We take a look at a full transcript as Rotherham United COO Paul Douglas answers questions put to him from concerned fans.
The interview between Rob Staton and Paul Douglas (CEO of Rotherham United) covers such topics as season ticket prices and value for money, investment in the team and infrastructure, player budget and financial context, stadium maintenance and standards, underuse of stadium facilities, training ground facilities, player injuries, deep-rooted issues at the club, managerial stability and job security.
Also mentioned was long-term strategy and planning, chairman Tony Stewart’s ambition vs realism, accountability at board/leadership level, Tony Stewart’s ongoing commitment January transfer window and potential spending, squad overhaul and recent recruitment, financial planning, club ownership and sale/investment, fan disconnect and engagement, information leaks, centenary celebrations, safe standing, player contract management and stadium ownership structure.
📺 Watch the full interview with Rotherham United COO Paul Douglas here as he answers questions on a number of topics raised by #RUFC fans pic.twitter.com/iAROcmUt9Q
— Football Heaven (@footballheaven) January 7, 2026
Rob Staton: We’ve had a lot of questions from fans to put to you. I want to start with this. The cheapest, Rotherham season ticket this season for an adult is £445 in the north stand, if you are renewing. Only Lincoln, Luton and Stockport are more expensive than Rotherham this season. Do you think fans are getting value for money?
Paul Douglas: Well, it was a sting in the tail of that question, Rob, but I mean, obviously at the moment, it’s hard to say they are when we’ve had such a difficult first half of the season. We’d like to think that it will become a better value for money as the season progresses, but I think the question is more about the actual cost itself, which it understandably. It’s an understandable question, one that we thought long and hard about as we do every year. You know, you’ll appreciate over the years, we’ve yo-yoed between the Championship and League One and tried our best and on many occasions, there’s been no difference when we’ve gone into the Championship. But the costs of running football clubs, the costs of utilities, the costs of player budgets, the costs of national insurance contributions, all of those things combined towards making the decision to put the cost where they are now. I do, and I think we all fought long and hard, and we’ve all got the element of regret that we’re having to charge those sorts of prices. Football’s still supposed to be a working class sport, but it’s becoming very difficult for people from that class to watch it, I’m afraid, and it hurts me because that’s where I come from. You know, when I was a youngster, my dad was in and out of work, but we could always afford to come to the matches, and I’m pretty certain that isn’t the case now. So it’s something we’ll have to keep under review, but I understand the question. I’m sure it’d be a less, it’d be more palatable, increasingly, if we were doing better on the pitch.
Rob Staton: I suppose what fans might say is they may be quite content to play those prices. If there was investment in the team or more investment in the team, if they could see, for example, signings in January, it might be more palatable. If they could see investment in the infrastructure, the stadium, the trading ground. I’ve not had enough of that. Is that mainly the issue? It’s not as much the price, but where the money’s going?
Paul Douglas: Listen, I think at this moment in time, it’s inevitable that people are feeling upset about how things are going, and they’re wanting to attribute different reasons for that. I don’t believe it’s to do with a lack of investment in infrastructure or a player budget or anything like that. I’ll accept the fact that comparatively, our budget may have reduced from where it once was in November in League One. But in terms of the actual absolute amount, it hasn’t. We’re still operating on a budget this year that I don’t think we ever had in League One before. When we’ve had promotions from League One, it just so happens that the rest of the division and probably to some extent the division below although I think it’s largely a League One problem, for different reasons, some of which are to do with a club’s coming out of League Two. Some of that have got aspirations and money behind them to kick on. Club’s coming out of the Championship with the inflated costs that each year we see in that division, driving costs in League One to the point where our own investment is no longer as comparatively high as it once was. But what’s interesting, Rob, is that for the first time, certainly in my time in the game, we’ve seen known as this year. I mean, there have been cycles of boom and bust in terms of club’s approach and attitude towards financial controls. Largely put together through the executives at the clubs. And sometimes as being a period where clubs have demanded that the controls be relaxed so they can spend more. Other times as being a sense that it’s out of control this, we need to spend less. But this is the first time I’ve seen that happen with owners instigating that matter. And all, I think with the exception of two or three clubs in League One, since the beginning of this season, the clubs have written to the EFL collectively saying, we want to see a change in the way that the clubs are running themselves on the cost. Now, I think that’s a bit of a rebound from where they’ve found themselves over the last two or three years trying to compete with the four or five clubs who would naturally be able to spend a lot in the division. So I’m not convinced that the current boom will last much longer.
Rob Staton: We had quite a few fans’ contacts as asking in their view why the stadium has not been properly maintained. They complained about cleanliness, facilities, broken seats, leaks. And they want to know why standards are dropped.
