Rotherham United boss Paul Warne says keeping key players at the club for a prolonged period of time can be instrumental to his side’s success, as he continues to build for the future having sealed the services of forward duo Michael Smith and Jamie Proctor on long-term deals on Thursday.
Warne has swooped early to tie up the duo, whose contracts were set to expire at the end of the 2018/19 season, and admits he is delighted to have them on board for the foreseeable future.
The Millers chief continued to add that talks are ongoing with a number of players nearing the ends of their present deals and he is hopeful to have more positive news in the coming weeks.
“My idea is to get and keep people who fundamentally get the club and who can perform,” Warne told www.themillers.co.uk.
“That won't change and like I've said, we've got other players we want to stay on board and hopefully the process will continue going and we can have more news.
“It's good that they've [Proctor and Smith] committed their futures to us and we want to give a bit of stability to the club. We don't want to get to the summer and have our players' heads turned, we're trying to tie people up earlier where we can and those two were easy negotiations.
“The fact that we're trying to tie these lads on longer contracts, this early on, is good. We want to build the club and we hope to improve the squad every transfer window, but I think these two are a big part of what we're trying to do, as are others.
“We're speaking to others and we're trying to encourage other people to sign their long-term futures with this club. I think we're in a really good position and the Chairman fully endorses what we're trying to do and long may it continue."
Warne continued to draw comparisons from the successful teams in the Ronnie Moore years in which he and some of his coaching staff featured for a prolonged period, before going on to explain that continuity in the present day can be just as key to maintaining the high standards that he has set for his side in the second tier.
“When we got promoted as players; me, Polly and Rich, we were all together for like six or seven years,” he added.
“I think ideally the best players stay for long periods of time and other players have a golden spell and then move on.
“There are certain players here who have been here for a while now and I think successful teams do have a similar backbone unless something is broken. I don't think anything is and the lads are the best they can be at the moment and long may that continue. Woody has been here a while, Mattock has been here a while and Will's been here a bit. I like to think they grow together and they improve.”