Time for Rotherham United and Barnsley to avoid being yo-yo clubs, says Neil Redfearn

Relegated from the Championship last season, the Millers are second in League One. If, as expected, its clubs vote not to continue with the campaign, the Football League are recommending they be promoted.

Barnsley, who finished second in last year’s division are bottom of the Championship. If the League succeeds in restarting the campaign, they will have nine matches to make up the seven-point gap to safety. They have shown before they are capable of great escapes, but it would be asking a lot.

Were the two South Yorkshire clubs to swap places again, it would be the fifth time in seven seasons each has moved between English football’s second and third tiers.

It is a cycle Neil Redfearn says they need to break.

As a Barnsley legend in his playing career who had a short-lived spell as Rotherham manager, he believes both clubs should be established Championship outfits.

“I think Rotherham had the smallest budget in the division when I was manager (in 2015-16) and if they are back in the Championship next season it will be tough for Paul Warne again,” cautions the much-travelled former midfielder.

“It’s something they’ve got to try to address.

“Are Rotherham and Barnsley going to keep being yo-yo clubs? It was never the case when I was at Barnsley, we were established in the Championship.

“The key for both clubs is to be consistently mid-table Championship sides at minimum.”

Redfearn was part of the Barnsley side promoted from the third tier in 1992 and when their five-year stint in what is now the Championship came to an end, it was because they had been promoted, not relegated.

The Reds had eight straight seasons in the Championship before their yo-yo existence began in 2014, the year Rotherham replaced them after a second successive promotion.

The way Barnsley have been run in recent years has contributed to their falling between two stools.

The board have made it a policy to find and develop young talent, and have been successful at it, selling defenders Ethan Pinnock and Liam Lindsay, and former Rotherham striker Kieffer Moore last summer.

Attacking player Cauley Woodrow is sure to be in demand in the next transfer window after scoring 15 goals in a team which has too often looked out of its depth.

But the Reds have tended to replace their departing stars with yet more youngsters and despite showing in his time at Leeds United he was a champion of young talent, Redfearn feels they could benefit from a better balance.

“I get the business model at Barnsley and I agree with it,” he said.

“It would be much easier if they had bundles of cash but if you look back to my time, Barnsley had some really experienced players.

“Young players are great but you’re only as good as your experienced players.

“The Championship is probably the toughest division of all to get out of (via promotion) or survive in.

“When I went in at Rotherham the chairman, Tony Stewart, said we needed a point a game to stay up and I got 17 from 20.

“If you look at it, Neil Warnock was deemed a hero (in 2016) and he won six games out of 16, I won five out of 20 but he kept them up.

“Rightly so he was praised for that but it shows there’s nothing in it.

“The Premier League is a different kettle of fish, of course, but as a hard slog, the Championship’s really tough.”