Paul Douglas: Well, I’d have to take issue with that, Rob, because I don’t think that is, in fact, the case. I’ll certainly accept the leaks argument. And we did underestimate the size of the task with that. It’s not a huge number of leaks, but it’s sufficient. And it’s not acceptable that any of our fans should come in here and have to be uncomfortable watching a football match. And we will commit to sorting that out. But the size of that task was one that we hadn’t anticipated, but we’ll be able to sort in the summer when we can get the machinery that we need to do it. But things like broken chairs, whenever there’s a broken seat, we address it as quickly as we possibly can. There’s never been a change in our approach to that or the cleanliness of the stadium. We spend more on those things than we’ve ever done. We don’t do any more of that than we’ve ever done, but we certainly don’t do any less of that than we’ve ever done. I mean, it’s still, I think, the third or maybe the fourth newest ground in the country. We’re very proud of it. We surveyed every year as every other ground is for to ensure that it structurally sound and viable. And it is, and where it isn’t, we address that immediately. And we spend money each year on trying to make sure that elements of it are better than they were before. Now, that’s within the budget that we are able to work to. You know, the club loses money each year. And to some extent, there has to be certain things that are considered practical and some that are considered not practical, but nothing’s changed in that regard. There’s no sense at all or there’s certainly no budget change in what we spend on maintaining and cleaning and looking after the stadium.
Rob Staton: Why is the stadium underused? That’s what some people would suggest. You’ve got large areas that sit empty. Why has there been sort of empty units, for example, the stadium for so long? And why can’t they be used for, like, a supporters bar, for example? You know, isn’t this just maybe a missed opportunity, squandered revenue that the club could have had over the years?
Paul Douglas: Yeah, I think there’s a little bit of, you know, justification in that question. But I would, I would temper it, if I may, by saying, you know, the majority of space, excuse me, that’s available in the stadium, as in has been occupied for some time. We’ve almost got there, in terms of a club bar, and never quite got there, largely down to just partnerships that we thought we were going to have not quite coming off. And admittedly, it’d be nice to see the two front units more effectively used. It’s an area that Tony takes under his own personal consideration, and so far, he hasn’t come across anybody or found a partner.
Rob Staton: Is he actually looking?
Paul Douglas: It probably, well, pretty straight. We’re not putting things out in the trade press to say, you know, advertising to letter anything like that. But I think he relies on the fact that, you know, people are aware that the stadium’s here. I occasionally talk about it with him. For example, we use the facilities on the first floor, on a match day now, for our Disabled Supporters Association and Supporters Clubs, on a match day. It would be handy to have a bar. But, you know, at the same time, I don’t think I, whilst it might bring in some revenue and no doubt it would, when we built it, it was not really a concern, knowing that we’ll come into a town centre location where the bars and restaurants in Rotherham would serve our supporters well. But, you know, it’s a fair point. It’s been long enough that we should have a half full by now. But again, I’m not sure it’s really a reason for our being in the bottom three at the moment.
Rob Staton: One of your former players, Sean Morrison, recently, went on a podcast as players tend to do these days and said the training ground went months without hot water. He said the pitch at the training ground was worse than a dog walking field. And he claimed the way the club was run in his words were a shambles. And what’s your reaction to that?
Paul Douglas: Bit disappointed. I didn’t see it. I knew Sean, obviously, when he was here and had a lot of time and do have a lot of time for him and think he’s a top guy. I think there’s an element of exaggeration in that, if I’m perfectly honest. There might have been the odd occasion when the hot water system failed as it can do. But the idea that it went on for months, he’s just not feasible, it really is. And I think if we’re comparing ourselves to some of the clubs that Sean may have played at, particularly as we were at the time in the Championship, he possibly measured us by those standards, which will be the first to admit, we weren’t able to compete with the clubs, the other clubs in the Championship and their resources and facilities. But the facilities that we’ve got, Rob, are the facilities that have helped us over, certainly the last 13 or 14 years, have seven years in the Championship, five promotions, win the EFL Trophy, and I defy it to find another club of comparable size that gets anywhere near that. So if we’ve managed that with those facilities, I don’t think that they can be considered now as a reason, again, why we’re having the difficulties we’re having this season. We’ve incrementally and consistently improved our training facilities at Roundwood since we moved into it. The pitches are better than they’ve ever been. I think we invested about nearly £300,000 a couple of years ago, just on the pitches there, to get them up to scratch. There is good as the better than they’ve ever been, not as good, the better than they’ve ever been. The facilities up there were ones pitiful. I’ll accept that when we had the, you might have gone up there yourself and you still have the containers and all that sort of stuff, but that’s history. And since then, we’ve had great years up at Roundwood with the facilities that we’ve got now. Now, again, compared to what Cardiff might have had or clubs of that stature, I’m sure it was a step down for Sean. But again, it’s a narrative that you can set running, but not one that we accept has been responsible for our current predicament.
Rob Staton: There have been a lot of injuries at the club for an extended period of time. Why do you think that is? And what has the club done to try and work out what’s happening there?
Paul Douglas: Well, I think probably in previous years, I think it’s down to us signing players that were probably at a stage in the career when you could expect injuries and probably had a history of injuries that we felt we could change through our regime and weren’t able to ultimately. And that really started in the year after I think it was 22, 23, we stayed in the Championship. The following year, we in error now on reflection and then this is no reflection on Matt Taylor at all, but decided that the route was to sign players who got established careers in the Championship. Now, because of the financial limitations that a club of our size has, the players we could sign with that experience were lads who were kind of beyond their best years. And we were on lucky, I think, to some extent, that they broke down as easily and as frequently as they did. And some of them weren’t even at that stage. I mean, Cam Humphreys was one, Blackett. I forget that, it’s first name, it’s terrible. Was another one who was still in his twenties and broke down. But largely, it was down to lads who you do expect to and did. And we can only blame ourselves for that.
