Rotherham United boss Steve Evans expects around half a dozen new faces at the AESSEAL New York Stadium, but insists they won’t overspend.
The Millers finished 21st last season–five points above relegated Millwall–but will want to strengthen to prepare for their second season in the Championship, after promotion from League One in 2014.
“We’re looking at six or seven permanent signings but we’re not going to sign that many if we can only agree terms with five without breaking any structures we’ve got either financially or what we want to do with the squad,” said Evans.
“Of course everyone understands that when you’re Rotherham United and you go into the Championship level it’s fantastic for us all, but the task gets harder for Paul Douglas in terms of getting players over the line and agreeing the finances.”
Rotherham signed a number of loan players last year, including Jack Hunt and Emi Martinez, but Evans wants to ensure that the Millers own most of their playing staff next term.
“We want permanent signings in the main, we recognise that we brought in too many loan signings last season but sometimes you have to bring them in to cover for injury or just to make us stronger and I think the loan players that came in from January onwards all played a key part.
“In terms of loan signings we’ll ask the questions about the players that will still feel can play a big part on top of what we’ve built as we approach the start of the season.”
The Rotherham manager claims that it will be a busy time for the club, with their first piece of business not far off, and players set to return for pre-season training this month.
“We still expect the majority of our signings to happen in the month of June. Our first day back is the 30th June which is almost five weeks of work away. Within that time period I will talk to the players about where and how I see them playing.”
