It will be 204 days between Steve Evans
stepping off the Rotherham team coach in a sombrero and beachwear at Leeds and
the Millers' next visit there on Saturday.
The Scot was courting the limelight last May, basking in the glory of delivering Championship safety to the Millers after a points deduction had made it more nervy than it ever ought to have been.
Immediately after that season-ending game at Elland Road he spoke of entering the second three-year plan as he looked to take the club to the next level and optimism was high that second-tier establishment was on the horizon.
Yet, just four months into the three-year
cycle, the plan had hit the buffers. A fatal disagreement between Evans and
chairman Tony Stewart led to a surprise parting just 11 matches into the
season.
The official line was that the two parties wanted to go in "different directions", Evans has since revealed it was due to the implementation of a transfer committee while the conspiracy theories that there was more to it will not go away and might well hold some weight.
The Scot and his trusted sidekick Paul Raynor left after a dire start to the campaign had been brightened by back-to-back wins, with 15 summer signings along the way.
While Evans donned the shorts and t-shirt in order to make a splash a few months ago, his opposite number on that day had little to do for the spotlight to be on him.
After a turbulent seven months in charge of Leeds, Neil Redfearn was taking what turned out to be his final game at the helm, and the home crowd sang passionately for him throughout the final-day bore draw in May.
Redfearn had seen it all under Massimo Cellino - his players going on strike, his assistant manager sacked from underneath him and a million and one other off-field issues which meant the focus was rarely on the football.
Despite putting up with all that, and guiding Leeds away from relegation trouble at the same time, he was stood down soon after and left the club in July after he found a return to his previous role as academy manager untenable.
When Evans showed off his legs that day, no one would have predicted how the land would lie the next time the Millers travelled to Elland Road.
After being out of work for just three weeks, the former Crawley man found himself in the Leeds hotseat - the biggest job of his career - after Cellino had fired Uwe Rosler. His appointment shocked the football world and had Evans admitting that he needed to pinch himself.
By the time he was unveiled at Elland Road, Redfearn had been in Evans' old role at the Millers for just over a week.
It was a strange twist of fate and means that Saturday's game takes on extra
significance.
For those 10 days when Redfearn was in the
Millers hotseat and Evans was still out of work, all the focus was on
Redfearn's return to Elland Road and how the men in red and white might have an
edge.
Now, the game means a hell of a lot more for Leeds - or their manager at least.
Evans, who has taken some flak after his exit, will want to win this game more than any other to make a point to his detractors and get one over his former employers.
Millers fans knowing his record for getting his side up for one-off games could be forgiven for being slightly worried.
And there's another sub-plot. In his own inimitable way, Evans always used to make reference to a friendship with Redfearn, how they used to talk regularly and that he offered him support during his turbulent time at Leeds.
But now it might be an uncomfortable reunion.
Evans is known to be disappointed with Redfearn's assertion that the squad he inherited at the New York Stadium is not good enough and as a result of a scattergun approach in the transfer market.
Evans will always have those two spell-ending wins in his pocket, which took the Millers out of the drop zone, but results under Redfearn - and some of those before he arrived - suggest that the new man may have a point.
Redfearn's baptism of fire has been well documented. It's been an incredibly tough run of games, although there perhaps should have been a greater points haul than the solitary one earned in his first six matches.
In contrast, Evans is flying in his new role, quickly changing opinions with successive wins and ending a near eight-month home drought.
In a position where Evans must know he could always be only one game away from the sack, he will want the three points to further strengthen his position in the Elland Road dugout as well as the pride and satisfaction of being able to get one over his former employers.
However much Evans will want to win on Saturday, though, Redfearn and Rotherham need it more.
