Rotherham are starting a new era after manager Steve Evans' shock departure on Monday, coming after the two parties stressed a desire to move in different directions.
It has been three and a half years of success for Evans at the helm, delivering the Millers from League Two to the Championship.
And it has been eventful along the way.
Here is Evans' three and a half years at the club in his own words.
“Rotherham United are a Championship club but playing in League Two. They have a fantastic new stadium coming, with a great new training ground and overall the Ferrari was started and the key was in it ready to be driven.”
Evans reveals his drive for joining the Millers.
“This is a new squad that has been put together from old and new players, but I can tell already that it will prove to be a successful team - we are looking good.”
He was optimistic ahead of the 2012/13 season and rightly so.
“It is going to be tough, but that's why they did it. I don't agree with the decision but I respect it. I found myself talking to Paul Raynor before I'd even picked the phone up and shouting at the television!”
Evans was handed a six-match stadium ban by the FA for misdemeanours while at Crawley and he didn’t enjoy it!
“They must think I'm Donald Duck. After the way he played, I don't think they'd want him anyway would they?”
Evans thought that Southend were quackers when they enquired about Jason Taylor two days before they visited New York and won 3-0.
“Since we have come in we've been favourites to win everything, if there was a raffle we'd be expected to win it. Is being underdogs something we should relish? I don't know, I quite like being favourites.”
Coping with pressure was something Evans had to put up with, but the Millers definitely had the winning ticket last season.
“The referee was totally, obnoxious rude and embarrassing to me and my staff throughout the match and at half-time.”
Tell us what you really think of Eddie Ilderton - referee of the 2-0 defeat at Burton in 2013!
“There are very few managers who can claim they have taken the club to promotion, but when you can put yourself in the same bracket as the likes of Ian Porterfield, Ronnie Moore and Billy McEwan then you have to say that would be a wonderful achievement.”
Evans was dreaming of dining at the same table as some esteemed company ahead of the Aldershot promotion-winning game.
“It's a fantastic achievement by everyone from the chairman to everyone inside the football club and the supporters as well. A lot of people doubted the squad but we kept believing and we always believed over the 46 games. We have missed out on champions, but we proudly sit in second.”
Promotion meant a lot to Evans, anyone who saw his dancing in the main stand after the Aldershot game could see that.
“Martin Allen said last week that he usually gets an SOS call to go and save clubs from relegation, well maybe I'll start getting them to win sides promotion.”
Evans was in no doubt about his promotion record. He should have taken an advert out in the Yellow Pages.
“Alan Lee's representatives haven't expressed anything about him wanting to come here. He is a legend at this football club but as the manager I have to be honest and admit that it is not something I am looking to pursue.”
Evans broke thousands of Millers’ hearts when he said he wouldn’t be signing legendary striker Alan Lee, who bossed Paul Warne’s testimonial match.
“I'm a proud man, it has been 37 years since Rotherham beat Sheffield Wednesday at home. We love to break records. There has been fantastic managers at this football club and for 37 years none of them have beaten Sheffield Wednesday at home. That makes me very proud.”
The Millers boss was delighted to rewrite history after beating the Owls.
“If I could lose a few stones I'd put myself on the teamsheet, because it's that big a game for us. It will be a great occasion but it will only be truly remembered if we deliver a performance to be proud of.”
Evans knew what a great opportunity the Millers had playing at Aston Villa, but wasn't prepared to hit the gym.
“At 3-1 Sheffield United probably got off lightly because if we had taken advantage of the opportunities we created on the break we could have beaten them by more, but it was a comfortable win. This football club should not have waited as long as it has to beat the two Sheffield clubs, they are not Premier League clubs anymore.”
A Sheffield double was no skin off Evans’ nose.
“We might try to do business with them. Their players are sought after, but David Moyes is well aware of our stadium and what the chairman has done here and he was impressed with us.”
There had to be one quote in about a Manchester United manager, right?
“It can't be an agenda against me because I keep winning promotion don't I? But we seem to be on the wrong end of a lot of decisions.”
Evans, unhappy at some refereeing decisions, decided to boast about his promotion record. Why not?
