Despite enjoying arguably the best season in the club's history, the then Millers manager was unable to keep a number of key players from the promotion-winning squad and made up for it by making 17 signings between Wembley and the end of the summer transfer window in August 2014.
Now, the success of this policy has been well documented, even Evans admitted he got it wrong, though the Millers still did enough to stay in the division last year.
But after Richard Wood, one of the 17 arrivals last summer, was sent out on loan for a second time this season and third in total, It's Millers Time decided to analyse just how much of an impact those signings made and how much game time they got.
So, we painstakingly worked out how many minutes they have played between their arrival at New York Stadium and the Millers' last game against Sheffield Wednesday.
We then worked out what that relates to as a percentage of minutes available to them.
So, for clarity, a player like Matt Derbyshire, who spent the entire first campaign at the club and has been here for all of this one so far, has been available for 5,760 minutes of football.
For the players, like Wood, who have spent time away on loan, the games where they were not at the club have not counted in their total minutes available.
The results tell an obvious, but not necessarily surprising story, with just five of those 17 signings playing more than 50 per cent of the minutes they were available for.
Richie Smallwood - last season's player of the year - has been the most used, playing for well over 4,000 minutes, which is 82 per cent of the minutes available.
Two players comes in at less than 10 per cent, with the 33 minutes played by Febian Brandy representing just two per cent of the minutes he could have played.
Of course, there are some caveats. The minutes available include games that players were injured or suspended for, so players like Kirk Broadfoot, Luciano Becchio and Frazer Richardson may have got a lot more game time under their belt.
Evans' short-termism is not a new revelation of course, that's what brought three of the best years in the club's recent history, but the conclusions which can be drawn from this study are clear.
Whether Evans should have signed less squad men in favour of better-paid players on longer contracts and does a 25 and 37 per cent game-time for the two club-record signings represent money well-spent are perhaps two of the biggest questions that are raised.
Here is the full list of 2014 summer signings and their stats.
Player
|
Minutes Played
|
Percentage
|
Still with club?
|
Richie Smallwood
|
4409
|
82%
|
Yes
|
Paul Green
|
3752
|
65%
|
Yes
|
Matt Derbyshire
|
3730
|
64%
|
Yes
|
Kirk Broadfoot
|
2153
|
39%
|
Yes
|
Frazer Richardson
|
1984
|
34%
|
Yes
|
Jonson Clarke-Harris
|
1534
|
37%
|
Yes
|
Jordan Bowery
|
1478
|
25%
|
Yes
|
Paul Taylor
|
1051
|
53%
|
No - left at end of loan
|
Conor Newton
|
572
|
12%
|
No - Contract terminated
|
Richard Wood
|
518
|
11%
|
Yes - But on loan
|
Scott Loach
|
390
|
13%
|
No - Contract terminated
|
Anthony Wordsworth
|
356
|
17%
|
No - left at end of loan
|
Luciano Becchio
|
248
|
55%
|
No - loan spell cut short
|
Ryan Hall
|
229
|
10%
|
No - Contract terminated
|
John Swift
|
144
|
8%
|
No - loan spell cut short
|
Mat Sadler
|
71
|
3%
|
No - Released
|
Febian Brandy
|
33
|
2%
|
No - Contract terminated
|
