Despite the fact that the Leeds-born coach’s appointment has been in the works for some time, he has not arrived with all of his ducks in a row.
His first game in charge is against West Bromwich Albion at home on Tuesday, but when he spoke to the media early on Monday evening, he had only been in charge for a little more than half an hour and had only spoken to his new players for “10, 15 minutes.”
For the time being, Richardson has arrived on his own, with no backroom team to guide him.
It made you wish the Millers hadn’t taken so long to find a replacement for Matt Taylor, who was fired on November 13.
But Richardson’s brief is not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
The Millers are comfortable with who they are and what they are, and it is why they wanted a coach who thinks along similar lines, rather than a radical departure.
Taylor’s team were a match for most on their own patch, as recent draws with Leeds United and Ipswich Town showed, just awful away.
“What’s gone before has been really successful – seven years out of the last 10 in the Championship is unbelievably good and where we want to be,” stresses head of recruitment Rob Scott.
Having taken their time reaching this point, it is clear both parties are comfortable with their decision. If not, Richardson had offers to go elsewhere, having impressed at Wigan Athletic until losing his fight against the financial tide in November 2022.
“I’ve been very pleased and humbled with the opportunities I have been offered but there were some I physically couldn’t accept and give my attention to for personal reasons,” he explains. “But it comes to a point where the love of football and the tingles down the spine and when the opportunity matches your aspirations,, you can’t ignore it.
“I’ve been very fortunate to compete against Rotherham here at the New York Stadium many times. The level of the competition, the sustainability of the football club, the expectations, and the reality of ownership in the fanbase—they’re all very well aligned, and that’s one thing I really enjoyed about it.
“I’d like to think I bring many qualities as a person, a manager,, and a man-manager, as a coach, to build an environment that suits the football club and and gets the best out of people to represent what the football club means, what the badge means,, and the community and the level of expectation within that.
“The club made contact and shared their vision and expectations alongside my own.”
Having been through worse at Wigan—before that,, he was manager of Fleetwood Town—Richardson is not daunted by the task facing him.
“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t a real big believer in my own ability and what we’ve got within the football club,” he said. “I’ve never been one not to shy away from a challenge if you look at my CV.
“We’re not silly to not know the level of competition and the expectations. It will be a really thorough, really challenging period but it’s one we feel we can push forward with and take it by the scruff of the neck.”
As for how he does that, he is in no danger of overcomplicating things.
“Win some games of football, work hard, put a real good, honest level of effort and endeavour into our performances and put clarity into what we want to do,” he replies.
“Will that happen overnight? We’ll see. But have we got a real honest group of players, staff and fanbase? Absolutely.
“It’s important to become a strong, happy version of ourselves.”
For now Richardson will work with Taylor’s old staff, although given he has already got a new job at Bristol Rovers, they too may have decisions to make at some point.
“It’s important we get some good people,” says Richardson. “There will be good people at Rotherham, that’s why they’ve had success in the past.
“You’d look to give everybody that opportunity to work and see what that work ethic is and how they match my own.
“And people have got their own expectations and their own careers as well so you have to be mindful and listen to that as well.”
And Scott, who led the search for Richardson, says not to read too much into the fact Richardson has a different job title to all his predecessors, who were called managers.
“Leam being head coach doesn’t take any autonomy away from him on the football side of things,” he says. “Everything else is an evolving process and we’ll probably get to that in time.
“For now it’s about Leam stamping his authority on things but not getting away from the fabric and DNA of Rotherham United.”
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