Rotherham United v Bolton Wanderers: Millers pull out stops to keep game on as midfielder looks to leave

The Millers kicked off the new year with back-to-back clean sheets and four away points out of six.

They were scheduled to host Wycombe Wanderers this weekend but when the Chairboys reached the FA Cup third round, they rearranged the postponed match against the Trotters to take its place.

League One rivals Barnsley and Huddersfield Town have both seen their games fall foul of the weather, as have York City and Halifax Town in the Conference, but Rotherham have pulled out all the stops to ensure their 12.30pm kick-off is on.

"Credit to our board, particularly our chairman,” said the manager. “We have a big balloon on the pitch which I think has cost the football club over £30,000 but the chairman wanted our supporters to see these recent performances continue.

"If you look at the likes of Stockport County, as they are now, Lincoln City and Huddersfield, now we've got Bolton, then Charlton, they're big games.

"It's been disrupted this week because the ground's been solid since Monday so we've not been able to get on the grass at all but probably out of 72 EFL clubs about 60 can't get on the grass because they don't have undersoil heating.

"We tried to go down south for a couple of days but the place we were intending to go called us and said that was frozen so we would have been going from one frozen pitch to another."

Midfielder Tiehi spent Friday discussing personal terms after an un-named overseas club had a bid accepted which Evans says will earn a profit on the then-club record transfer fee to Slovan Liberec in 2023.

The Frenchman had been anxious to move to Europe for family reasons, so Rotherham rejected three bids from League One clubs.

"The club have agreed a fee for Christ with a club in Europe," confirmed Evans. "Christ has never hidden it, since I joined the club, that he would love to go back into Europe.

"There are visa restrictions for family members at our level.

"The first offer was made last week and rejected, the second was rejected. Around about the fourth offer met the terms requested by our board.

"We get our money back plus. It's the right deal for the club considering he said he would rather be in Europe than here. It's not an offer we'd have been looking to take from a League One club, for sure."

Tiehi’s 2023 fee was close to £1m.

So far all Rotherham's business in this transfer window has been outgoing, but Evans has been clear for months he is looking to recruit before the February 3 deadline. He was already looking for a midfield player, and may now look for two.

"One is a minimum," said Evans. "If Christ does leave us, the likelihood is that it increases our number by one other."

Evans denied talk of signing his old Gillingham striker Mickael Madron, now at St Mirren, but says he is in “deep dialogue” with targets as he looks to add three players – perhaps four if Tiehi goes.