New striker/Ben Wiles

[MILLERSTALE]

If it's a no brainer, every club would do it.

And three would still be relegated.

Maybe Barnsley got lucky. I can't recall Rotherham offloading players for rich sums when they were relegated in 2017. Remind me how much we got for Blackstock - Stubbs' headline signing?

Clubs get additional money for being in the Championship because it is more expensive to operate there.

Every club fearing relegation HAS done it in our division, IPSWICH got 6 players in, PRESTON and READING 5 each because spending a million taking a calculated risk is better than just going down and doing nothing!

If you buy the right players as Barnsley obviously did, can pay handsomely even if you get relegated ! Black stock was a one of panic buy due to poor recruitment, nobody is asking for that again but calculated recruitment like Peterborough etc do will work in our favour whether we stay up or go down.

[welovebooth]

What about option 3 - we spend money and don't stay up? Would that be value for money?

And how about option 4 - we spend money and stay up, but it increases the loss that the club is running? Are you willing to put your hand in your pocket to help cover that?

I the players we sign are good quality young and hungry (Paul Warne kinda player) than yes it could be good value if we sell them for a profit in a year or 2 like Barnsley and Brentford have done

but you do a thank i have to spend a pound.

will people stop saying "will you put your hand in your pocket"

I haven't elected to become a football chairman

it's a bit like buying a 50 grand Mercedes and not expecting to pay for petrol to fill it up.

if you dont expect to spend money you aren't going to get back than don't own a football club the ultimate rich mans toy.

[Nardendee]

Lots of rhetoric but no news. A bit like Brexit now. I’m past caring.

[caytonmiller]

Didn’t nearly half of that go to Huddersfield though with the sell on clause?

They did but isn't that a positive? He was for nowt and we gained 900k ish.,.
Saying that. It depends what we paid him over the 2 seasons.

[KerrAvon]

Kerr, in that case then what you’re saying doesn’t add up as we pay a pittance to our squad compared to other clubs in the championship. Therefore, we should be comfortable in our monetary operations.

We’re not asking for big time Charlie players on grossly inflated wages, just get ‘some’ decent players over the line. Is that too much to ask?

How does it not add up? You are not comparing like with like.

In the season ending May 2017, total debt for Championship clubs exceeded £1.8bn (albeit around £434m of that was owed by one club – Newcastle United). As banks won’t generally touch lending to football clubs anymore (they eventually worked out that they might as well burn the money) that debt mountain was largely covered by soft loans and other forms of equity injection (£426m of Newcastle’s debt was to other bodies in Mike Ashleigh’s business empire). That is the position at Rotherham and is also the reality that Rotherham, or, more accurately Tony Stewart is competing with.

For Stewart, his ability to fund the club is limited by the extent of his wealth and by the level of risk that he is willing to accept though his involvement with it. Stewart is not Mike Ashleigh (thank goodness) and if you are Newcastle or Aston Villa or dare I say it, Sheffield Wednesday etc., it’s possible to take more risk and run up large amounts of debt because those clubs have a higher intrinsic value – their names alone are probably worth more than the whole Rotherham United set up. In other words, Rotherham may be more comfortable than many other clubs in the division, but that is because the level of debt that underpins the club is managed upon a basis that is sustainable having regard to the reality of the situation.

Whether asking to get ‘some’ decent players across the line is too much to ask for is a question that neither you nor I can answer, because we don’t know which players are available, what their clubs and they are demanding by way of deals.

[KerrAvon]

Danny ward? 1.6 million wasn't it though I can't remember if it was when we got relegated

True.

[KerrAvon]

Every club fearing relegation HAS done it in our division, IPSWICH got 6 players in, PRESTON and READING 5 each because spending a million taking a calculated risk is better than just going down and doing nothing!

If you buy the right players as Barnsley obviously did, can pay handsomely even if you get relegated ! Black stock was a one of panic buy due to poor recruitment, nobody is asking for that again but calculated recruitment like Peterborough etc do will work in our favour whether we stay up or go down.

So Ipswich, Preston and Reading have thrown the dice. Their gambles may come off or they may not, in which case they could find themselves in a lower division with unsustainable levels of debt hampering their ability to get back up.

If buying the right players was as simple as saying 'if you buy the right players as Barnsley obviously did' then everyone would be doing it. Every signing is a gamble.

[flourbasher]

Kenneth Zahore on bench for Cardiff on what must be a very tough night for that football club

[Brin]

Kerr, you state 'In other words, Rotherham may be more comfortable than many other clubs in the division, but that is because the level of debt that underpins the club is managed upon a basis that is sustainable having regard to the reality of the situation'

Totally agree on that level but, and I won't use other clubs as an example as I thought you sidetracked from my point but, for Stewart's outlay and the return he is seeing, what is the better of the two evils?

1. Does he see all the hard work by Warne and his staff, and his personal input, in getting us to the Championship just crash and burn?

2. Does he bolster up the business, (RUFC), with the finances that assure his last investment would see yet another reasonable return of approx £7 million from the league therefore generating more interest to the paying fan with championship retention?

I cannot believe that Tony Stewart personally wants to return to League 1 status. What about all the interest from the England set up etc. Does it sound more professional for England to use the Championship NYS AESseal stadium or Rotherham's league 1 stadium?

This interest can soon drop and others could follow suit ending in even less revenue coming into the club.

[KerrAvon]

Kerr, you state 'In other words, Rotherham may be more comfortable than many other clubs in the division, but that is because the level of debt that underpins the club is managed upon a basis that is sustainable having regard to the reality of the situation'

Totally agree on that level but, and I won't use other clubs as an example as I thought you sidetracked from my point but, for Stewart's outlay and the return he is seeing, what is the better of the two evils?

1. Does he see all the hard work by Warne and his staff, and his personal input, in getting us to the Championship just crash and burn?

2. Does he bolster up the business, (RUFC), with the finances that assure his last investment would see yet another reasonable return of approx £7 million from the league therefore generating more interest to the paying fan with championship retention?

I cannot believe that Tony Stewart personally wants to return to League 1 status. What about all the interest from the England set up etc. Does it sound more professional for England to use the Championship NYS AESseal stadium or Rotherham's league 1 stadium?

This interest can soon drop and others could follow suit ending in even less revenue coming into the club.

Those are questions that only Tony Stewart can answer, because it is his money that is at risk, not yours or mine.

I don’t have any doubt at all that Tony Stewart would like to retain a place in the Championship (why wouldn’t he), but he also has commitments to his family, his business and his employees; only he can determine the amount of money he is willing to give away and the level of risk he is willing to take with what remains.

The oft quoted £7m for staying in the Championship is something of a red herring, because, as is clear, the costs of being in that division are higher. You talk about it amounting to a return, which implies that it represents money that will go into his pocket. The reality is that it would simply cover a proportion of the running costs of the club or possibly allow for a very modest reduction to the amount of cash that the club owes to him.