The trouble is, he will find there's not much football to be head of ... The David Rawson Rotherham United Fan Column

Whether it's a new chapter - whether the narrative has really changed - remains to be seen. But the appointment of Steve McClaren as head of football surely can't be a bad thing.

The litmus test, for me, is: “How would I feel if one of our rivals did it?” If Rochdale had announced McClaren, I'd have been impressed. The guy managed England! He's worked all over the world! It's quite a statement for a fourth-division football club.

That said, it's not entirely clear what, specifically, he'll be doing.

At its most basic, the role seems to create someone with the power to make decisions, who isn't the chairman. That alone will help. It's felt a bit like no-one is trusted enough to make any calls, or even to have access to a framework to make them, if Mr Stewart isn't around. And - understandably for someone who presumably wants to enjoy his retirement - he's not been around that much.

I also suspect it may “evolve”. McClaren's natural environment is the training pitch. It would be no surprise to me to read the words, “will take charge of first-team affairs”, in relation to our head of football before we're done.

The trouble is, when he looks around, McClaren will find there's not much football to be head of.

The squad has three players in it that I'd be enthusiastic about seeing in the starting 11 next season. I'm fairly certain at least two of them won’t be here.

We remain in need of somewhere between 15 and 20 players. If there were cheap and easy fixes to the issues behind the scenes that successive managers have hinted at - or outright called out - we'd have done them.

However good the vibes are of appointing a figure of real standing, the fact remains that if the season kicked off tomorrow, we'd be strong contenders to drop out of the league.

I love the idea of thinking beyond the short term. I wish we'd done it before now. Imagine Paul Warne with someone of McClaren's stature to support and guide him. Or even Matt Taylor or Matt Hamshaw.

We might not be here now.

But here, now, is exactly where we are. Making our most long-term thinking appointment, just when short-termism might be most valuable.

We need to stop the rot. We need a coaching set-up, a medical team, a structured pre-season plan. We need a sense of purpose and energy focused on turning round the seemingly endless drift downwards.

And we need a squad. Fast.

That's why I couldn't get as excited as I wanted to this week. Something felt off, still.

We’ve turned to a new page. I need to see more of what’s on it before I’ll feel less scared about next season.