Rotherham boss responds to fans calling for him to be sacked after defeat to Peterborough
Rob Staton: This season, people wouldn’t want me to say that it’s the Sam Nombes, it’s your two midfielders who are a young age that are injured. You’ve had defenders, you’ve gone a large part of this season with that fit sent to half or a fit striker. That’s not down to age, is it?
Paul Douglas: No, it’s not. And I was coming to that because you’re right. I mean, in the past, it was a self-inflicted thing with those attempting to sign players who had the experience. What we’ve done over the last couple of windows is tried to bring our average age down, conscious of that, and we have done. Now, so it’s difficult to explain why this year, we’ve had those injuries. All I can say is we’re trying things. We’ve got the same people, well, certainly the same person running the show who was running the show back in the day with.
Rob Staton: Have you got enough support stuff? Have you got the right medical staff, appropriate staff, to maintain player health? And when players do get injured, they get them fully recovered quickly so they don’t get re-injured?
Paul Douglas: Yeah, well, I think that’s certainly something we need to revisit and review, absolutely. I’ve not had anybody banging my door down telling me that we haven’t, but it may well be that that that could be an answer to what to the position we find ourselves in. I mean, all I would say, Rob, is, you know, I’ve sat down consistently over the years and these successes and predecessors to discuss the end of the year costs for medical. And when they’ve been low, it’s been as a result of efficient management of those issues. And when they’ve been high, it’s been as a result of bad luck on the pitch. So I think it’s actually, look, players are bigger part in this than any of us care to accept, particularly when we’re doing badly like we are now. You know, Liverpool have just lost Isak and Ekitike. They’ve probably got the finest medical team in European football, and they can’t get all the players available. It’s sometimes these things happen. I’m not being complacent because it’s our business we need to get them. It’s without a doubt, in my opinion, the reason we’re having the season we’re having. So we do need to understand it.
Rob Staton: And if it is a question of resource, and then that’s something that we’ll need to address. You might have just spoke about deep rooted issues at the club in a recent interview. What do you think you remember about that? And is he right?
Paul Douglas: I don’t… Well, I’m not sure what he meant by that. And until Sam mentioned it to me a few couple of hours ago, I wasn’t aware of it either. It’s probably something to discuss more closely with Matt, but I’m not sure what he means. The club… This is Rotherham United, as I’ve always known it. And as I said mentioned earlier, I don’t feel our track record is anything we need to be embarrassed by. If suddenly things had changed as a club, which I can understand people wanting to understand, then yeah, I’d accept that. But they haven’t. Things change at clubs, people come and go, staff leave, other staff replace them. And I’m not suggesting for two minutes that the staff have replaced, all the staff are any less competent, but sometimes the mix isn’t the same. But what I do know is, there’s certainly no, if the inference, is that there’s somehow this sense that, you know, it’s totally now at 80 years old, no longer really has the enthusiasm for running the club effectively. Then that’s certainly not my experience.
Rob Staton: Could the manager speak freely if he wanted to? He did to yourself? What a Tony Stewart to explain, what those deep-rooted issues are?
Paul Douglas: Absolutely. I mean, I’ve known Matt since he was the professional development coach here in the academy, we have a good relationship. And we talk, you know, I’ve never worked with a manager yet at the club, who’s coming and saying, you know what, this is the most amazing place, it’s Shangri-La, everything’s perfect. That doesn’t work like that. There’s always something that they would like to improve. And thankfully, that’s the case, because if they weren’t asking you for things, you’d be concerned that they were being complacent. So yes, there’s always things that you could do differently and do better and put more resource into. But one of the things I’ve found is that managers like Matt, for whom it’s a new experience as a manager, are more prepared to work with you to see those improvements through, than perhaps where in the past we’ve had managers who’ve come from bigger clubs, had a different experience, and are intolerant and not understanding of the problems that a club of our size can face when trying, as we have done for many years, Rob, to puncture up of our weight.
Rob Staton: When the going gets tough at Rotherham United, it seems that the manager pays the price, since Paul Warne departed, had Matt Taylor, Richardson, Steve Evans have all left. This club tends to sack managers when the team’s not doing well. Is Matt Hamshaw not safe in his job.
Paul Douglas: Well, I think, right, I’m not sure, when you say that, whether that’s a comparatively true point you’re making or not, Rob, I’m not sure of any club that doesn’t ultimately sack their managers, or lose their managers. I mean, we lost Paul Warne if you remember, after six years, so had you been making that comment in 2022, it wouldn’t have been true. It just so happens that it’s subsequent to that. There have been some changes, but I don’t think Tony is necessarily a person who’s intolerant of poor rooms of results, or not an understanding chairman, and I think him and Matt get on well. I think Matt, I think we have perfectly aware of the difficulties Matt’s facing through player availability, and that’s what we genuinely believe is the issue. So as far as I’m concerned, and I’m sure as far as Tony’s concerned, that’s when we’ll be able to measure Matt, not that we are consciously sitting down ready to do that, but the measure of the guy will be when he’s a team available to play more regularly.
