A day in the life of Rotherham United manager Paul Warne

The Advertiser's Paul Davis asked Paul Warne to take him through a typical day as manager of Rotherham United. That conversation took place last month. Here's what the Millers boss had to say.
Paul Warne and wife RachelPaul Warne and wife Rachel
Paul Warne and wife Rachel

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YOU know me, up as soon as the birds start singing. I was in the gym at the training ground for 7.15am and did about 45 minutes of weights.

At 8am, we had a bit of a staff meeting to decide what we were going to do in training that day and how we're going to separate the groups at the end. We also talk in those meetings about any issues involving any of the players.

Around 9am, I talked to Paul Davis on the phone for about 20 minutes and answered all his questions for that week's paper. He lures me in by saying it will take only five minutes and then I can't get rid of him.

Assistant manager Richie goes through the analytic game stuff with our analyst, Josh. I'll go through something with the other analyst, Dan.

On this day, we pulled some stuff on MMA fighter Conor McGregor together: some footage of him being jabbed when he was on the floor.

We'll show that to the lads later in the day and tell them they have two choices: they can either get up and fight or just concede. In fairness to them in recent weeks, they've gone a goal down and have got back up on their feet, kept going, got a goal back and earned a point.

I'll go on about that bit and do a bit of other stuff on philosophy with the players. I'll show them the league table and talk about how it sits now and how it could sit if we get a win at the weekend. I'll give them a bit of positive imagery on how things could look on Saturday night.

We meet with the lads at about 10.30, then train at 11am and come back in probably about 1pm for lunch.

Then we'll watch some clips with some of the individual players we've picked out. I'll do some and Richie and Hammy do some as well. Polly takes the goalkeepers obviously. There will be good and bad clips.

I'll watch clips with, say, Michael Smith. I usually do him, Semi Ajayi and Will Vaulks.

We always make sure that the players watch the clips with us so the message we're giving them isn't confused.

At about 3pm, I'll have a cup of tea and a sit-down with the coaching staff to make sure we're all in a good place, then around 3.30pm — God, how busy do I sound? — I get together with the medical team to go through the injuries: where we're at with them, what we think, how we can improve, all that kind of thing.

Then I'll go for a run with Rich. We haven't played squash this season, we've just gone running. We'll do about six or seven kilometres together. We go out on the road and get loads of people tooting their horns and shouting things out of their windows. I nearly fell in front of a bus the other day when someone peeped and I wasn't expecting it.

After that, I'll go and see the chairman and show him the clips from the previous game, the bits which I've shown to the lads. I like him to see them. I don't hide anything from him. I show him the good bits, the bad bits, the things we need to improve on.

Around 5pm, I'll shoot off, go home and remind my missus, Rachel, and the kids, Mack and Riley, what I look like.

The Warne family

Often, there's an evening function to go to. For example, the other week Rich and I went to a Round Table dinner at Sitwell Golf Club. I was supposed to speak for 15 minutes but I think I went on for about 45. Not like me, eh?

I spoke about the club, what it means to us, what we're trying to change and how when we leave, whenever that is, we want to hand it over in better health than when we got it.

It was all about legacy and that kind of thing.

Obviously, we're judged on results, but, for me, it's about more than that.

I do most of my speeches off the cuff. The best speech-makers say that you're supposed to start with something, end with something and have three key messages to get across.

But the Round Table one wasn't a motivational speech or anything so I just said what I thought was right.

It was quite funny because there was a bloke in the room and I know his son. His son is about my age and lives in my village. On Christmas Eve, there were a couple of drinks and carol-singing in my village which was fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This gentleman came up to me and said: “Warney, I'm really enjoying this season.” I thanked him and said how good that was to hear. He said: “My mum thinks you're doing a brilliant job.” But then he added: “My dad's not sure, though.”

Anyway, the dad was in the room with the Round Table! I singled him out and made a joke about how it was difficult to please everyone all of the time because everyone has different ideas on the team.

I even texted my missus and said: 'My mate's dad's in here so I'll go for him.' She replied: 'You cannot say anything.' But I did anyway!

The dad came up to me afterwards and told me: 'I never said that to my lad. I'll be telling him off.'

But I'm digressing. As you can probably tell from this piece, when I make a speech I normally just waffle on.

I'm comfortable talking in public. It's fine, no problem at all. It's funny what scares you and what doesn't, isn't it? I'll pick up a microphone in front of anyone. Whether people are interested or not might be another matter!

There are people who would hate to do it but they do other things and I think: 'Oooh, I wouldn't fancy that.'

Next week I'm giving a speech to potential university students at a college. That will be a motivational one so I'll think about that beforehand and write some ideas down - three or four bullet points.

Mostly I just harp on about being the best you can be. I speak about what I have to do and what the  players have to do.

I've realised that in this very busy day I'm describing that there doesn't seem to be a lot of time for Mrs Warne. I think this makes her even happier!

In fairness, Mrs Warne gets me on a Sunday ... well, sort of ... some of Sunday anyway ... and on my day off during the week.

I normally drag her to Derbyshire if the weather is good but we also go to the cinema sometimes. I love doing that.

The other week we watched that new wrestling film, which I buzzed off. You know, that true story about the girl wrestler in America, Fighting With My family. It's a real feel-good film.

Then we had a walk down to the garden centre and had some lunch. Rachel was having a lovely time until I suddenly got her in a headlock, counted to three and told her that was a submission.

The article first appeared in last week's Advertiser