Rotherham United chairman Tony Stewart makes shock sell-up admission after 'falling out' with football - before Steve Evans' second coming

The relegated Millers pull the curtain down on one of the most fraught seasons in their history on Saturday when they host Cardiff City on the final day of the Championship campaign.

Earlier this spring, Stewart would have been attending purely out of a sense of duty after becoming demoralised and embarrassed by the club’s demise in 2023-24, while accepting a personal sense of responsibility for what had happened in a pitiful past year.

Stewart’s passion has since been rekindled by the decision to reappoint Steve Evans, with the Millers supremo - who came to the club’s rescue back in 2008 - confident that the Scot is the man to revive Rotherham’s fortunes in League One next term. Stewart said: “I fell out with football. Honestly, if someone came along and said ‘here’s the money for Rotherham United’ and if I would have thought they were right, I’d have taken it.

"It was three months ago just after Christmas. I was getting down and down.

"This was the second manager (Leam Richardson) and I thought ‘the fans must think we’re stupid, what’s happening here.’

"Both guys (Richardson and predecessor Matt Taylor) were intelligent, bright guys who would tell you that they wanted this, that and the other.

"At the end of the day, they were saying the right things, but on the pitch….

"If we’d done nothing, I’d have still been at the (Birmingham) game. I wouldn’t have gone to Bristol (City), but I’d have been at Cardiff for the last game, reluctantly.

"Now, I won’t miss a match and Steve knows that.

"Steve is here to impress, (but) when you lead by your chin, you’ve got to back it up or you look like a fool."

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Evans’ task, once the Millers fulfil their season’s obligations in a campaign which has seen them win just four games out of 45 and fail to take three points in an away fixture, will be to build a new-look squad capable of regaining the respect of the club’s supporters after an atrocious past nine months.

There are likely to be a host of casualties in the wake of such a pitiful relegation and Stewart believes that Evans’ experience marks him out as the perfect person to co-ordinate a major makeover.

He added: "You could see they (players) weren’t interested (earlier this season).

"I’ve never seen that before in my life and genuinely, at a point, I thought I could do better than that!

"I didn’t see the discipline or anything moving forward as it should have been.

"I wasn’t looking forward to this new (next) season, but I did know we’d have to make changes.

"I think that’s why, when you look at it now, we’ve gone for two guys (Evans and assistant Paul Raynor) that have been here before.

"We know them and have had experience with them and I feel a million dollars.

"I feel good for Rotherham, for the fans and for me."