The Kimmy kid who rose to riches and a role with his beloved Rotherham United: The Phil Smith Interview

He's done all right for that little overweight juvenile defender who used to try to catch a glimpse of Rotherham United's stadium when he was having a game of footy with his pals.

Phil Smith has been a success in business and he's also a Miller through and through. He wants for nothing yet neither does he forget his humble upbringing in a loving family in a suburb in the town.

The 57-year-old may have left Kimberworth a long time ago but Kimberworth has never left him.

“I spent most of my time playing football as a kid on Meadowhall Junior School playing field,” he recalls. “I could see Millmoor from there.

“I'd have my Rotherham top on, with the occasional use of a Liverpool one. Like all kids of my generation, we all loved our hometown team. We all looked down on anybody who dared support Sheffield Wednesday, dare I mention their name, and we all lived and breathed football.

“When I was short and fat, I played right-back, then I grew about a foot in the later years in school and got a bit faster and went on the right wing.

“When I come to New York these days. I see people from my school days all the time. I've had my own box at New York for a little while and I have 10 of my friends from those very school days who come in the box with me.”

AESSEAL New York Stadium, to give it its full title, and Smith is now a major figure at Rotherham's ground of the last 14 years, having just joined the board to help Tony Stewart in the chairman's quest to bring the good times back to S60 after a two and half seasons of disappointment.

“It's open-ended,” he says. “We said I'd jump on board at least until the end of this season and see how we go. I'm not being paid for the role, and don't want to be paid for the role. As long as it's fun to me, and as long as Tony's getting something from it, I'm sure it'll carry on.”

I play devil's advocate. ‘What happens if Tony isn't getting something from it?’

“That's his prerogative,” Smith responds in a breezy fashion. “He owns the club, and I'm his advisor. All I can do is tell him straight what I think, and explain why I think it.

“Tony's got to have his own opinion. He'll have Richard, his son and the vice-chairman, giving a view, the other directors giving a view. So, I'm just an added voice.

“I'm not there in a ‘do or don't do’ position. However, of the people around the board table, including Tony, I'm probably the most experienced business guy that the club's got. So, I would hope he would want to listen to me. And, quite frankly, why would he have brought me on if he didn't want to listen to me?”

‘Breezy’ is a good adjective to describe Smith. For a big noise in the financial world, a man of wealth and standing, he's remained grounded, having found neither an edge or lost his common touch during his rise to prominence.

He knows how to promote himself, and he's companionable, humorous and likeable with it. You could imagine yourself in that box with him, having a beer and sharing a moment when Rotherham have just gone a goal up.

His love of the Millers was instilled at a young age - he was just four when his dad, grandad and two uncles decided it was time he experienced the dark, dank, thrilling assault on senses that was the Tivoli End and he's been hooked ever since.

“It's such a big family thing,” he says. “There's nothing better than remembering the great experiences you've had through your life and I'm doing that now with my two sons-in-law who are football fans.

“I tell them about the great old days when we went to Oldham Athletic, Ronnie Moore scored a third goal in a 3-0 win in the rain and all the Rotherham fans did the conga. You can't replace memories like that.”

Two other journalists and I are chatting with him online via Zoom earlier this week. He's on business in Raz Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East and our 4.30pm is 8.30pm to him because of the time difference.

Talk turns to the Millers manager of nearly a year and he's tipping Matt Hamshaw to be the man to create some more of those memories despite the club's present lowly standing in League One.

“I think Matt's done a fabulous job,” Smith says. “He's had a bad set of cards handed to him, and I don't mean that in respect of what Tony Stewart's done. I think we've had some seriously bad luck in injury terms. We haven't had a consistent team that he could put out throughout the season.

“But, with that said, I think he's actually done a very, very good job to start bringing back our playing style, to get the players who are here for the long term really motivated and behind him. He's put a great backroom team together.

“I've seen him up close taking training, I've talked to him extensively about his plans and the DNA that he wants to bring and I would say, look, Matt's like a stick of Rotherham rock - you chop him in half, he has Rotherham United in the middle. And there's no money in the world that can buy that in football management.”

Some fans are speculating that Smith's presence is the first step in a path that will lead to a takeover. He knows that questions on that subject are coming, is ready for them and smiles understandingly when they arrive.

‘Maybe, certainly not yet’ is the gist of his main response and he also says: “I went to Kimberworth Comprehensive School in the 1980s. Now, you didn't have any ambition to be chairman of a football club when you've come through that route.

“Mine was to put baked beans on the table at tea-time and be able to put a roof over my head, and I'm being deadly serious with that.

“I had the great benefit of having superb parents who gave myself and my brother an education and, more importantly, a work ethic.

“I've worked hard, I've made a lot of money. I've put myself in a position where I can do most things in life that I want to. I have the responsibility of being a chairman of a PLC and I've got large investments in 30-odd companies. And I take that responsibility incredibly seriously.

“But did I wake up one day and say ‘Hey, I want to be a chairman of something whether it's a bank, a technology company or a football club?’ In all honesty, no.”

For now, at least, he's here to put in expertise, not money.

The name of one of an old company of his - Embark - used to be on the front of Millers shirts and over the years he's spent a seven-figure sum on sponsorship on his way to being named an ‘independent non-executive director’.

“Getting to know Tony and Richard has been great fun,” he says. “I've helped the club wherever I could with advice and became clearer and clearer that I had a bit more time and capacity available.

“Tony wanted a different set of eyes on the club, and he wanted a set of eyes that he could trust. That's how we find ourselves here.

“There isn't a business on this planet that doesn't need a fresh pair of eyes if the management team and board have been static for over five or six years, which clearly is the case at Rotherham United.

“Every single member of that senior team has been ultra welcoming to me. There are things that can be improved, for sure, but there are also many, many things that are really, really well run.”

His plan is to spend more than half of his working week on Millers matters, and trips back to his old stamping ground are commonplace.

“I'm up a lot,” he says. “As I referred to earlier, I've got a great, great group of mates back from those school days. They're all Millers. We all watch them, send WhatsApp messages about them, go to the match together, go to away games.

“I get to see probably eight out of ten home matches, probably four out of 10 away games.

“I often fly back from my international residence to come and watch them - much to the wife's chagrin - because it's in the blood. Even when we lose, you're there for the social aspect and for the camaraderie of being a Miller.”

That involves racking up the air miles from Valencia. The Spanish city on the Mediterranean coast is where Smith has his continental bolthole.

But home, his spiritual home anyway? AESSEAL New York Stadium.

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HIS FAVOURITE PLAYER

“Dead easy. My all-time Rotherham player is ‘Tiger’ - Tony Towner. Everybody was off their seat the minute the ball went to his feet back in the 80s. He's the best all-time player we've ever had, and I tease King Ronnie all the time, saying that Tony made his career for him.”

HIS FAVOURITE MOMENT

“Ronnie scoring the third goal at Oldham, I think in 1982, just because it made a couple of thousand Rotherham fans conga about the place, which was a sight to behold as a young kid.”

HIS FAVOURITE GAME

“We were in the League Cup away to Liverpool in the early 1980s, back around the time when they were absolutely in their pomp and you had the likes of Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush playing. We had our best team out and we went toe to toe with them for 90 minutes. We lost 1-0, but what an experience that was for a schoolboy, let me tell you.”