous for allowing himself only the briefest moment of reflection following success before moving on to the next trophy to be won, the next mountain to climb.

Steve Evans, who regards his Scottish compatriot as a hero for the dynasty he has built at Manchester United, is a man driven by similar motivations.

So after a weekend spent reflecting on a momentous occasion for Rotherham United and a significant hurdle overcome, it was back to work yesterday to commence planning for the next challenge.

Fortunately for Evans, in Tony Stewart he has a chairman with equal ambitions.

The two met yesterday, along with the club’s board, to briefly pat one another on the back and then start charting a course for next season.

Their target is a second successive promotion, which sits comfortably with the blueprint Stewart set five years ago when he rode to the Millers’ rescue and set about reaching the Championship.

Scratch a little deeper, though, and thoughts of the Premier League are stirring within the Rotherham chairman.

“I don’t see any level of competition where you can consolidate,” said Stewart.

“You have to try and reach the pinnacle, and the pinnacle of success is the Premier League.

“People might step back and say ‘Come on, we’ve just got into League One, let’s talk about that and look at the Championship’.

“But I can certainly see that when we get into the Championship we won’t be saying this is it, this is the end of the story.

“The adventure will go on. It is possible.”

There are clubs in the past who have climbed through the divisions.

There would be arguments that the New York Stadium, as splendid a beacon as it is in the town centre, only houses 12,000 fans, and may prohibit such rapid advancement for the Millers.

But Stewart is already one step ahead.

“At the moment we cater for 12,000 fans which we can take up to 20,000. We built the stadium with that in mind,” he said.

“We can extend it as we see fit and as we progress.”

Designs on the Premier League may be a long way in the distance, with a significant hurdle of getting out of League One – just three days after escaping the basement division – representing an almighty task in itself.

But the strides that have been made at Rotherham are being noticed outside South Yorkshire, with people buying into the beliefs of the chairman, and of Evans, who last week said Rotherham could be as big as FA Cup finalists Wigan Athletic.

“I’ve got a manager that has the same mindset as me; we’re in it to win it,” said Stewart.

“We feel we can do well. How well, time will tell. We won’t be favourites for League One, but looking at the betting already this morning, some have put us as fourth favourites for the title and third to get automatic promotion.

“Maybe they’re wiser men than me. What we’ll do is start the season and review it month by month and see what we need to do.

“That’s how we’ve run this season and I don’t see any reason to do it any differently.”

One key element of how they have ‘run’ this enormously successful season is the recruitment of players fit for League One.

Evans plans to retain around 70 per cent of his playing staff for next season because he bought players for League Two who he felt were good enough for the division above – people such as Kari Arnason and Lee Frecklington.

Stewart will continue to back his manager financially, though he will not put a figure on the size of the investment as they step up a division.

As both men acknowledge, the squad only needs “tweaking with a bit of quality”.

Stewart added: “The investment of last season was not only about trying to get promotion, but to hit the ground running when we got into League One.”