Rotherham appoint new head coach
ROTHERHAM have named former Wigan boss Leam Richardson as their new head coach.
The Millers have been seeking a new manager since Matt Taylor was sacked last month.
Richardson takes over a side bottom of the Championship with 13 points from 20 games, leaving them eight points adrift of safety.
A club statement said: “Following a long and meticulous interview process which has seen a number of high-calibre candidates considered, it was agreed by the board that Leam’s credentials and vision for the project were most closely aligned with our own and he arrives as part of a restructuring of the football set-up at the club.”
Richardson has signed a contract that runs until the summer of 2026.
The 44-year-old has been out of work since leaving Wigan in 2022. Richardson, whose first managerial role was at Accrington at the end of his playing career back in 2013, stepped up from a role as assistant manager to take full charge of the Latics in 2021 after two spells as caretaker.
He avoided relegation to League Two in his first season and then guided the club into the Championship as League One champions at the end of the 2021-22 season, only to be sacked the following November after a run of six defeats in seven – dismissed 16 days after signing a new three-year contract.
■ ■Gary Mills is to oversee Burton as caretaker manager following boss Dino Maamria’s sacking.
Maamria was axed on Saturday after the 2-1 home loss to Stevenage, a fifth defeat in six League One matches for the Brewers that left them 19th, four points above the relegation zone.
Mills, who became first-team coach at the club in September when he joined from Coventry, has been placed in temporary charge ahead of Saturday’s trip to Oxford.
Chairman Ben Robinson said in a statement on Burton’s official website: “It’s always a sad time when a manager leaves the club under these circumstances and we are disappointed that it didn’t work out as we had hoped with Dino Maamria. I have asked Gary Mills to look after the first team on a caretaker basis while we decide the next best step forward for Burton Albion.”