Chairman ‘It’s Been A Disaster Of A Season’

Rotherham United Chairman Tony Stewart said that this season has been a disaster – and I don’t think there are too many people who would disagree with him.

Matt Taylor and Leam Richardson have been and gone and the only other person the Chairman could think of for what he wanted for Rotherham United is new Manager Steve Evans.

Speaking to Radio Sheffield Mr Stewart said, ‘As a custodian of Rotherham United I’ve always had the ambition to do better things. We knew we had to do things very quickly and rather than look at other managers we wanted someone who was proved, tried and tested and Steve obviously came to mind.’

Going on to talk about the two managers since Paul Warne left, the Chairman said, ‘I think when you’ve had a manager (Paul Warne) for six years whose style was very meek and mild then Matt came and he tended to be more stern, more formal and I think that contrast was a shock to the system and I can only think that’s what went wrong. With Matt going you then have to think about giving the rest of the season to someone who can do something about it. Leam came in but when you’ve got someone who’s lost eighteen games out of twenty-four well if you aren’t getting the results you either sit on your hands or do something about it. All the managers I’ve had, apart from Steve, have been sacked because they haven’t delivered what they promised.

‘Matt and Leam who are two very intelligent guys but what we saw on the pitch just didn’t look right. There wasn’t the fight, the passion, the drive and the last few weeks we’ve been saying are we going to take this into next season and we had a board meeting and decided if we were going for a new manager then we needed to give him as much time to prepare for a full season. We acted quickly to bring Steve on board and now he is on board I’m thinking I should have done this many months ago.’

Of course, Steve Evans isn’t new to the Millers he has been in the hot seat before and getting back-to-back promotions from League Two to the Championship. He left the New York Stadium in October 2015 on what was called ‘a difference of opinion’ saying that the two parties at the club ‘wanted to go different ways’.

‘I welcome Steve’s enthusiasm and passion both on and off the pitch and he’s going to put energy back into Rotherham that’s been missing for the last twelve months. There’s no mystery with Steve and Paul (Raynor), we know what we are going to get, which is good players. I’m looking forward to next season,’ the Chairman said, ‘and I think the fans will enjoy it as well.’