Steve Evans has hit back at Neil Redfearn after the current Rotherham United manager accused him of leaving the Millers with substandard players.
After Rotherham’s 2-0 defeat at Huddersfield (their third in succession away from home) Redfearn said "This squad of players isn`t good enough for this level. We`re second from the bottom of the league. We just scraped by last year and probably didn’t recruit very well in the summer.”
"We let good players like (Kari) Arnason, (Craig) Morgan, (Alex) Revell go who are better players than what we`ve got. We brought in players who were sub-standard and now we’re left with this.” Now Steve Evans has hit back at Redfearn, though without managing to defend himself from the actual suggestion that his recruitment was a bit below par.
The current Leeds United head coach told the Yorkshire Post "I could have said that here couldn’t I but I have got too much professionalism about myself. I have read those comments and it just sounds like a man as if he is under extreme pressure and wonders what happens if he loses the next one.”
Evans’ "I could have said that here” comment is an interesting one, as he has been saying for some time that some members of the squad he inherited at Leeds aren’t good enough for the Championship. Yet he can hardly take a retaliatory swipe at Redfearn for that, as Sol Bamba is our only current player who we signed during Redfearn’s brief period in charge.
I don’t think either man comes out of this spat with too much credit, as it’s hardly going to motivate the too squads to tell them that they are not good enough, and it’s not as if either club are in a financial position to make a whole raft of signings when the transfer window opens. Both managers would be better off if they knuckled down and tried to get the best out of the players they’ve already got.
This little row will lead to a frosty atmosphere on the touchline when the two clubs meet again in next month’s FA Cup tie, that’s if both of them manage to last that long.