Manager Keith Hill reached a managerial milestone on Friday, with the date marking three years since he returned to Spotland for a second spell in charge.
This time round, he has been in the dug-out for almost 160 games.
“Three years, that’s a milestone in any manager’s career these days,” Hill told Dale PlayerHD.
“The LMA have just published their latest findings and they’re very concerned about the amount of managers that are being sacked because of the lack of patience. It’s like anything, if you want success then you have to have a little bit of continuity on the philosophy of a football club and that structure can only be built with patience and time. I only get this at Rochdale Football Club.”
Hill has achieved promotion to League One, seen his side reach the fourth round of the FA Cup for two consecutive years and secured the highest ever league finish in the club’s history, during his three years back at the club.
The Gaffer returned to the club with Dale sitting 14th in League Two. He admits it was one of his hardest periods of managerial career, but says he always knew that he’d be here for the long haul.
“When I first came to the club, I thought, wow, I should have gone to Dubai for a holiday.
“We had to fight through that initial pain and needing to get results to get to the end of the season and it was hard.
“We had 18 games and we got 25 points. That was ridiculously hard, that was one of the hardest periods of my management career, you know, managing them 18 games to get us to at least League Two safety and then build and build, and build again.
“It has been brilliant what has happened since and now we’re trying to build a League One football club, so I’m really, really pleased that I did come back.
“Out of adversity you can get success but you need fighters in that situation and we’ve had enough football fighters and enough football intelligence to be successful.
“I think that, along with the relationship I have with the Chief Exec, the Chairman and the Board of Directors, is one of the reasons I’m still in the job.”
The full interview is on Dale PlayerHD.