Steve Evans makes wages admission following his Rotherham United appointment

Steve Evans returns to Rotherham United.

The 61-year-old says the happiest times of his career have been spent at AESSEAL New York Stadium and that he wishes he'd never left in 2015.

When he was given the chance to come back last week by club owner and close friend Tony Stewart, the Scot didn't hesitate for a second.

“I never thought I'd be coming back here,” he said. “I never thought I'd be fortunate enough to hear the chairman say: ‘The job's yours if you want it.’ It's probably the quickest ‘yes’ he's ever heard.

Steve Evans, Tony Stewart and Paul Raynor at last Friday's Rotherham United unveiling press conference. Picture: Kerrie Beddows

“The chairman will tell you, I said ‘yes’ and I didn't know what he was going to do numeration-wise. People might not believe that - and, of course, the figure would come into it if it was abnormal - but I knew it wouldn't be because of the integrity of Tony. I would trust that man with my life.”

Evans had been in charge at Stevenage when Rotherham, looking for a successor to Leam Richardson following Championship relegation, made their move for him and his assistant, Paul Raynor.

The pair had experienced huge success together at New York in the past and the number two was just as eager for an S60 homecoming.

“I called up Paul, told him the chairman had offered us the opportunity and asked him what his thinking was,” Evans said.

“He said ‘yes’ immediately. There was no thought from him about ‘what's my contract, what's my mandate?’, it was just a straight ‘yes’.

The boss knows there will be pressure on him to lead the Millers straight back up to the second tier and the Celtic supporter is happy to embrace that challenge.

“We're honoured to be back and now we have a job to do,” he said. “We came in last time and the club had been resurrected by the chairman.

“We started at Don Valley Stadium and then came to New York. The expectation was that if we'd finished tenth in League Two everyone would have said: ‘That's a good build, that's a start.’

“But then we got promotion, then we got promotion again. The expectation from the fans this time will be what I expected of Celtic when they re-appointed Brendan Rogers. Expectation comes with certain managers at certain clubs.”