Rotherham United recruitment drive not stopping now chairman Tony Stewart is back in love with football

Joe Powell, Josh Rafferty, Sean Raggett, Jonson Clarke-Harris, Reece James and Shaun McWilliams have laid the foundations of the rebuild manager Evans has planned after Championship relegation but he is still looking at "three or four" more, and to to do at least some of them quickly.

And he stressed how important Stewart has been in getting some deals done.

"I read and heard his words when I first joined the club that he'd lost a little bit of love – well, he's kissing, he's hugging and he's loving because he's been phenomenal. I really do thank the chairman for stepping in three or four times and making those deals happen when we thought players might have been going elsewhere," Evans told his club's website.

"We thought Rafferty, Raggett and Jono Clarke-Harris were drifting to new pastures and the chairman said, 'Let me come down to the stadium and see if we can get this over the line.’

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"Every day I'm getting phone calls and messages (asking) where we are with targets because we've not stopped working, we're still going to try and add to the group.

"I think I'd describe it to our supporters as a new house. My words to the chairman were that we've put the base foundations in place. We've kept some really good footballers and that shouldn't be forgotten. One or two of that group may leave us. If they sit in front of me and say they don't want to be here, 'bye!'

"But if they want to be here, they're really good footballers being mixed into a group of really good footballers.

"Maybe over the next week to 10 days we will add to that base but we'll add selectively, some little bits of quality and the gems we feel we need to make the squad completely rounded and we're certainly in a really good place. We're looking forward to completing the jigsaw.

"We're going to have a good season it's just degrees of how good it is."