MillersMad: Moving onto the Millers 05 board and Rotherham United. There are a lot of millers who are very down in the mouth at the moment, what does the chairman feel he can do to bring the feel good factor back before next season?
Peter: If I could do it and I could bring wins that would bring the feel good factor back, because the bottom line is that the only thing that brings the feel good factor back is when we start winning, we are all desperate for it to turn round, we have got limited scope for doing it at the moment because we are still with the same squad, we are trying to rework the squad, we are trying to get them fitter, we are trying to get staff, and of course you know we need to get the permanent manager thing sorted out, we have tried our best to keep things going and hope there will be some uplifting results, we have had of course some good performances in amongst difficult score lines, it’s been very disappointing, all I say to you is everything we are trying to do is designed to improve our chances of getting a stronger and more successful squad, that’s what it’s all about but at the end of the day it’s a game of chance. We are going to be doing a lot of things differently and a lot of things that are more contemporary in terms of the way our teams are prepared, the sort of players we get in, we know where we want to go on that and that’s why the sort of players we have been linked with and the players we are looking at is all about that strategy of getting back to basics if you like and getting a younger squad, more technically able all that sort of other stuff. Using the resources we have got we are building up our contacts with other clubs which we haven’t had in the past to give us a better chance of getting those people in, working with them and getting the right environment and then you know it’s got to turn sometime for us.
MillersMad: How much do you and the rest of the board get paid to do the job?
Peter: Nothing, we don’t take expenses we are set against any sort of freeloading, one of things we did (although there wasn’t a big instance of it at this club) is introduce rules at the club so that everyone pays for everything, so there is no complimentary tickets everything down the line, we take nothing out of it, the bit of money we have put in we don’t expect to get back, we are putting in our time and that will continue to be the case and that is one of the ways in which we hope will give us an edge where other clubs in dire straights don’t have it.
MillersMad: In the unlikely event of Rotherham United being successful is there any potential financial gain for the board members?
Peter: No I don’t see how there could because we don’t take any salaries we aren’t paid anything, I mean you are asking a lawyer here is it technically possible? It’s technically possible that if this became a very valuable club one day the shares might be worth something, but we are hoping to spread the share ownership widely and hopefully RUST will be the largest shareholder and there will be rules about selling shares, so I only say that technically, but the fact of the matter is that we are all Rotherham fans and supporters. Part of the thing I found difficult and irritating is that the fans have a culture of saying they are in league with Boothy. Basically we just want the club to get better and to be better that’s what we are in it for to try and get some change like that.
MillersMad:: Personally I think we have got some of the worst fans in the football league if not the worst, and basically no matter how hard anybody comes in and tries, there will always be supporters pulling them down, at times do you wonder why you bother and why the other board members bother?
Peter: Well look first of all we went in with our eye’s open, secondly there aren’t that many that are like that, we have had a lot of encouragement from people, but at the end of the day it’s a leisure activity and the fact is it shouldn’t be like every day life people have a view and if that’s a negative one well that gives us a challenge to try and turn it round. There is a lot of negativity that has got ingrained over the years because of what’s happened previously, now I don’t I said I wouldn’t say that, I don’t have a magic wand… there you go now I’ve said it, but the fact is we can only do our best and do the sort of things on the meagre resources we have got to try and turn things round, and I think that that will gradually go, if we can get some things happening, at the moment it’s all talk, I’m talking my head off here to you but we haven’t got a new stand yet and we are still losing, it may take some time but as far as I am concerned, we didn’t seek to takeover to try and get control in a competition, there was nobody else and we didn’t want the club to die and we just felt look, somebody has to start this work going, these things we are doing would have had to have been done by anybody, we have done nothing that’s eccentric at all, it’s just the way we are trying to get sound systems in place and trying to get all those things there to give us a better chance, so as time goes on and people see that we are doing that I hope that they will be more with us, in truth I think the response has been quite good actually.
MillersMad:: I guess a lot of time it’s a vocal minority it does cast a lot of feeling of negativity on the club.
Peter: It does and don’t forget you know we have an icon for a manager for several years, which we all recognise and you hang onto that because you thought for a while that was the thing that was happening for the club, at last we have been the doldrums for so long and you felt something was happening, and I think people miss that, of course they are going to miss that, but when you are building from the bottom all the other basic stuff it’s going to take time and fingers crossed it will come good for us.
MillersMad: That’s about it, thanks a lot for your time Peter.
Peter: Not at all any more questions and feed them through on the website or whatever, I do enjoy dipping into the website as you know, I don’t post because I would be there all night, I have got a day job to do.
MillersMad:: Are you sure you don’t have a sneaky user name that you use to post that we don’t know about?
Peter: No I don’t, no, good stuff.