Rob Staton: That would have been a few managers since the Paul Warne. It’s true. You know, with hindsight, and I know hindsight’s a wonderful thing, did the board not plan properly for what was going to happen post Paul Warne, and a lot of fans have asked, you know, what exactly is the long-term strategy at Rotherham United? Do you have one?
Paul Douglas: Well, yeah, I think we always, you know, we’ve had an evolving strategy over our time here, Rob. You know, when Tony first came in, it was really just put together a budget that was sufficiently healthy and strong to make sure that the manager was able to compete in the division that we’re in, and we did that, you know, for three or four seasons, if not more, that’s how we got the success that we got. On between Steve Evans and Paul Warne, we moved towards a model that I think is the correct model for this club of trying to recruit the best young, recognising our position in the pecking order, you know, by any measure or by the two critical measures of fan base and turnover, we’re a mid-League One club. Now, that doesn’t mean that’s where our aspirations lie, and clearly they don’t, because as I’ve just, as I said earlier, we’ve had a lot more success than that. But I think what we can’t do is put ourselves in a position where…
Rob Staton: Do you think that’s been part of the issue, though, because what you’ve just said, I think most fans would say, that’s very realistic to say, that Rotherham, that’s what expectation should be set up to be that club, yet the chairman often talks about Premier League, establishing in the Championship. That’s much harder, isn’t it?
Paul Douglas: Oh, it is, but do you know what? It’s… And at times, I know people have criticised him for that. But Tony brought a breath of fresh air and a vitality to this club that had been lacking for many, many years. You know, let’s not forget, and I don’t want to give the impression that any of the questions you’re asking are unreasonable, Rob. But let’s not forget the context of things. We’re sitting in what he’s still, as I said, the third or fourth newest stadium in the country. This was… The probably the 30 new stadiums before that were built on almost entirely the same model, which was selling the old ground in a development to potential area of the town, moving to the outskirts of the town, with the revenue from the sale of the old stadium, and combining that with grant money for redeveloping a area of the town that hadn’t been developed. In our case, Tony built as the stadium. He paid for it. There was no… We didn’t own Millmoor. There wasn’t any grant money available for building on this. So this is a guy who came in, built the New York stadium, didn’t give it a razzmatazz name, and has given us over the 18 years, and certainly the 13 or 14 we’ve been in here, some fantastic times. So, and that’s been largely through the power of his own enthusiasm, and certainly the generosity that he’s been prepared to show. Now, it just so happens, as I said to you at the start of this, that we’re in a period now of an unusual boom period in Leigh, one where a lot of money’s being spent, and I don’t want to hazard a guess as to how affordable that is or not, but certainly a lot more than was being spent the last time we’re in Leigh, one, and we’re having to… And despite giving Steve a good, really healthy budget last year, we were unable, shock horror to bounce straight back, you know?
Rob Staton: Would it help, though, for Tony, maybe to speak of this sort of new realism, and maybe just to sort of say to people, this club is in a transition period, and that this team is now setting expectations accordingly, rather than always almost being too ambitious for its own good at times?
Paul Douglas: You might be right, listen, you know, I’m no psychologist, that might help, but I’m also, I also believe that Tony’s natural enthusiasm has given the people Rotherham something to feel really proud of, a club and a stadium to be really proud of, at a time when, let’s remember, not a lot else has been going well for the town, you know, for the past nearly 50 years now, we’ve seen it, the town has deteriorated in terms of the employment opportunities, the standard of living, the deprivation, and here we are in the third newest stadium with a team that has punched more above its weight than I would hazard any other club of comparable size as, and that’s been down to that will and enthusiasm of Tony, and okay, you know, it could, at times, temper that and say things that make people fit, but do you know what? I think the reality is that the reason people are upset is what’s going on out on there, and if we were performing well out there, Tony could be talking about when in the Champions League and nobody’d care less, but understandably, having all those years of success, and now having two or three years where people are feeling upset about performances, upset about results, is leading to all sorts of thoughts and narratives, which we understand, we want to address, we want to make people feel happy about coming in and enjoy the football, but we also recognise, we also feel at times, a slightly off-kilter.
Rob Staton: One topic that did come up was the question is to why failure often only leads to change on the pitch, but not upstairs. Managers come and go, players will come and go, but the people at the top remain. Some supporters want to know what accountability there is at the top with the board, not just with the chairman, but with those of you who are working with him.
Paul Douglas: Well, I mean, I’m not… You know, it’s a bit like asking a turkey to vote for Christmas Rob. I mean, I work as hard and as effectively now, as I have done at any time for that I’ve worked here. You know, my own motivation is that I understand the role that this club plays in this town’s heritage in esteem. I’m proud of the fact that I make a contribution to that. I like to see people come into the games on a Saturday. I like to see the effect it has. We all remember the effect moving to Don Valley had on the town’s economy. We remember the Covid periods effect on the town’s economy. Rotherham United is a big part of this town’s esteem. You go out a rather often, the only reference point that people have to rather is the football club and the fact that they’re being to watch a game here or we’ve been to watch a game there. So, you know, I’m as motivated as I’ve ever been. If somebody points out to Tony who will ultimately decide that, that I’m the reason why in the last two years, we failed, you know, inexplicably to get out of League One when who was it who managed it last year? Let’s think Birmingham, Wrexham, and who else sneaked up? I can’t remember.
Rob Staton: Charlton.
