Ins and outs : 2021/22 pre-season thread | Vital Football

Ins and outs : 2021/22 pre-season thread

M

mikemiller

Vital Football Hero
May as well start it now, as there are likely to be a lot of changes...

We will be starting the 2021/22 season, without the £7 million (?) Championship sponsors money. We know that Wood (!), Kayode and Hull have recently signed new contracts. It has been reported that Smith, Crooks, Olosunde and Robertson have not done. Previously, players who have not signed by now have been shown the door, even if they change their mind.... like Jon Taylor , and even though he missed a lot of sitters, he was more likely to score than Hirst, Ogbene and Josefzoon put together, and may have kept us up in 2020/21 if we had re-signed him. Too late now though.

Of the loan players , I would only be interested in keeping Giles and Wing, but they might not want to stay, now that we have been relegated.... so we may have about half a team left. We still have a manager though (who according to Radio Sheffield is doing a wonderful job!), and he might have to play Kayode, Cooper, Gratton, Hull, etc., whether he likes it or not. Think Tilt has a year left on his contract, plus we should still have Barlaser, Harding, Lindsay, Wiles, plus Johansson. I'm guessing that Clarke and S.MacDonald won't be retained, but given some previous strange decisions regarding injury/illness-prone players- who knows?

Mattock is now playing in our "Billy Jones" role , so if anybody from RUFC is reading this, it might be a good idea to sign a left back (Hint!)... or even two. Please stop playing players out of position - it's a stupid tactic and has significantly contibuted to us getting relegated.
Can we get Purrington back ?

We don't know what the future will bring, but getting back into our traditional routine under Warney, of starting the season by being knocked out of the League Cup Round 1 by a League 2 team, with one of our ex-players scoring the winner in injury time, seems almost inevitavble. :p
 
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Out of contract, from what I can see, are Matt Olosunde, Clark Robertson (who I've heard wants to go back to Scotland), Billy Jones, Shaun MacDonald and Josh Vickers (hadn't remembered we'd only took him until the end of this season). But, I presume the others with a year left will have had a relegation clause written into their contracts.

I've said it myself, but it always makes me smile when I hear 'other Championship clubs will be after our players'. Why would they be after players who couldn't score to keep their current team up? Unless it's one of the clubs who are coming up.

We have to look into any player we bring in to make sure he's not going to be crippled three weeks into the season and I actually think we should be looking at our fitness people at the club - how many times have we heard 'he's back training, he's training on grass' only for 'him' to get another injury and be out even longer. Do we try to bring them back too soon? Do we work them too hard?

And, to be fair, Mike, it's odds on a former Miller will knock us out of the League Cup because Steve Evans brought enough players in to fill a whole division when he was here!!
 
Other managers, Championship or not, don't sign players with awful injury records. I know Warney is always confident that he can get them fit again, but he almost never does - he's deluding himself, unfortunately. Miller is another player still under contract (I think) , but again he's never far from another injury breakdown.
I think that Warney has already said that Proctor, Jones and Vassell are not coming back, which I think is the right decision.

Might be better to get the players shooting at goal, and passing in training, and not just running up mountains. The players are never fit enough to last the whole game anyway - that's why we keep conceding late in the game. Whatever the previous training plan was , it needs changing
 
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I totally agree about the running up mountains - never ever understood that. They can run up and down the terraces if they need to run up and down anywhere! I agree that for most of the games we only actually look like we can manage 45 minutes. But yesterday I thought they looked just as kerry-packered but kept going.

I think I've said it before but I can't understand why we don't train on the New York pitch at least once a week - it's alright it looking well and green and pretty but it's no good if the team aren't looking good on it.
 
13/05/21

Rotherham Advertiser website - Warney saying that we are unlikely to be signing Wing for next season.... so he's an "out", unfortunately. Didn't mention the other loanees - probably too embarrassed by some of them.:(
 
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15/05/21

Other Millers fans websites have reported that Shaun MacDonald has said "Goodbye" to all at RUFC, via Facebook, etc,... so sounds like he is another "out". Not really a surprise. He sounds like a nice bloke (never met him) , but we should never have signed him given his previous injury record. He had a few decent games early in the season, but just didn't have the stamina to keep it up. We have several other players still on our books who also have worrying injury histories. Some more may be leaving if the rumours are true.
 
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Yes, someone posted on facebook what Shauny Mac had put on something else (TikTok??) and it was a 'goodbye and thank you'.
 
17/05/21

Current state of play ( more details on other threads)...

Five players released
Olosunde and Vickers are almost out of contract and still negotiating
Tilt, Miller and Kayode have returned from loan spells
Cooper is still out on loan at Hartlepool U. (National League season has not ended yet, and he may be involved in the play-offs )
None of players loaned in for 2020/21 look likely to return at the moment.
Warney has been quoted as saying that he is planning to bring eight new players in, but won't be jumping straight into the transfer market.
 
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Flashback to near the end of the 1967/68 season... Just been looking at an old Football League Review. Readers were asked "Can good players still be had for less than £50000?" Myles Pilling (Burnley fan ) wrote "What a bargain Burnley ....got for the £27000 they paid Rotherham for Frank Casper. He has delighted so many of us at Burnley". Also in same article from Nick Clay (Bristol City fan) - "John Galley cost £25000 from Rotherham , and since he came, our club has cut away from the bottom with his goals. They'll all be after him soon".
Transfer valuations have never been our strong point!:rolleyes:

By the way, it was also reported in the same season that the trophy which was awarded for winning Division 2 (now Championship) had been almost completely melted in a fire at Coventry's Highfield Road. The trophy was insured ,and a new one was being made!
 
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Yes, transfers and contracts, as you say, never a strong point with the Millers.

I wonder where the trophy was kept to have been melted!
 
07/06/21

Vickers signed a new contract a few days ago.

BBC Radio Sheffield (1830) - Olosunde has rejected a new deal with the Millers. Don't particularly want him to go, although he does seem to be injured quite a lot. Got to crack on now with signing two full backs/wing backs, as Mattock is unlikely to be fit enough to play much, from what we have seen over the last two years. (Although that may not stop Warney from picking him!)... or will Hull and Cooper get a chance? or even Clarke - who looks more like a winger from what I have seen so far. Still need at least one left-footed full-back though.
 
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14/07/21

Out ...
Clarke to Bristol Rovers (see other thread)

In...
RUFC Official Twitter - we have signed young keeper Josh Chapman, who was previously with the Blades. We have three keepers on the RUFC books now.
 
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I hope that we will , if Covid regulations permit -otherwise he may be loaned out. We need to try to get into a good standard reserves league, if possible.
 
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20/07/21

Shane Ferguson in (y)

Radio Sheffield presenter saying Matt Crooks will be moving to M'boro' soon. Warney said that hopefully another four signings coming in
 
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23/07/21

Out...

RUFC Official Twitter - Matt Crooks has moved to Middlesboro' for an "undisclosed" fee
 
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