Newcastle United DOF Told Me – Bristol Rovers Boss Admits Influence

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New Bristol Rovers boss Steve Evans has revealed that Newcastle United’s director of football influenced his decision to take the Gas job and snub others.

 

Rovers sacked Darrell Clarke after Saturday’s 3-0 loss at home to Swindon Town and have now appointed Evans as the boss until the end of the season.

 

One former EFL star said last month that Clarke would be given time to improve the Pirates’ form, but he was sacked following a record tenth straight defeat which has seen the club drop into the League Two relegation zone.

 

 

Bristol Rovers were relegated from League One last season and brought back Clarke for a second managerial stint, but the appointment did not work out.

 

Evans, who has managed over 700 games in the EFL, admitted that he was waiting for the right challenge to take on his next job, after being sacked in March by Rotherham United.

 

 

He revealed that while talking with Newcastle United’s director of football, he was advised to only take a managerial role which made him excited; Evans believes that the Bristol Rovers stint is such a role.

 

 

The veteran manager acknowledged that the imminent challenge faced by the Pirates is a huge one and wants to concentrate on the task in hand rather than thinking about the summer.

 

 

“I think the challenge”, Evans told Bristol Rovers’ media when asked why he wanted the Gas job.

 

 

“I don’t think it’s a secret anymore that I had three or four opportunities to go into the EFL and the SPL in the last couple of months.

 

 

“When I have met the chairman, the board or the chief executive, they are good people, and its good football clubs, but the challenge wasn’t there for me.

 

“I am really good friends with the director of football at Newcastle United and I spoke to him about one particular role and he said, ‘well, when you wake up in the morning, if you wake up excited, you want to jump in the car and go and take the challenge, you know it’s the right move’, and I didn’t feel that at any other club.

 

“I woke up this morning, and I was excited to get in the car.”

 

Evans stressed that the situation at Bristol Rovers means he can only concentrate on the here and now and not what happens after his contract ends in the summer.

 

“I think that tells you that the size of the challenge is huge and the opportunity moving forward is huge, but we don’t kid ourselves, we have said that the challenge is immediate, so let’s concentrate on that, and then we’ll worry about what happens in the summer.”

 

During his time at Rotherham, Evans considered Bristol Rovers as a very tough place to go to however now he will face a big task to keep League Two football at the Mem.

 

Rovers face the risk of successive relegations and will hope that Evans can improve their form, starting with the game away at Crewe Alexandra on Friday.

 

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