Quote Originally Posted by caytonmiller View Post
Excellent post though it sums up rota supporters to a tee...
Some want championship football and doing it the Rotherham way may get us there but won't keep us there.
Some want stability and grow a young team. Sadly doing it that way we will inevitability sell all our assets then end up with a team like we have now.

Some want to do it the Rotherham way. Which we have for the last 100 years. And what we get is league 1 and 2 football with a smidgen of championship football (usually loosing)
I think we have come close to getting the formula right doing it the Rotherham way in the Championship on a couple of occasions, but have just fallen short.

When I think about the Ronnie Moore years in the Championship I remember a squad that did the old cliched "punching above their weight" with a charismatic manager who was also a club legend. Looking back at our squad from around 2002-2004 we had a real mix of players including a number of our own (Hoskins, Hurst, S. Barker, Sedgewick, Monkhouse). We competed at that level for a few years and it was a great time to be a fan, but sadly what we achieved on the pitch moved a lot quicker than what was happening off it. Our ground, our infrastructure, our prehistoric business model, a chairman who was no doubt overjoyed with the success but not so happy with how much investment was required to keep us there. So naturally it faded and we saw a decline that led us to almost losing the club.

Fast forward to the Warne era. Much better infrastructure off the pitch but still the local businessman model. But Warne was so close to getting it right, like Moore he galvanised every strength he could with his man management and I feel he was on the right track. But the small squad playing high tempo, high discliplined football was too much to sustain in the Championship over a full season. A bigger squad, a couple of extra decent signings, who knows? Was it Warne not wanting to expand or Stewart not wanting to write the cheques? I honestly don't know but when Warne left we were doing well and as marketable as a club as we'd ever been with the manager documentary, recent promotion and cup win. Now we're back on the decline sadly.