The 2016/17 season for Rotherham will go down in history as a disaster. With just 17 points and only 9 games to go in the season for the Yorkshire side, they are effectively relegated from the Championship to League One. Only a miracle can save the side who have not won a game since the 14th January.
The Millers have only managed 4 wins all season, and not a single one of them have come on the road.
In fact, they have only managed one point away from the New York Stadium this entire season. Rotherham are actually on track to break the unwanted record set by Blackpool in the 2014/15 season for the lowest points tally in the Championship.
Blackpool managed just 26 points and failed to record an away win that season.
People will be wondering how they have become the whipping boys of the league. Having won promotion to the Championship back in 2014, The Millers have struggled each season they have been back in the league.
However, they have managed to avoid relegation by the skin of their teeth in their two previous campaigns.
With seven managers (including Eric Black as caretaker manager) sitting at the helm in the New York Stadium over the past two years, it is evident to see that consistency with managers is not the forte of chairman Paul Stewart.
Success was short lived under Neil Warnock, who managed to keep them in the division miraculously at the end of last season, and since then it has been a struggle to keep managers interested in the day to day running of the football club, with Alan Stubbs and Kenny Jackett departing the club.
Stubbs only managed 1 win in his 14 game tenure, and Jackett failed to pick up 3 points before his resignation in November.
The fans are understandably frustrated with the situation the club finds itself in. The next step is evidently to prepare for relegation to the League one.
The main gripe that the fans have is the fact that many players have not taken full responsibility this season. Many fans have complained of players going “missing” in games to save themselves from criticism.
However, the more they hide, the more criticism they come under. Even recently manager Paul Warne has told his team that there is no hiding place at this stage in the season, especially if they want to make the impossible possible and survive relegation this year.
So what will change next season? Rotherham have to regroup and free up the squad of deadwood players. The club has a lot of negativity surrounding it at the moment, and they need to find that positivity once again; this will more than likely come when new players arrive in the summer.
Next season will be a real chance for Warne to bring in players of strong character, a positive mindset and more importantly players he can trust to complete the job on the field.
With the club realistically needing to win their final games of the season to stand any chance of survival, League One is the next stop for the Yorkshire club.
The question, though, is will The Millers come straight back up? That is a tough question to answer at this moment, but the club does have the foundations to secure an immediate return to the Championship.
They have a young coach who wants to impress in his first job, a 12,000 seater stadium and a loyal fan base who will stick with the side through thick and thin.
