Tony Stewart, Steve McClaren must ease Rotherham United manager fear with Paul Warne blueprint | OneFootball

Hiring an inexperienced manager will be a gamble without experienced staff to back him up, but Rotherham have a template they can use for this.

Two relegations in three seasons have shaken Rotherham United, and new head of football Steve McClaren's interest in an inexperienced head coach for their return to League Two is a definite gamble.

Last season was a desperate one for Rotherham United. Having been relegated from the Championship in 2024, their first season back in League One ended with them finishing in an underwhelming 13th place in the table.

But what followed in 2025-26 was even worse. The Millers slumped to 23rd place in the table with a run of just two league wins from the end of January on, all of which resulted in their relegation to League Two for the first time since the 2012-13 season.

Matt Hamshaw was in charge of the team until March before being replaced by Lee Clark, but Clark was unable to turn the team around in the closing weeks and, having failed to agree terms to stay with the club, left to take over the managerial position at non-league Hartlepool United at the end of the season.

But the first senior appointment of the summer at The New York Stadium wasn't a new head coach or manager. Brought in to help restructure the club's football operation at the end of a difficult season, former England manager Steve McClaren was appointed as the club's Head of Football shortly after Clark's departure, and his first big call comes with his decision over whom to replace the former head coach with at The New York Stadium this summer.

Alex Bruce may be considered a bit of a gamble by Rotherham United fans

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Reports from BBC Sheffield's Rob Staton indicate that McClaren has decided on his first big call at Rotherham United. He posted to the social media platform X on Friday that the Millers are set to appoint Alex Bruce as their new head coach for 2026-27.

Bruce, who's the son of the former Birmingham City, Sunderland and Hull City manager Steve, will arrive at the club with his last position having been on the coaching staff under Karl Robinson at Salford City.

But prior to that, Bruce's only other coaching experience was eight months working under his father at West Bromwich Albion and a four-month spell as the manager of non-league Macclesfield which he left in order to take up the position at Salford.

Rotherham supporters may be concerned at this lack of experience, and it's a big risk for McClaren to be taking with his first major appointment in the position, but in this respect the club have precious experience of taking on an inexperienced coach and giving him the tools to be a success in the position.

What are Rotherham United fans saying about Alex Bruce's potential appointment at their club?

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Here's what Millers fans are saying about the possibility of Alex Bruce being their head coach for the 2026-27 season. It's reasonable to say the reaction from supporters has been at best mixed:

Paul Warne was even less experienced than Alex Bruce is now when he was appointed by the Millers in 2017

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As can be seen from the social media reaction to Rob Staton's reporting on Steve McClaren's interest in hiring Alex Bruce, Rotherham United supporters have doubts over whether the club should be hiring somebody with relatively little experience following the club's relegation into League Two.

But Rotherham's defining manager of the last decade was appointed into the position with even less experience than Bruce has. Paul Warne had been on the coaching staff with the club for three years when he was appointed to the head coach's position in November 2016, and he was made permanent in that position at the end of the season, even though he was unable to keep them in the Championship.

Warne had two significant advantages in the position when he was appointed. Firstly, having made over 200 appearances for Rotherham as a player over two spells, as well as having spent over three years on their coaching staff, he was already a familiar face around the club. But the second was equally important. Warne may have been in his first position as a head coach, but the club equipped him with experienced coaching staff, and this method paid off for them.

Under his managership, they became a yo-yo club between the Championship and League One, getting relegated from and winning promotion back to the Championship on three occasions each, with promotions in 2018, 2020 and 2022 following relegations in 2017, 2019, and 2021, as well as winning the 2022 EFL Trophy.

Since his departure in 2022 to take over the position at Derby County, Rotherham have struggled because of that broad lack of experience. One possible hire that the club could make to bolster Bruce's position could be Steve Agnew, who worked with Steve Bruce at Sheffield Wednesday, West Bromwich Albion and Blackpool. Agnew has been out of work since leaving Blackpool in 2025 and could add the experience that Alex Bruce lacks to help steady a Rotherham ship that has been listing for the last couple of seasons.

Paul Warne's five years in charge of Rotherham United were the most successful in their recent history, but Warne was in his first position of this nature when he was appointed in 2017. Steve McClaren himself is highly experienced, and that's a start, but by surrounding Alex Bruce with experience they could be giving him the best chance of succeeding in League Two next season. It's a policy that served them well in the past, and it could well do again.