2009/10 to 2017/18

Rotherham United never reached the Premier League in the nine seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18, spending three in the Championship and six lower down. Their best finish was 20th in the Championship, in 2014/15. They didn’t win a major trophy. Over those nine summers they paid £1.4m in transfer fees and took in £1.1m, a net spend of £304k.

Rotherham United's three seasons in the Championship were a triumph of spirit over budget, right up until they weren't. Up for 2014/15, they stayed up in 20th, then again in 21st in 2015/16, both times with something to spare. In 2016/17 the money and the luck ran out together: bottom, with 23 points.

Rotherham's transfer fees were measured in tens of thousands, not millions. Jon Taylor, from Peterborough in 2016, was the biggest at around £500,000. Kári Árnason left for Malmö in 2015, and Kieran Agard was sold to Bristol City a year earlier.

For the first five seasons of this period Rotherham were outside the top two divisions, which makes them one of the steepest climbs on 115.football. The goal is easy to say and very hard to do: turn a club that celebrated 21st place into one that can think about the Premier League.