STEVE EVANS INTERVIEW

‘I fully believe that I will NOT become another victim’

WHEN Steve Evans talks about wanting to be in the hat for the fourth round of the FA Cup, Leeds United’s colourful manager isn’t referring to his sombrero.

Evans famously wore it at Elland Road on the final day of last season after keeping Rotherham in the Championship. The 53-year-old Scot will be back there tomorrow when the two Yorkshire rivals meet in the Cup, but this time he will be in the home dug-out.

Three weeks after he left Rotherham in September, Evans was appointed as Leeds’s sixth manager in just 18 months under Massimo Cellino, on the same day the Italian millionaire was banned from running the club by the Football League.

It’s a fascinating combination of two combustible characters.

Like Cellino, Evans has been found guilty of tax evasion in the past, which brought a one-year suspended sentence and a 20-month ban from football.

His explosive touchline antics are no secret either, leading to a 10-match suspension in 2009 and a six-game stadium ban three years later. Evans was sent off six times in his first season at Crawley alone.

However, the man who was raised on a working-class housing estate in Glasgow, close to the Govan district where Alex Ferguson grew up, insists he has mellowed.

‘I’m a completely different person to 10 years ago and more importantly five years ago,’ says Evans. ‘I had to change. I got more mature. My track record in football speaks for itself, but I had to bring a sense of maturity and dignity to that.

‘It happens over a period of time. You listen to people. We’ve all been guilty of getting sent off, and you think, “I need to be better than this.” I’ve got two teenage daughters who I love more than life itself and they come to games.

‘Great managers aren’t those who win, they’re the ones who win and learn how to lose.

‘When Alex Ferguson was my age he didn’t know how to lose. He learned that when he got towards 60. Many people in coaching have