Rotherham United target eight arrivals in summer revamp

PAUL Warne is eyeing around eight new signings as he looks to build a promotion-challenging squad for next year’s League One campaign.
Paul WarnePaul Warne
Paul Warne

With a glut of departures announced in today's retained list, the boss knows he has a busy summer ahead of him to make the relegated Millers one of the teams to watch in the third tier.

Even more exits are likely with star players like Matt Crooks and Michael Smith set to be sold and some fringe men moving on in search of more game-time.

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“I would expect possibly eight new faces in the summer,” manager Warne said. “We have to get things right and I don’t foresee us doing any business early on in the window. We’re in no rush.

“We’ve got a skeleton of a really good side. It might be that we don’t do any business until July. That doesn’t stop us working and speaking all the time to set things up. Early in the window you just end up over-paying.

“We’ll just have to do really good business to make us great again.”

Warne has twice assembled squads that have won instant promotion from League One and he is hoping for similar success in 2021/22.

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“It is hard,” he said. “We built a team to get promoted from League One in 2018, then we went down from the Championship the next year and all the wingers left. That was an horrendous summer.

“But we rebuilt it again and got another promotion last year. Now we have to build another team to be competitive in a league that I think is possibly the hardest it’s been in years.

“There are some massive teams in the division and we’ve just got to try to get in that top echelon, the play-off spots, and give the fans something to cheer about.”