Manager Paul Warne on new boy Will Grigg and why he let Curtis Tilt leave Rotherham United

NEW boy Will Grigg has been warned he faces a battle for a first-team place at Rotherham United.
Deadline-day signing Will GriggDeadline-day signing Will Grigg
Deadline-day signing Will Grigg

The striker, who joined the Millers on a season-long loan from League One rivals Sunderland on Tuesday’s transfer-window deadline day, has been a prolific scorer throughout most of his career.

But manager Paul Warne stressed to the 30-year-old before he agreed to come to AESSEAL New York Stadium that he was offering him no guarantees.

“I told him straight on a Zoom call with him and his agent that he would have to fight to get into the team,” the boss said.

Warne had been keen to add a fourth forward to his squad and League One Rotherham fought off competition from derby rivals Doncaster Rovers and other third-tier teams to land the former Wigan Athletic man.

“I think Griggy will come here and do really well,” he said. “He’s really intelligent, he gets himself in scoring positions and his link-up play is good.

“He’ll have a positive impact on the three other strikers, and he’s a really nice kid, which I like.

“I like having people who just want to play football. There is no ‘big-time-ness’ about him. He just wants to play football whether it’s in front of one person or 50,000.”

The Solihull-born Northern Ireland international, Rotherham’s seventh summer signing, struggled for goals at Sunderland after a £4 million move in January 2019 but was a feared hot-shot for the Latics and MK Dons, He hit the target 65 times in 150 Wigan appearances and bagged 30 goals in 70 games for MK.

Meanwhile, Warne has revealed that Curtis Tilt, who joined Wigan for a third loan spell on Tuesday, had been eyeing a return to the DW Stadium for weeks.

“He did well there on loan last season. It was intimated to me during the summer that they wanted to take him back,” the manager said. “Curtis had played there and felt the love there. I felt he was always pulling towards there really.”

The centre-half has played only once for Rotherham since a £100,000 move from Blackpool in January 2020 and had just returned to fitness after injury, making the bench for last weekend’s 2-0 win over Doncaster Rovers.

“He had his hamstring pull which he worked really hard to get back from,” Warne said. “He saw me last week and said he was desperate to get into the team and play and that he was frustrated when he wasn’t in the side.

I just felt that we had strength in depth in central defence to allow Tilty to go.

“He wanted to go. It wasn’t like I was pushing him out of the door.”