Paul Douglas: Charlton, you know, how could we fail in that company? You know, now, with respect, we did our best, it wasn’t enough. I tend to look at this as, you know, we’ve done really well. We hope we can do really well again. We’ve got the same module and enthusiasm we always had. And, but if somebody objectively decides that my role or any other of the board members’ roles is detrimental to the club’s progress, I’m sure they’ll let us know.
Rob Staton: Is Tony Stewart still emotionally and financially invested in the future of Rotherham United?
Paul Douglas: Absolutely. I mean, I can only assume that question comes from the fact that he’s currently on holiday, which, you know, I personally feel he’s more than entitled to, you know, the guy’s 80 years old is given the last 18 years of his life to running this football club as invested hugely both in terms of his time and his finances into the football club. And I honestly believe that vast majority of our supporters recognise that as painful as they’ve, and heard as they are at the moment with what’s happening, they recognise that. And they’re right, too, and I can reassure them of that issue. You know, Tony Stewart lives and breathes the club. He lives him, Rotherham, Rob. He gets, he goes and plays golf, and he gets shouted across the greens by lads he knows on the course, or women he knows on the course about what the hell happened Saturday. And he hurts him, and he’ll tell me about that, or he’ll bump into somebody while he’s putting petrol in, he’ll say, hey, that were brilliant on Saturday, Tony. And he loves it, and it gives him a lift. That’s how, that’s how invested he is. And I’m not so sure, I’m not so sure that would remain, in fact, I think that’s a key part of our success as being that sense of him being in touch with the town and how people feel.
Rob Staton: Is he concerned about his legacy, though, because anyone who’s followed this club and you’ve quietly stayed to this pool, can see what has been achieved at Rotherham United with the leadership of Tony Stewart. This place is totally different to what it was before Tony Stewart arrived. But if Rotherham United ended up back in League Two, that’s going to undo a lot of good work, isn’t it?
Paul Douglas: Well, it would be, it would be a difficult thing for us to accept, you know, you’re quite right, after the success we’ve had, you know, I don’t think anybody has a divine right to be in any division, you know, that’s the whole concept of professional competitive sport. You’ve got to, you know, you’re either moving one way or the other, you never stand still. It would be a shame if we were to go into the second division. But at the same time, I don’t think, you know, again, for me, that shouldn’t be something that questions Tony’s legacy here. And I don’t, and I wouldn’t want it to be for him either, because I’d want all I’d want is for us to re-double our efforts to get back out of there.
Rob Staton: Is he prepared to spend a bit of money, this January, because I think anybody can watch in the team, and especially looking at the injury list, can see that players are badly needed, and I suppose, like, just getting the odd player in or maybe moving one out to get one in might not be sufficient. I think fans want to see a bit of ambition shown in January to bring the players in to make sure that this club, at least, will avoid finishing in the bottom four.
Paul Douglas: Yeah, I think, listen, I think it’s common knowledge that Tony’s never been one for setting budgets, really. We’ve never sort of said right at the beginning of a window. There’s what you’ve got to spend. It’s always been a matter of discussion with him, with the manager, the head of recruitment, myself, on a player-by-player basis, and looking at what we can do, really. And that being said, we’ve never, you know, we wouldn’t come to him with unreasonable and ridiculous demands, because that’s where our experience comes.
Rob Staton: But if the manager or yourself or Rob Scott said, you know, we need five, six players in here, here’s a list of reasonable signings, whether that’s loans or pervades. Do you think he’d say, go for it?
Paul Douglas: I don’t know if we put it like that, Rob. I’ll be honest with you, but I think, as has often happened, if we, if each of those, if we went to him with individual players and it so happened that he ended up being three or four or five, I can easily imagine that happening. You know, it’ll depend on who they are and what they’re going to cost us. Tony’s, you know, you will remember yourself over the years, we’ve often been cited by the football finance analyst, Kieran Maguire, as an example throughout the EFL, as half of how to run a football club. And that’s come during the period of success for us, you know, on the pitch. So those principles aren’t going to, I’ve not changed and won’t change. You know, Tony’s not going to put himself in financial difficulty or the club in financial difficulty. Unless he believes, well, he won’t. That’s a full stop. We’ve always run the club is there have been times when we’ve taken calculated financial decisions based on what we thought was expert knowledge within the club that it had worked and we’ll continue to do that.
Rob Staton: Are you paying the price a little bit for sort of maybe doing that last summer because you said a lot of players last, I’m talking about 2024 when Steve Evans was the manager. You’ve signed a lot of players there and it feels as if the squad now needs a makeover. There’s still a lot of those players to learn the squad. Is that preventing you in a way from maybe doing the kind of business that is needed right now? Do you kind of have to see this through?
Paul Douglas: Well, I think we did sign a lot of players in that summer. We signed a lot of players this summer. So a lot of that was addressed this summer. I’m certainly not blaming any of the lads who came in during the summer that Steve came in because there’s some great lads amongst them and they’ve given us good service. And I’m sure they’ll continue to. But the reality was we weren’t good enough last year. Whether that’s down to individual players, whether it’s down to the blend of players, the spirit of the players at the time. Who knows what the reasons were? But it ended up costing Steve Evans’ job. We’ve done a lot of, we’ve brought in a lot of new players this season. And I think what we haven’t mentioned in off of, although we have mentioned it, is the fact that most of them have been unavailable. And I understand there are genuine questions as to why that is that we can’t provide the answers to. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s still a fact that we’ve had more than 12 or 13 players unavailable for big parts of the season and hence why we’ve had a bitty season. And one where we haven’t been able to be consistently what where we should be.
