Paul Warne talks to www.themillers.co.uk...
Rotherham United boss Paul Warne returned to iFollow Millers duties following the international break to preview the Sky Bet Championship game at Derby County this weekend.
He was back at the training ground this morning on iFollow Millers to discuss the trialist that has been on the Millers' books recently, the soon-to-be-filled recruitment roles and the challenge of facing the Rams.
Remember full video content is available shortly HERE on iFollow Millers…
Warne on trialist, Julien Lamy, who played in the reserve game at Grimsby Town this week…
“He's in training for the rest of the week and we need to make a decision.
“He's a 19 year old lad and we need to work out if we can get more out of him. He's a good lad and I like him.
“After the reserve game he stayed out and did some running, which obviously gets my approval.
“One thing is for sure, if he doesn't have a career here, he will somewhere else because his attitude is spot on.
“I could sign him and tell you he's the next best thing and in 18 months I could be releasing him. That's just how hard it is to get it right.”
Warne on club closing in on filling new posts within the recruitment department…
“I think we're announcing it on Monday. We lost our Chief Scout and our Head of Recruitment, so we have two people to fill those roles.
“The people coming in are good people but they'll have to hit the ground running. We've got a lot of lads in the last year of their contracts.
“Next week we'll have many an afternoon going through no end of stuff.
“It's a big role. All the roles at the club from the physio to the kit man are here. If I left tomorrow, I think the legacy I'd leave would be a good one.
“We had about 80-odd people apply. We reduced it down to 35, then 20 and then interviewed 6.
“We then re-interviewed two and they were successful. We did that with the Chairman and vice-chairman present.”
Warne on Vassell, Robertson and general team news…
“He's [Vassell] a bit rusty to be fair. He'll train today and tomorrow. He needs a ressies game to get himself anywhere like, so I don't think he'll play at the weekend.
"He's [Robertson] progressing quite well to be fair. It's sort of D-Day today.
“We've got an illness with one of our players. Hopefully he'll be alright tomorrow. Semi is on his way back from Nigeria.”
Warne reports no issues from internationals and Vaulks’ final game of suspension…
“The other two other than Marek played a part in their international games. We'll get Will to sing the Welsh national anthem when he comes in.
“We've missed him in two games but we played really well against QPR and Norwich, so there are no guarantees he'll be straight back in the team.”
Warne on how the fight for Sky Bet Championship survival is shaping up ahead of the run-in…
“I've been really proud of how they've performed this year. Every game we've been in them. Two years ago we were relegated by now. I'll do a presentation letting the lads know that they're 5 or 6 weeks away from the end of the season. After the break we're set up for a mini-season now, as are all bar about three teams in the League.
“The bottom six or seven teams there will be a lot of movement. The thing for us as staff is to keep the messages the same, don't get too high after a win or too low after a defeat. We just have to give ourselves a chance in every game.”
Warne on Birmingham City’s involvement in a potential survival challenge…
“I think if they'd have had 12 points taken they would be in it but they'll just about be out of it. They can probably play with a bit more freedom and a bit of a siege mentality now.
“I do look at everyone's fixtures and try and guess how they'll go but if we knew we would all win the pools every weekend.”
Warne on challenge of facing Derby County at Pride Park…
“We'll go to Derby and give everything we've got, as we do every game and if we don't win that, we've got to do the same against Forest.
“In fairness, of all the away grounds Derby is one of my favourites. The atmosphere there is usually electric. We need to get a foothold early on and take the game to them. We'll definitely set up that way. We want to win the game as much as they do, it's another opportunity to pull ourselves out of it.
“The lads are in pretty good fettle. We'll speak about the importance of it all but they know already. It's not a surprise to us that we got an away win, but it's definitely a 'tick box'. Hopefully the fans can travel down, it's not far, and we can give them something to be proud of.
“Their [Derby’s] recent form is probably not as electric as they would like but anyone in the top 10 of this league is a formidable team. I think they've got Mount back and they'll definitely play with an energy.
“I think with them being the home team against us, their fans may think we'll roll over and have our bellies rubbed, but that could suit us and we'll have a go back.”