The reasons why Tony Stewart says Matt Taylor is like no other Rotherham United manager he has ever appointed

Tony Stewart and Matt Taylor at the manager's October 2022 unveiling

AS a successful businessman for more than half a century, Tony Stewart is used to telling people what he wants.

Now, the Rotherham United chairman admits he is receiving a dose of his own medicine from new Millers boss Matt Taylor.

So much so that the tycoon who built ASD Lighting into one of the region’s leading companies admits he sometimes feels “subservient” to the manager who took the hot-seat in October and guided the club to Championship survival.

Taylor is the instigator of a summer of change as he looks to assemble a squad capable of escaping the lower reaches of the table and eventually challenging in the top half of the division.

The Millers are plotting a significant recruitment drive before next season’s August 5 opening day while major upgrades to their Roundwood training facilities and their pitch at AESSEAL New York Stadium are already taking place.

“We’ve got a man of steel,” Stewart said. “I like his determination and intelligence. Matt is no mug. He is absorbed in football at Rotherham.

“He is not backward at coming forward. He tells me what he wants. I’m like subservient to him. I’ve never felt like that before as chairman. I can back that when a person has got vision and they know what they want.”

Taylor moved from Exeter City to succeed Paul Warne who ended his near-six-year tenure at New York by opting to take over at Derby County.

The forty-one-year-old impressed Stewart when he was first interviewed and has continued to make his mark on the Millers owner during their weekly get-togethers with the tunnel-vision intensity he brings to the job.

“Matt’s a different manager to what we’ve normally had,” the chairman said. “A lot of managers tend to be a bit ‘salesy’ — a laugh, a smile, a joke — but he’s not a guy for small talk. He’s serious and technical. If we have an hour’s meeting, an hour of it is about football.”

Taylor’s stock is high after the Millers stayed up for the first time in four attempts since 2017 and Stewart wants the relationship to endure.

“Matt’s started off well,” he said. “I’m excited looking at the new season. I want this manager to be with us for the next five or ten years.”