Rob Staton: How does the club balance out? OK, if we need to make these improvements for the squads to stay up, it’s going to cost X. If we go down, the revenue will decrease and lead to. And that will cost Y. How do you balance those two things out? Because it may be about speculating to accumulate a bit more in January to make sure that you don’t lose money by getting relegated.
Paul Douglas: Yeah, I mean, it’s a difficult window, Rob. There’s no doubt about it. It is a seller’s market, January. People don’t want good players to go out from their clubs. And if you do manage to convince them to let you do it, it’s usually a price that’s a premium. So it’s a tough market to be going into. So I think that what we are certainly not fatalistic at this moment in time. We are not sitting here resigned to playing in League Two next season. We’ll be beyond disappointed if that is the case. It’s not that we’ve never settled for. We would never have been relegated out of the Championship. So we’re certainly never going to be happy with relegation out of League One. And I don’t think that’s where we’re headed. If you’re saying to me, do we do advanced planning on the finances, depending on which division we’re in yet? We do because we have to. The EFL demand that from you. It’s part of their budgetary planning and accounts for the year. So of course, we’re aware of the changes. But we’re not thinking of this in a business sense. We’re thinking a bit about the prestige and the effect it will have on our supporters. And we don’t want to be in League Two.
Rob Staton: I appreciate your time so far. There’s still a few goals I may just want to go to. And thank you for your time so far. Not at all. Is the club up for sale? That is a question that guests asked a lot. Has Tony Stewart turned down offers for the club and in the recent period?
Paul Douglas: Not that I’m aware of. I mean, over the years, there has been interesting the club, whether it be through offers of support financially to Tony or offers to possibly take over the club. And on a few occasions, Tony’s involved me in that where I’ve been asked to speak to these people and spend time with them and discuss various elements of the club’s operations with them. So at that point, I’m assuming he’s sort of triggered something in him to pass them on to me. That hasn’t happened for a while. But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. But what I’m absolutely convinced of and sure of is that if and when the club did change hands or if there were people to come in and work alongside Tony, they’d have to be the right type of people and they’d have to convince him that they were, they had the interest of this football club when it’s continuing success at heart.
Rob Staton: Is he open to bringing in investment? If he’s not willing to maybe sell the club outright, is he open to other people joining forces to bring some investment in?
Paul Douglas: Tony’s, as I said to you before, Tony’s committed himself to this club for the best part of 20 years. And not from afar, from within Rotherham and he’s been acutely aware throughout that time of the impact the club has had on the people of Rotherham. More than perhaps most owners would have. You know, and that’s something that shouldn’t be overlooked. So his attachments to this club is very strong and he wants this club to do well. If in his mind he decides that can be best achieved through either bringing someone into supporting financially or selling the club on, then he’ll decide to do that. But I would hope that we don’t convince him to do that through being unreasonable in our expectations of what a club of this size can achieve. And at the end of the day, we’re sitting here now in a halfway through our second season in League One, Rob. Now, our close and esteemed neighbours, Sheffield United, I do believe, spent six seasons in the division trying to get out of it, not that long ago. Now, this is, you know, this is Rotherham United. And so I don’t think we’re in the middle of a crisis. It feels like that because of the success we’ve had recently, but I think we need to just put things in perspective and not try and chivey the owner into making a decision that we might all regret, because he’s been a good owner. He’s a good owner. And I think if he’s, if I’ve no doubt at all that when he feels at the times right, he’ll make sure that he makes the right decision.
Rob Staton: Final one on this, does he speak to you about like what the future may hold? Does he have a plan in his own mind about sort of a timescale on when he might move on?
Paul Douglas: No, he’s never given me, you know, I mean, I don’t know. You’ve met Tony a few times. He’s a pretty unique sort of guy. He’s full of life and vitality. He’s 80 years old now, but he’s not sure any signs of slowing down as far as I’m concerned. So, no, it hasn’t. But, you know, statistically, he’s 80 years old. He’s been doing it 18 years. I don’t know where that puts him in terms of the longevity of owners in the football world, Rob. But I expect he’s up there in the top 10% or so. And history shows that, you know, that’s, that’s, it always comes to an end. But I hope, genuinely, and I’m not hoping it happens soon, but I hope when it does happen with Tony, it’s in his own good time and that people give him the space and respect to do it properly. Because if we do that, then we’re less likely to get an owner who comes in, doesn’t share that sense of belonging to the town and sense of pride in the club and, you know, maybe makes decisions that will all regret. And by the way, some of us remember, it’s not that long ago, when we were teetering on the brink of being gone all together. And we remember the tremendous efforts that the people of the town made to get the club, you know, to buy us time to find a new owner. I haven’t forgotten that. I know how painful it was for the town. And I honestly think this is what, Rotherham United in the last few years, has been one of the beacons for the town of esteem and hope. And we want to get back to being that.
