Rotherham boss Steve Evans has identified Bolton Wanderers as a team to watch next season following their play-off heartbreak at Wembley.
Evans is gearing up for his first pre-season back at Rotherham, having returned to the New York Stadium in April after a stint at Stevenage.
The 61-year-old believes Ian Evatt’s squad was unlucky to miss out on promotion to the Championship and thinks they will be “wounded” by their defeat against the U’s.
“League One next season will be the toughest it has been,” he told the club’s YouTube channel. “You will have big spending Wrexham. You will have Bolton wounded from the play-offs. In my opinion, they deserved promotion and Ian will be hurting. Barnsley up the road who failed in the play-offs, some of the other giants like Charlton. It will be a real tough division but they will also be thinking we are in that mix.”
The Millers have had a busy start to the summer, with Liam Kelly becoming their seventh signing on Friday. Jonson Clarke-Harris and Sean Raggett are also among the recent additions to the Yorkshire club.
Evans added: “It is common practice for me when I stand in front of a group for the first time to say, ‘How many players in the room have won promotion?’ That is a very special ingredient and we are fortunate, there are a lot of promotion winners in there. Every one of the lads said the same thing – your next promotion is the best one because you have strong memories of previous times.
“We have a lot of promotion winners, quality, and desire. We have a lot of competition for a place in the team, and the support behind us has always been incredible. We have a chairman who is buzzing and every day I am getting phone calls and messages.
“We have not stopped, we are still going to try to add to the group. We are building the house with all the foundations, the first layers are in. We are building our team really selectively and it will be tough.”
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