Steve Evans talks losing eight stone, and ‘feels sorry’ for Darrell Clarke after replacing him

Steve Evans talks about losing eight stone, and says he ‘feels sorry’ for Darrell Clarke after replacing him as Bristol Rovers head coach.

The 63 year old has undergone a remarkable personal transformation, losing eight and a half stone through daily swimming, cycling, walking, diet, and family support. He also adds that he avoided weight-loss injections.

He says this had led to an improved health and given him the energy to get himself back into management, this time with a huge task of trying to turn Bristol Rovers’ run of 10 losses in a row around.

Evans also felt sympathy for his friend and predecessor Darrell Clarke, noting that he’s a “good manager” and felt unfairly dismissed despite the club’s high budget in League Two.

What a journey ❤️

When new Bristol Rovers head coach Steve Evans had a six-month break from management, he decided to take it upon himself to lose eight stone.

His consultant told him if he wanted to ‘go for a pint’ with his grandson he’d have to turn his life around. pic.twitter.com/w0Vak6riRa

— BBC Bristol (@BBCBristol) December 17, 2025

He said to BBC Bristol: “Eight and half stone lighter, you know, it’s incredible, you know. And I feel the benefits. I feel the benefits of swimming every day, biking every day, walking every day, brewing support of family.

“Because I’ve not resorted to maybe taking the injections. Some people, oh, I don’t knock it because if that’s the only way you can not be a beast and I was a beast, the only way you can not do it is to do that, I would do it.

“I chose the road of swimming and fitness and diet and calorie management and stuff and it’s worked fantastic for me. My body’s in a natural, as my consultant says, your body’s naturally in a great position.

“It makes a huge difference even just walking around the football pitch and running around and looking at different angles and working hard in the early mornings and late nights. It just makes it easier because you’re so much healthier.”

“I feel sorry for Darrell” 🤝

💔 Steve Evans says taking the Bristol Rovers job was tough – it meant replacing his friend Darrell Clarke.#BBCFootball #BRFC pic.twitter.com/JHfdbappiX

— BBC 5 Live Sport (@5liveSport) December 17, 2025

On Darrell Clarke: “Facts are in the budget is the third to fourth highest in League Two. Now, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got the top budget, it gives you no right to be top of the league. It should give you an opportunity to be higher than second bottom.

“And I feel sorry for Darrell Clarke, who’s lost the job as a manager because he is a good manager. He’s a personal friend. And first words to the players when I’ve addressed the players was a good man’s lost his job.

“We have to make sure we don’t lose our jobs going forward now, whether that be a player, a manager or a member of the staff.

“So we’ve been brought in to deal with a big immediate problem, which is where the club is in the league position.

“And so that’s what we’re all going to try and do. It’s got every opportunity in this football club to be… think Jobi’s played against Bristol Rovers at good levels. It’s got an opportunity for this club to be a Championship club.

“But as I said to the to the owners, I insisted on a deal to the end of the season and the reason I insisted because if we can sort the short term problem out then I’ll see what the real plans are going forward and whether we can build a real Championship group to in terms of League Two Championship group to be into League One.”

Interviewer: “Steve, welcome to Bristol Rovers. Why this club?”

Steve: “I think you’ll know better than I do, the opportunity that this club presents any manager. Any player is playing at a level which is way below where it should be in the football pyramid for me. I’ve thought that for a number of years, and it’s in a position in League Two when again, when you look at the balance of all the sides of the squad, in particular the fan base, it shouldn’t be there either, but in football, it dictates where you are on the pitch.

“If you’re not winning games and gaining points, you’ve got a problem, so the director of Football at Newcastle, when I took final counsel on whether I should accept the job. I think maybe you’ve read my words, but he said to me, and the jobs you’ve turned down, you’ve told me you’ve not woken up excited and want to get in the car and go.

“And I said, yes, he says, well, I said, I’ve accepted the role at Bristol Rovers. He says, “Call me on your way down – I called him on the way down the M5. He says, “What’s your thoughts? I said “I can’t wait. I’m buzzing.” And he went, “That’s what we feel you should have when you take a new job. And that doesn’t matter whether it’s football management or an electrician, whatever, you should be, you should be looking forward to going to work.”

Interviewer: “And on that, obviously, the appointment happened quite quickly, how easy was it to make that decision?”

Steve: “Post the meeting, it was easy, obviously, I was at a league managers’ mentors’ course with a number of unemployed managers. But the room was full of good people, you know. Aidy Boothroyd, Stuart Pearce, Steve McLaren, Mike Phelan, Neil Thompson, really good people. And I got a call before I took a call from Ricky Martin. I don’t know Ricky, I know him from football, but I don’t know him as a friend or him like that. So, I took the call, and he just said that they’d identified me as someone that the board would like to speak to and speak to immediately. So, arrangements were set up quite quickly. I was coming out at St. George’s and coming to Bristol.

