Stevenage have announced that Steve Evans has left his role as Manager to join Rotherham United with immediate effect.
The 61-year-old leaves having spent just over two years at the Hertfordshire based club, having taken them from the depths of League Two to a League One play-off race. He leaves with the team in ninth and just six points off the top six, an achievement that would have seemed incomprehensible to most Boro fans two years ago.
With two games still to play, Stevenage have confirmed assistant Paul Raynor will also leave the club and that former player, manager and current coach Alex Revell will take charge of the remaining fixtures, starting with a trip to Oxford United on Friday night.
In a statement released on the club’s official website, Stevenage chairman Phil Wallace said:
“It’s not what we wanted, but compensation clauses are in place for a reason and these things happen in football. The approach was unexpected but handled in the right manner by both clubs and we told Steve that, after all he’d done for our Club, we would not stand in his way if the compensation terms were met and he wanted to leave.
“Steve will always be welcome at The Lamex as far as I’m concerned and it’s been a privilege to work with him for the last two years”.
Stevenage have confirmed that Steve Evans has left his role as First Team manager to join Rotherham United, effective immediately. [@StevenageFC]#StevenageFC #rufc
— The Real EFL (@RealEFLSocial) April 17, 2024
The Scotsman re-joins a Rotherham United side that will be hurting, having been convincingly relegated from the Championship in recent weeks. The Millers announced the departure of current boss Leam Richardson this morning.
Evans managed the club from April 2012 to September 2015, guiding them to back-to-back promotions from League Two to the Championship. He will get the opportunity, albeit a brief one with relegation already confirmed, to manage in the Championship for the first time since 2016, starting with Birmingham City at the New York Stadium on Saturday.
How Do Stevenage Bounce Back?
Having transformed the club, there will be no doubt many Stevenage fans gutted by the news which broke very suddenly on Wednesday. However, once the dust settles and the tears dry, they will surely only look back on this period as one of the best in their history and have only thanks to say to Evans and his staff.
Their promotion party at home to Grimsby Town last April as well as a mammoth giant killing at Villa Park as they knocked out Unai Emery’s Aston Villa from the 2022/23 FA Cup, will certainly be two of the highest highs in a list that is very long for Stevenage supporters over the last 24 months.
Despite that football doesn’t wait for anyone, and they’ll have to re-group and recruit a new boss that they believe could well challenge Evans’ Rotherham at the top of League One next season. Who that could be is certain to be one of the most intriguing stories in the third tier over the coming weeks.
Managers such as Michael Appleton and Mark Bonner could well be on the radar of Phil Wallace as he looks to begin the difficult task of finding the perfect boss to replace a man who could well be considered a Stevenage legend.
Retained lists are already starting to leak out into the EFL sphere and whenever Boro’s does drop, it will be interesting if any of his talented Stevenage squad follow the old manager to the Millers. The likes of Carl Perigianni and League One Team of the Season member Jamie Reid could well be two of the most sought after players in the division after such successful campaigns, not that the club will be eager to see them go.
If one thing is for sure though, Stevenage are a well run football club and so whatever happens they will be smart and do things in a way that ensures the long term security of the club rather than reaching for short term success. Whether they are at the top of League One again next season will remain to be seen but as many level headed fans who were there on the brink of 2021 relegation to the National League would remind you, even being in the division is success at this moment in time.
