RUFC - Evans 'No Big Time Charlies' for Millers

Rotherham United have very few players in contract after the summer and new boss, Steve Evans knows he has to do something about that.

Evans will start by having a look at as many players as he can playing first team football in the final three games of the season, one being goalkeeper Andy Warrington, who will start on Saturday against Morecambe at Don Valley.

Speaking to MillersPlayer, Evans said, 'In large, the boys out of contract, will have to show us that they should be part of something special.

'There's a real strict criteria which is 'can they be in a promotion squad?', which is different from 'can they be in a squad that can challenge for the play-offs' because we aren't talking about challenging for the play-offs here. The Chairman's criteria is to challenge for the play-offs but for Steve Evans, the manager, and the players who are assembled in July the criteria will be to challenge for promotion, which is the top three. We may fall short of that who knows. Only time and performances will dictate that but the recruitment of the current players coming forward and the recruitment of players in the summer will be the absolute key to how we do.'

Speaking about the players that the Millers currently have on loan, Evans said, 'First and foremost those players need to go back and look at their clubs and talk to their managers and then we'll take it from there. As a manager in an ideal world you don't want loan players. Loan players are an excuse for a manager who has to fill a void by injuries or suspensions or maybe a short fall in the squad.'

Evans said that Paul Raynor and himself had discussed the players that they want to bring in with the manager saying, 'We are still waiting to see who comes out of clubs because there's always players who surprise you who become available. We've spoken already to a couple of managers and Chairman in the Championship and League One level and told them we are interested and, as the Chairman says, there are funds available if we need to go out and buy people but I won't be going to the Board and asking for money if he's not going to be essential to what we are trying to do.'

But Evans did tell David Beddows of The Advertiser that he wouldn`t be fetching in any 'Big Time Charlies` explaining, 'The players we bring in will be from the level we play at or higher which is the strategy we used at Crawley. But, if they are coming from above we don`t want any Big Time Charlies because they don`t last five minutes. In saying that, they won`t be Big Time Charlies because when they enter the new stadium they`ll be overawed like the rest of us.`







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