Millers happy with deadline day business

Manager Paul Warne told last night’s fans’ forum at the AESSEAL New York Stadium that either Towell or Yates would  be “excellent” for the Millers. The possibility of a second signing had been muted in recent days.

Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Wigan, assistant boss Richie Barker said the management team were happy with the business done and the squad at their disposal.

 “We’d had a number of conversations with a number of players and it just felt that (the Towell deal) was the best deal to be done for everybody,” he said.

“We have also had numerous conversations about the obsession with windows and transfers. Realistically there are only 18 games before the transfer window opens again. Can we get through the next 18 games? Yes, hopefully we can with no major injuries and suspensions and as long as we have people available in every position then I have every confidence in the players who are starting and the ones coming off the bench. We also have players who can’t get in the 18 at the moment.”

Richie Towell...patience paid off in pursuit of the midfielder.

Barker said common-sense had prevailed in negotiations with Towell’s club Brighton, the many weeks of conversations finally resulting in today’s season-long loan agreement, meaning he is to spend a second campaign in South Yorkshire.

“It has been difficult to get the deal through and we have had to be prepared at times to say it was going nowhere and we’d have to move on. We met halfway in the end and it’s a deal everybody benefits from. We get a player, Richie gets to play and Brighton get a player playing at a good level put in the window and get a contribution to his wages."

Ryan Yates: the Millers were interested in the Nottingham Forest man.

Towell trained for an hour today and could be involved at Wigan tomorrow but due to his limited game time in pre-season his exact fitness level isn’t yet known. That will be worked on during the international break and there could be a run-out for the Irishman in the reserves next week.

“We know him, he knows us, he knows what our expectations are and it’s an important number in the middle of the pitch," added Barker.

"Richie is an excellent finisher. He nicks in with the odd goal and he signed off from us really well at in the play-off final; he was arguably in our top two or three players that day. It has been difficult for him in terms of not playing a lot of football recently but hopefully he can pick up where he left off at Wembley."

Joe Mattock (dead leg) also trained today and will be fit for the weekend.

Today's other activity saw temporary moves for a clutch of former Millers. Josh Emmanuel moved from Ipswich to Shrewsbury, Ben Pringle from Preston to Grimsby and Caolan Lavery from Sheffield United to Bury.