'Few clubs need players in like we need players in' ... the David Rawson Rotherham United fan column

A good move all round.

He'll contribute at the top of League One, and a promotion is his best chance of another go at the Championship. We get a decent slug of money.

I suspect every club thinks it needs players in, at this point in the close season. Few clubs need players in like we need players in.

As I write, we can't field a full matchday squad. That’s scary so close to our first real fixture.

The optimistic telling of this story - the one I'm subscribing to - is that we're primed for action, and that the Nombe transfer fee unlocks a procession of new arrivals.

The alternative is slightly terrifying.

I was a bit scared by the head coach's comments after the Sheffield United friendly. He didn't appear to know how much of the Nombe money would be going into the squad. He seemed to feel the need to persuade the board to release it.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it. After all, isn't the job of the head of football to sort out the budget?

Maybe all Alex Bruce’s comments meant is that the system is working as intended. Steve McClaren knows how much we can spend and who we can get. Bruce doesn't know because he doesn't need to.

We'll see the four or five signings arrive this week and nod and say: “Fair play, there was a plan.”

But let's be clear. Any other scenario is bordering on unforgivable.

This isn't a call to go mad, to embark on the sort of conspicuous spending spree that we went on under Evans. We will have lost revenue, may well need to retrench. We don't have to be in the business of “buying the division”.

But the fans have done their bit. 5,000 season tickets sold at the prices we charge is a decent income stream at this level. We've shifted virtually all of the big contracts that depleted our resources in the past seasons. We've got as much as we could have hoped for our main saleable asset.

We should be able to sign off a budget with confidence, and act accordingly. There's no excuse for not being ready to make the signings that are essential for us to be able to basically compete in the fourth division.

Crunch time is coming. Trialists are going to want an answer. Free agents will want to get fixed up. Clubs will want to sell if they're going to. No-one wants to be playing catch-up in August.

The line-up against the Blades was one of a club playing catch-up. The one against Derby County needs to be pretty close to a proper starting line-up.

If not, we're going to be in a tough spot. And it will be one that we’ll have put ourselves in.