Mansfield kicked off the Steve Evans era with a win
NEW Mansfield Town boss Steve Evans believes the Stags can emulate Rotherham and reach the Championship.
Evans, 54, spent three years at the New York Stadium, leading the Millers from League Two to the Championship in consecutive seasons. The Scot then kept the Yorkshire minnows up before leaving to join Leeds.
Mansfield, however, have spent just one season in the second tier in their 119-year history and were a National League side as recently as 2013.
But after two days of talks with owners John and Carolyn Radford, Evans is convinced that the Stags’ status as lower-league stalwarts is not set in stone.
“People said the same thing about Rotherham when I went there,” says Evans, who also won promotion to the Football League with Crawley in 2011.
“And if I’m being perfectly honest, I didn’t go to that first meeting with Tony Stewart desperate to dive in and take the job.
“But such was the enthusiasm and ambition of the man that, driving home, I realised I wanted to be part of delivering his dream.
“When I met John and Carolyn, it was exactly the same. They flew over to close to my family home, which was a sign of intent. I always believe you should get to know someone you’ll work with and we sat chatting about life and football for a couple of hours.
“I got home and the first thing I said to my family was that it reminded me so much of that first conversation with Tony.
“The one thing you need to reach the Championship is somebody who’d got enough money to support the financial losses it takes to get there.
Ambition
“It has to be responsibly costed and it has to be done properly but if there’s one thing we know about John and Carolyn, it’s that they have that ambition.
“Right now, my job is to settle us down, get some points and build a foundation. I’ve got too much respect for the players and managers at this level to think anything else. “But we can certainly get promoted within the next year or two and, long-term, it’s very possible that we can get to the Championship.”
Having guided Leeds to 13th last season and spent the last two seasons in the Championship, few expected to Evans to return to League Two.
The former Boston manager was strongly linked to Nottingham Forest and rejected the chance to “firefight” at a second, unnamed club. Evans, though, says his desire for a break trumped all other considerations.
“The only thing I wanted when I left Elland Road was some time off,” he explains.
“To look at clubs in France, Spain and Germany, to learn bits and pieces.
“I rejected offers to do that and it’s probably why I’m not a Championship manager today. But for the last couple of weeks, I’ve been ready to come back.
“I said from the outset that it had to be either a Championship side or a serious project – something that would be challenging and exciting, like Crawley and Rotherham.
“And while Leeds are a wonderful club – I would walk there tomorrow if I was offered the job again – I wanted to work at a club with a long-term strategy. I’d had enough of working day-to-day, game-to-game.
“Mansfield have given me that and I’m terrifically excited thinking about what we can build here.”