Rob Staton: One fan sent this in. And this is, I’m going to quote what they said, word for word. This is our centenary year. Many fans, myself, included feel disconnected with the club. It’s clear the board and chairman have little to no interest, rather than letting the club rot, will they sell or allow proper footballing minds onto the board to allow the club to grow? What do you say to that? And if you’ve got a job on to try and engage and energise this fan base?
Paul Douglas: Look, I mean, I’ve, you know, with respect, Rob, I’ve had emails like that over the years. Despite, no matter what we were doing, you know, when we were, when we were, you know, I don’t know.
Rob Staton: In the Championship.
Paul Douglas: Three positions above relegation, the Championship, people were complaining at the lack of ambition and this, that, the next thing. And I get it, you know, this is, this, it’s my job. It’s what I do for a living. But for most people, it’s not, but it’s a huge part of their lives. It’s a huge part of their, their sense of worth and, you know, and how they feel about the town, et cetera, et cetera. So I get all that. But I want to assure them, you know, I genuinely want to assure them that that isn’t where the club is. You know the people who were in charge of the football club now are the people who were in charge of the football club when it was doing well, which isn’t that long ago. Nobody’s, there’s no divine right for us to do well. Have we made mistakes? 100% we have, you know, have I been part of those errors? 100% I have. Is that, is that, does that mean that I’m no longer, or the rest of us are no longer fit for purpose? Someday else will have to decide that. But I, I like to think that that’s not the case. And in fact, what we’re experiencing is the inevitable in professional sport, unless you’re one of the top six clubs in the country, ups and downs of football. And you know better than I do, Rob, both within our locality and outside of it, there are bigger, better-resourced, newer-owned football clubs than ours, who are doing a lot worse. So let’s put things in perspective.
Rob Staton: Do you think this is a leaky football club? Have you been able to put your finger on why that might be? And how do you stop that happening? Because as a journalist, I mean, I’d quite like some leaks sometimes, but it doesn’t really help the team at times, does it?
Paul Douglas: No, I must admit, it does seem at the moment that we are unable to keep any secret, secret. And yeah, I think it’s something we do need to look at. I mean, there’s an over there. Any number of it, possible explanations, Rob, you know, it could be the players themselves, it could be their agents, it could be the relative who knows. But we need to try, we certainly need to eliminate that it’s anybody within the club. And I think there may be a little bit of an issue that we do have to address there.
Rob Staton: Do you have any further plans of football club to celebrate the centenary?
Paul Douglas: Yeah, absolutely. We’ve got lots of plans that we’re, you know, we’ve just managed to secure some funding for some celebratory stuff. We want to celebrate the Rotherham United’s contribution to this town and the town of Rotherham’s contribution to Rotherham United. And we’ve done quite a lot over the first half of the season and we’ve got more to do in the second half of the season, a lot of which will be unveiled in the next, will confirm it in the next few weeks. So, yeah, we do, we’re proud of it. We want people to understand the extent to which the club has impacted on Rotterdam and the extent that we hope it will continue to going forward.
Rob Staton: Was at the Blackpool v Rotherham game. And the noise from the Blackpool and behind the goal was impressive. They didn’t stop singing. And it was noticed by a few people that they were all stood up. It was safe standing and maybe that played a part in it. What’s your view on safe standing at the New York?
Paul Douglas: Well, safe standing is a, it came in as a solution for persistent standing, you know, which was an issue we’d had ever since, really, the Taylor Report when, you know, particularly the bigger clubs who had also, you just said, I’m just found that their supporters weren’t happy with it, probably because they, there wasn’t enough room to sit down and they all stood up. Now, nobody knew what to do about it. You know, there were entire stands at times stood up, certainly stewards couldn’t deal with it, so it just became an ongoing problem called persistent standing. Needless to say, the people who live their lives worrying about things like, from a safety perspective, eventually convinced the government that we needed to do something about it hence why the safe standing legislation came in. Now, at Rotherham, the reality is, we don’t really have a safe persistent standing problem. The only reason it became an issue at all for us is that in the last season in the Championship, it seemed to become fashionable for supporters to throw themselves, youngsters in particular on top of each other when they scored a goal, and then take videos of it and post it online. That ended up in the hands of the authorities who said to us, look, this can’t go on, and if you’re not careful, somebody’s going to get badly hurt and despite the fact that it’s them that are doing it, it’s the club who will end up with the liability for it. So we had no choice other than to install some safe standing in their away end. Now, in our home end, we’ve always had maybe two or three rows that stood up, but it’s always struck me and certainly when we’ve been inspected on numerous occasions that that’s what they choose to do, they’re not bothering anybody, so I’ll let them do it. Now, if we were to put safe… now, some people have argued that would improve the atmosphere in the stadium. Now, I think we’ve had a brilliant atmosphere in the stadium up until, guess what, the results started going against us. And even then, in the last season in the championship not sorry, the season before when we managed to stay in the Championship, it was a tough season, Rob. You know, we were aching out results, fighting to the last minute to get a draw. It’s not the atmosphere where people are jumping up exuberantly. It’s an atmosphere where people are on the edge of the seats, tensely watching the game. That followed by a disaster season and followed by last season when we, when we, you know, underachieved and disappointed everybody. So I personally, the position that we’re in at the moment with the lack of atmosphere at the stadium will be remedied by the performances out on the pitch. Now, the idea that we could remediate by putting save standing into the stand, I’ve always said, and I’ve met with different supporters to discuss this, would have to be, as a result, of a groundswell of opinion that people really wanted that. Now, I’m not convinced that the majority of people in that stand want to stand up. And that’s what they’d have to do, because as soon as you put the save standing in, people stand up and then you’ve no choice whether you want to sit down and stand up, you have to stand up. So if, if, now, we want to engage with our supporters, Robert, it might be a question you’ve got to come up, but, you know, there’s not only pressure on us, but it’s something we want to do. We have fans forums twice a year. We have four dropping sessions before games each season. I will, I do and will continue to attend the meetings of our supporters groups. We want more of our supporters to join the various groups so they can have a voice. We need to be challenged. We need to react to what the fans want. And if we, through that process, discover that there’s a major groundswell of demand for save standing and that people have now decided, that’s what they want to do, then we’ll have to address it.