“So, I followed that up later, met the board, met Ricky, had some time with them and then followed up later in the evening with another call and then I was left with a decision to make. So, I took some counsel. I spoke to Tony Stewart, my previous owner at Rotherham. It’s still a great club – it didn’t work for me the second time. It’s great people. Spoke to Tony, I spoke to Phil Wallace at Stevenage and then finally I spoke to Darragh MacAnthony of course. Someone I know particularly well from my time at Peterborough. He’s become a friend, and they all said one thing, that’s a club for you. That’s because I’d turned down some opportunities. I didn’t think it was, other than the present there wasn’t a future.

“But the one thing I’ve spoken to the board about is why I insisted on a short-term contract: we deal with the here and now, sort the immediate problem out, and then we can think longer term – you can’t think longer term unless you deal with an immediate problem. But when the job was offered in the summary of your questions, when the job was offered, I knew in my heart I wanted to take it because I’ve been here many times.”

Interviewer: “The reception to your appointment actually has been overwhelmingly positive on social media. Can you sum up what will a Steve Evans team look like and what will the fans have to get behind you?”

Steve: “My team will evolve over the next three, four weeks, it will evolve through January, because we’ll get a chance to modify some of it. But our style of play has been consistent from Rotherham to Leeds to Stevenage to Peterborough is that we play high-intensity football. We try not to give opposition time on the ball and sometimes we’ve always said to teams what we lack for in terms of natural ability and being able to win a game. There’s nothing [that] beats winning football matches with the greatest desire, because believe me, a team with the greatest desire wins football matches.

“If I looked at the success we had at Stevenage, going to Aston Villa winning the [FA] Cup [tie]. Why did we win that cup tie? Because we had a greater desire to win that cup tie. Players here can play. So, let’s see if they’ve got a desire to play on a Steve Evans and Paul Raynor side, and we’ll only know that when we see them under a selection.”

Interviewer: “You talk about the challenge; how big a challenge is it?”

Steve: “I think when you’re second bottom of the EFL it’s a significant challenge. When you’ve lost ten league games and a cup tie, in consecutive fashion, it’s, you can look at that and say, well, there’s big problems. Our view is that my view to the board was that part of conversations about what players do they like and what players I didn’t like, I think my experience as a manager tells me, players react and play differently for different managers.

“Look at a good friend of mine, look at Sean Dyche at Nottingham Forest. He’s gone in, those same players that were not performing and are now suddenly performing at the top of the game, and they’re back to the Nottingham Forest that we’d previously seen. So, I just think it’s we have to just get the group together, which we’ve done and get them to work hard and it’s one motto. If you don’t run, you don’t work hard, I cannot pick you.

“With my future reputation, my current reputation is on the line because I failed recently at Rotherham. And it’s the only failure I’ve had in my career. I can’t have it all.”

Interviewer: “Fast forward to the end of the season, what would success look like to you?”

Steve: “I think success would mean that we’re winning some matches, home and away. Success would mean that the fans settle down, and everyone says, we’re looking forward to the summer. Because I think the one thing that I do know is if we have that ratio towards the end of the season, players want to come to Bristol Rovers. That’s for sure; I’ve spoken to enough players in the last 24 hours.

“Players want to come, sporting directors high up in the pyramid, you know, would be happy, would be okay with their players coming here. Maybe they weren’t in the past, but they would be now. And that’s not about me. That’s a bit of the opportunity that when I speak to us guys or ladies, then I present our cases to why they’re gifted youngsters or players who come here.”

Interviewer: “I know you’ve only had two training sessions, so far, but have you seen any players that have caught your eye?”

Steve: “I think a number of them. But, you know, if I was a Bristol Rovers supporter and I’ve watched the last ten, I think you’d raise an eyebrow and say, I can’t believe he has said that.

“I think we have to give players the opportunity. There are two or three I didn’t really know. I knew the name, but I didn’t know them. So, they’ve done really well, but we’ve had a brilliant response from the skipper, brilliant response from what I would say the leadership group, the older guys in the group, and what we had today was 20 young men on the training ground, trying to earn their shirts at Crewe.

“And I said to them afterwards, if we have that same application every week going forward, if you can get that ability out the locker, which we think you’ve got from not being in here point of view, then we’ll do enough to refrain from some of the recruitment in January, but we’ll be busy in January for sure.”