With Steve Evans back at Rotherham United, the scene of some of his greatest triumphs, could a tenth promotion be possible? Adam Bate reflects on meeting the larger-than-life manager and expects his methods to continue to reap rewards…
Tuesday 6 August 2024 11:19, UK
When Steve Evans returned to Rotherham United in April, it brought to mind a conversation with him in his kitchen in 2022. "I think I have another Rotherham in me," he told Sky Sports. "And when you have done something like that, you want it again."
Evans' accomplishments first time around with the Millers were spectacular. He took over a team languishing in League Two, propelled them to back-to-back promotions, and then somehow succeeded in keeping them in the Championship.
Speaking to him about that time, he was full of stories, all told with a boyish enthusiasm almost incongruous with the burly figure recalling them. There were marvellous memories of winning at Wembley, coming from two goals down to beat Leyton Orient.
"There was no point going after players at Wembley when we were two down. It required a different mentality. What I had in front of me were good players. I had to find a way to turn it around. What can we do to enhance something? What can we do to change it?"
Famously, Evans replaced his striker with a right-back and reshuffled the pack, pulling those two goals back within minutes. Even his chairman had been left confused. "Tony Stewart said to me afterwards, 'When you made that sub, I thought, what is he doing?'"
There has always been more to Evans than the stereotype, the sombreros and the shouting. Canny in the dugout and cannier in the transfer market, the tale of how he turned things around after a difficult start in the Championship highlights that well.
Recognising the need for a better goalkeeper, Evans signed the man now regarded as the world's best. He was initially told that Rotherham would be tenth in line to sign Emi Martinez on loan from Arsenal but persuaded him to join over a 90-minute phone call.
"He signed the next day and kept us up. He was already a Premier League goalkeeper at that stage. Certain things stick in your mind. How he conducted himself, how he celebrated a clean sheet. He was a winner. And we had a lot of winners in that team."
It is this mentality that Stewart and Rotherham want to tap into once more. Appointed too late to save the club from relegation last season, Evans is already trying to change the culture, talking of "no more easy rides" as he demands more from this team.
After a pre-season friendly win over Stamford, the players were back in training the next morning. Even Evans admitted eyebrows were raised but that is the way he likes it. Now 61, his methods have brought nine promotions at five different clubs. They still work.
Evans insists that he has mellowed a little and he continues to demonstrate the tactical awareness to adapt. Football evolves but those principles of man-management and motivation clearly remain. How else to explain that ninth career promotion in 2023?
At Stevenage, the club had finished in the bottom half of the table in each of the previous three seasons and not reached the play-offs in seven. Evans took them to automatic promotion last year. It is part of the reason why expectations are so high.
He has already overhauled Rotherham's squad and, reunited with Stewart, the hope is that the magic can be recreated. "When I first met Tony, he was as infectious and as enthusiastic as I was and it was like two big ships trying to go in the same direction."
But perhaps the biggest factor, the biggest reason for optimism about Rotherham's prospects in a League One that is full of clubs with vast ambitions, is that enduring connection with the supporters. "Once a Miller, always a Miller," is how Evans puts it.
That was illustrated on one of his many returns to the New York Stadium with Gillingham in December 2021. Evans welled up when recalling that day. "I had been back before but I still got a three or four-minute standing ovation at the start of the game."
Even his Gillingham players were stunned. "You always chat with your players and when we were back in for training they told me that they had heard applause for old managers but they had never seen anything like that before. I have never seen anything like that."
It is a consequence of his achievements, of course, but also his demeanour - what Stewart described as a 'warrior' fighting for his team on the touchline. And the way that he talks about those supporters. "Brilliant. Such a hard-working town. Salt of the earth."
It is a mantra that he is already repeating in this second spell. "Rotherham supporters have been working hard for the last few months to pay for their season tickets. The least we can do as a club is work just as hard." There will be no comfort zone for his players.
Do not be surprised then, if Evans is about to embark upon another promotion-winning campaign, bringing all those moving parts together to fashion something special in double-quick time. It is what he does and it takes us back to that kitchen two years ago.
Another Rotherham in him? Little did he know then that he would be back in search of a repeat but it is a story worth repeating. "It is where I was happiest, I guess," he said that day. Maybe there are more happy days ahead for Steve Evans and Rotherham United.
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