Rob Staton: Final three questions. One fan sent this in, have the club learn from the past inletting club assets, players contract run down and leaving for free. It’s an issue that a lot of football clubs have to deal with. It has cost Rotherham in the past when players have left. What’s your thoughts on that?
Paul Douglas: Well, I mean, I’ve always looked at it contrary wise. We’ve not been prepared to let players leave here who we felt were more valued to us out on the pitch than the desultory offers that we’d received from other clubs. And sometimes we haven’t even received offers. You know, so there’s a lot of myths as you’ll be aware in football about clubs, players not being allowed to move on. Very often, it’s just simply that because we didn’t yet any offers at all.
Rob Staton: So can you offer them contracts there to keep them in a way?
Paul Douglas: But they knew, but at the same time, Rob, they knew that their value wage wise was far exceeded what we could offer them elsewhere. So our strategy is this if we sign a player that we think, you know, very soon after we sign them, it’s got some potential, we’ll initiate a conversation. And that may or may not result in them being prepared to extend. Very often, it doesn’t because there’s a way of that sort of club that if somebody does well for us, there are clubs out there who can double their money, clap without batting an eyelid. And that’s just beyond us. Now, what I will say, and I would want to make this point, there have been opportunities where we have had offers and Tony has said to the manager who was asked for this, I’d rather keep him, and he said, yeah, keep him. So where there was a, we could have got a not insignificant amount for the player because the manager felt that that player was still valuable to us, we kept the player. And I think that’s a, I think that’s a loadable example and experience the clubs I’d rather than something that should be criticised.
Rob Staton: Quite a few fans asked about this. So I want to just get some clarity on this. Ask him, why is the ground not owned by the club?
Paul Douglas: Right. Well, I honestly can tell you, I don’t know is the answer. Other than, you know, I operated by a little world, Rob, of I come to work, I earn a living, it pays for the mortgage, it pays for me utilities, etc. I don’t live in the rarified atmosphere of having financial advisors and business advisors around me, high level people who understand how the tax system and the, you know, the business ownership system works, totally does operate in living that world. So he will have had advice. Now, one thing I can tell you is this, if you want to speak to the FL about this, they’ll be happy to tell you I’m sure. There are some extremely, extremely convoluted ownership mechanisms in the EFL and the Premier League, to the extent that it’s sometimes difficult to work out who actually owns the clubs in the EFL. Now, ours is far from sophisticated, but somewhere along the line, Tony was advised, it would be better to have a separate company on the stadium than it owns the, than the, the owns the football club. It’s nothing more sinister than that. And again, I understand everybody’s conspiracy theories and wanting to sort of establish that there’s something sinister going on, but there isn’t. And the reality is, if this is again inferring what would happen if the club was sold, well, you know, I can only assume, like anybody else would, that nobody’s going to buy rather united football club, unless there’s a something concrete arranged as well with the stadium, whether that be a long-term lease or an ownership of the stadium, that would be the case. Either that or they’re not going to buy it. So I don’t think that’s really too much of an issue, and that’s as much as I can honestly tell you on it.
Rob Staton: Final question is, I just wanted to give you the opportunity. If there’s anything that you wanted to say to the fans, you know, this is a chance to sort of give them a final message as we are here to you.
Paul Douglas: Yeah, I mean, I think what I would like to say to him is thank you very much to all of them for their continued support. We get great support here as a football club. We know, and I know, as a native of the town, how important the club is to rather, as a town, we are all, those of us who work here, aware of the privilege that we have been working here, we’re aware of the fact that we play a part in the town’s sort of self-respect, and we want to continue doing that. We are, as disappointed as the most distraught fan about how the position we find ourselves in at the moment. There’s no doubt that we have, that part of the response, a huge part of the responsibility for that lays with the board of directors who’ve made certain decisions, some of which have led to this, led to our being in a difficult position. But I also want to say, look, with the same people, we want the same as you, we’re committed to achieving the same as you, and please don’t overlook the fact that the injury crisis we’ve got this year has been a significant factor in the results, and ask yourself as well, if the results weren’t what they were, would these feelings of uncertainty and disappointment that you have towards, everybody working at the club, still be as strong, because I suspect they wouldn’t, and so what’s going on now is nothing that a few good results, and hope for that to come, won’t put right.
