Rotherham United told to fix issue that "screams non-league" | OneFootball

FLW's Rotherham United fan pundit wants to see improvements at the training ground this summer.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Rotherham United will hope they can improve on an underwhelming 2024/25 League One campaign next season.

The Millers parted company with Steve Evans in March after the Scotsman failed to mount a promotion push in the third tier this term despite bringing in a number of reinforcements during the summer transfer window.

Matt Hamshaw has been appointed permanently following a successful spell in interim charge, and he will be focused on guiding the club back into contention to secure a return to the Championship.

However, it could be argued that Rotherham are not suitably prepared to be a second tier club at present, especially when you consider the facilities available at the club's training ground, the Roundwood Sports Complex.

Rotherham urged to improve training facilities

We asked our Rotherham fan pundit, Tom Eyre, what one issue the club needs to fix as a priority this summer ahead of next season, and he pointed towards upgrading the training ground without hesitation.

"The state of the training facilities is something that gets brought up time and time again when discussing Rotherham United," Tom said.

"It is something that should not go away until it is fixed.

"We have had numerous injuries on the training pitches. We do not own the training pitches, we rent them, so that is another issue.

"Everything about it just screams non-league quality and, you know, as a club that sort of ascended its way through the league without changing much, it has sort of been overlooked and is still really poor for what it should be.

"If we are looking to cement ourselves as a Championship side, which I think is a long-term goal of the current management and chairman, we need to look at improving that training ground and really getting it up to the standard that it should be."

Rotherham eyeing summer upgrades

The fact that the Roundwood Sports Complex is not up to the required standard is not a new issue facing Rotherham, with it having reportedly undergone a huge summer revamp in 2023 when the club was still in the Championship, as per the Rotherham Advertiser.

Matt Taylor, who was manager at the time, discussed the issues at the training ground in that report.

"The pitches need improving, the gym needs improving, the changing room space and quality needs to be looked at," he said.

"If we want to be realistic about sustaining ourselves as a Championship club then we do need to keep moving forward."

Despite there reportedly having been major indoor and outdoor upgrades that summer, Tom believes the quality of the training ground is still an issue, which may have been a key factor in the club's struggles during the last couple of years.

Rotherham supporters will no doubt hope that Hamshaw can build a squad capable of achieving promotion to the Championship during the upcoming transfer window, but they may also be nearly as desperate for the training pitches to be brought up to the same level as their League One rivals.

It will be interesting to see how the club bounces back from a difficult period and progresses on and off the pitch during the next year or so, and improving the training ground could prove to be a catalyst for success.