Rotherham
boss Neil Redfearn says he is fighting fires of “sub-standard”
summer recruitment and then was the subject of a barbed response from
the man responsible for it.
Redfearn,
whose side were condemned to Christmas in the relegation zone after a
2-0 loss at Huddersfield on Tuesday, faces a battle to keep his side
in the Sky Bet Championship having taken just seven points from 11
games in charge since taking over from Steve Evans in October.
He
said that the “damage was done” in the summer when the Millers
allowed the likes of Craig Morgan, Kari Arnason and Ben Pringle to
leave and failed to replace them suitably.
Evans,
now in the Leeds job Redfearn departed in the summer, took offence to
those comments and taunted him with comments that he could be one
loss away from the sack.
"I
could have said that here couldn't I but I have got too much
professionalism about myself," he said.
"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."
Despite
those claims that he chose not to pass comment about the squad he
inherited from Uwe Rosler at Elland Road, Evans did say that his new
side could be in a fight to stay in the Championship unless he
recruited.
After
a home defeat to Blackburn in October, Evans said: “We won't get
sucked in [to a relegation fight]. I've come here to sort it out.
"Let's
be honest, if the actual playing squad was left, it would be a battle
to stay in the division, but we are going to address some of that."
Redfearn
had said after the loss at John Smith's Stadium: “This
squad of players isn't good enough at this level, it's as simple as
that.
"This is common knowledge, we are second from
bottom, we just scraped by last year, probably didn't recruit very
well in the summer.
"We let good players go, (Kari) Arnason,
(Craig) Morgan, (Alex) Revell, (Ben) Pringle, better players than
what we have got, we brought in players who are sub-standard in the
summer and now we are left with this.
"This might sound a bit harsh but these are
the facts."
