Rotherham United eye early January dealing

The manager has talked of “two or three” new signings and the same amount of exits while loan moves could add to that number.

He believes the first few days of 2025 will be generally quiet for most clubs and that recruitment will hot up once the first round of the fixtures of the month is out of the way.

The League One Millers head to Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield Town on January 4 and he said: “I think that the week after that game you'll start to see people moving around.”

Rotherham have identified their targets and have begun their pursuit of them, with director of football recruitment Rob Scott making contact with clubs, players and agents.

“Rob's phoning a lot of people and getting on with a lot of things,” Evans said. “We'll keep things private but we're very clear on the positions in which we'd like to strengthen. We're very clear on the players I'd like to bring in.”

The boss is already on record as saying he wants another frontman and that desire has been made more acute by striker Esapa Osong ending his New York loan spell earlier this month because of injury.

The Millers have decisions to make on two other loanees: attacker Mallik Wilks and winger Joe Hungbo.

The former has started every league match for which he's been available since his switch from Sheffield Wednesday but the latter, whose parent club is German side FC Nurnberg, has struggled for game-time.

Wilks has been a game-changing presence at times and has scored four goals in 20 outings while Hungbo didn’t even make the matchday 18 for last Saturday’s loss at Mansfield Town.

Evans confirmed that loans don't form part of the “two or three” figure, so that means there could be new temporary arrivals if either of the duo leave.

The Millers hold options to keep Wilks and Hungbo or release them during the window.

“We haven't made decisions yet on them,” Evans said. “We'll get through the Christmas period and then see where we go from there.”