“James Poole of Hartlepool was a handful against my defenders, who thought they were in the north east for a stag do rather than a football match.”
Evans obviously knows how good Whitley Bay is for a night out, a much better place than Hartlepool for a Johnstone’s Paint Trophy clash.
"I reiterated my commitment to Rotherham United FC and the project I started some 18 months ago. As a manager you must remain focused on the job in hand and there is certainly much work to be done not only immediately but also in the medium and long term.”
Wednesday fancied a bit of Evans pie after sacking Dave Jones, but the Millers told them where to go and the boss was on board.
“I wouldn't know who we have bid for or who we haven't. I have put a list of players together and it is up to the chairman to decide whether to bid or not.”
So, who signed Jordan Slew then, Steve? Evans was playing dumb to the high-profile chase of Nouha Dicko.
"I am very humbled and fortunate to manage a club like Rotherham United, not only to get to 100 games but to get there with a win ratio of over 50 per cent is very satisfying. I am grateful to the chairman, the staff and the players, and of course the supporters who have accepted me from day one.”
Evans raises his bat to a century of games in charge of Rotherham.
"I feel for my players because that was a 'Premiership-standard' referee. He said that even after he watches the DVD, he'll still think he's got it right. Deary me, some people at some levels have problems, don't they? Why don't they keep the Premiership referees in the Premier League?"
Evans didn't think too much to Mike Dean's
performance in the 1-0 defeat to Sheffield United.
“I don't lose against Bradford. I could turn up
with a team of under-9s and not lose to Bradford.”
Evans endured a frosty relationship with the
Bantams owing to his FA charge when at Crawley and he enjoyed his
side getting the better of them.
"If there is a better goal in the play-offs this year then I'll wake up a chicken."
Evans plucked for an unusual line when reacting to Joe Garner's stunning strike in the play-off semi-final clash with Preston.
"I have similar characteristics to Sir Alex and the times I have spoken to him he's probably got me to think outside the box on a number of ways to deal with things and to be successful you have to have a ruthless element.”
Evans compares himself to the best ahead of his side's visit to Wembley.
"That assistant is known to us as a management team: we have to ask first and foremost why he is appointed and when he was appointed we feared what would happen and it's happened today.”Evans launches another attack on the match officials, this time after Jordan Bowery had been inexplicably sent off in a 3-0 defeat to Middlesbrough.
"We're Rotherham so people at the Football League possibly don't want us in the Championship, but we are going to fight to be here.”Evans starts the conspiracy theories after his side were on the end of another bad decision in a 2-1 loss at Blackburn.
“I wasn't angry. I only get angry when someone steals my biscuit.”His real motivation in life comes out when Evans discusses a last-gasp home defeat to Sheffield Wednesday.
“I got a call and messages also from Brendan Rodgers and the content will remain private, but it was invigorating.”Who doesn't love an invigorating phone call?
"We are not involved with things like loans and forms and contracts, we are here to pick the players and let other people do the administration side.”Evans passes the buck when news of an FA charge for fielding an ineligible player comes to light.
"A Millwall player said we've not got bottle. I've got 12 bottles of pink finest Champagne and we'll be drinking them for about a week. Look forward to League One, son, and keep your trap shut. Winning and keeping them up is the biggest achievement for me.”
Evans wasn't too impressed with Lee Gregory's assertion that the Millers would trip up in their game in hand over Millwall last season as the relegation dogfight went to the wire."I will have my sombrero to hand and, believe me, I am a sight to behold in my shorts.”
He celebrates the Millers' survival in true Steve Evans style.
"We're getting people fitter, so the numpties out there - the few of them who moan and groan - want to realise that it takes a little bit of time when we bring players together.”Evans goes on the attack after criticism to his side's poor start to the season.
"You’ve got people like Adam Virgo who wants to watch his words, saying that we’re going to be relegated and that I shouldn’t be here. If that’s based on someone watching us for five or six games or it comes from someone who’s won a game as a manager, then you’d accept that, wouldn’t you? Not from someone who’s awful as a pundit on the television.”It's fair to say Evans does not have Football League Tonight on series link.
