Despite it looking a bit rocky towards the end of the season, Rotherham United had a brilliant campaign and gained promotion to the Championship automatically. 

However, with Rotherham looking to make their stay in the Championship a stable one, there is plenty of work for boss Paul Warne to do over summer to make sure his team is strong enough to stay up.

One of the main concerns for the Millers is the future of Michael Smith, who is out of contract this summer. The club are keen for him to stay on but the manager has accepted that his representatives may want to see what other offers are available before accepting anything.

Contract talks are ongoing with Michael Ihiekwe and Jamie Lindsay, whilst Freddie Ladapo is among some of the players leaving the club.

Warne has admitted he has a big job on his hands now and there could be a lot of change, as he told The Yorkshire Post: "I think it is going to be a massive turnaround of 10, 11 or 12 players.

"The team has got older, every team does get older. Contracts are near the end and I do think it's a bit of a summer change.

"It is a lot to ask of our recruitment team, who work really hard as do the coaching staff to try and help them.

"It does feel like we need a good summer to give ourselves a good start and chance next season. Because history suggests that if it isn't, it's a long way back.

"The gap is big and that is why we need to keep our best players. If we go up and lose three or four players, you cannot go up with a weaker side. We need to add payers who can compete and replace the players we have got and not support."

 

 

The Verdict: 

Rotherham have been in the Championship before and also experienced relegation back to League One, which is something they will be looking to avoid now.

It seems like Warne has a well thought out plan for what his side need to do in order to be successful and though some of that depends on the players he can convince to sign new deals with the club.

Even so, the Millers boss knows his team need a fair number of changes in order to be able to compete and push up the league next season, and although he looks to have a busy summer on his hands, he will be hoping this can pay off.