Rotherham United: Agents' 'silly money' demands wrecked Millers deals, reveals Tony Stewart

The Millers owner says that even when his Championship club have been prepared to pay over the odds for players greedy agents have inflated prices even further.

“There has been some silly, silly money,” he said. “The agents have had dog’s dinners out of this. They’re grinning like Cheshire cats.

“We’ve gone two or three hundred grand over what we said we were going to put in for some players and they’ve even gone over that.”

One deadline-day deal for a Championship left-back fell through after a loan had been agreed only for the defender’s agent to return demanding a permanent move and a three-year contract.

Rotherham have brought in 12 new players over the summer but have been frustrated in their pursuit of new strikers.

“Pound notes talk,” Stewart added. “What you’ve seen is not just the likes of Aston Villa, Newcastle and Norwich throwing around £40 million they’ve got in their back pocket, which we haven’t got, you’ve also got other clubs with new owners.

“It’s daft money. We’re not in the daft-money game. What you don’t want to do is buy stuff from a supermarket that’s got a Harrods price on it.

“What Rotherham, and any club, wants is long sustainability, and that’s what we’ve got. We’re fit, we’re good, we’re in the Championship. What do we want to do? We want to move forward. We have moved on and we are getting better.”