Stewart's financial pledge if Millers are relegated

TONY STEWART has promised Rotherham United supporters that the Millers will operate on '˜a top-four budget' in League One next season '“ with relegation from the Championship looking a nailed-on certainty.
Rotherham United chairman Tony Stewart.Rotherham United chairman Tony Stewart.
Rotherham United chairman Tony Stewart.

A horrendous campaign has seen Rotherham firmly ensconced in the drop zone virtually all season and they have propped up the table since September 27.

As it stands, they are effectively 16 points adrift of safety, with their realistic hopes of avoiding relegation all but over after recent losses to Bristol City and Nottingham Forest.

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Stewart is pragmatic about the Millers’ parlous predicament and while he and everyone connected with the club will continue to fight until the club’s fate is mathematically sealed, he admits that planning for life outside of the Championship is already underway.

The Millers chairman says that the club will give themselves every chance of returning to the second tier next season and will be well equipped to bounce back up at the first time of asking.

Stewart, who has suggested that interim-boss Paul Warne could be installed as permanent manager in the summer if he continues to do well between now and May, said: “I will be confident because the budget has never been low in League One.

“We were in there for one season and we had got one of the top four budgets.

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“We have some young, enterprising players who have always known their pay would go down, not dramatically, if we were in League One and not the Championship.

“We would have a quality of team capable of doing well in League One.

“I would be disappointed if that was not the case.

“The budget next season in League One would be one of the top four again.”

While conscious of the looming inevitability of relegation, Stewart believes that the Millers players owe it to themselves and the club’s supporters to keep fighting to the end – to try and salvage some pride from a sorry campaign.

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He added: “As chairman, I have a responsibility to make sure we do our level best to stay in the Championship, even if the odds are suggesting something different.

“If we fail to do it, what I can live with is that we are a better side at the end of the season than when we started it.

“That is my message to the fans – we will go on building the side.”