'Unjust reputation' of ex-Sheffield Wednesday man examined amid bold comparison with Ivan Toney

Rotherham United boss Steve Evans believes the reputation Mallik Wilks arrived with after leaving Sheffield Wednesday was an unjust one amid the wide man’s successful start to life with the Millers. Wilks is in the final year of his contract at S6 but has signed on with Rotherham on a season-long loan last month.

His late winner in their Yorkshire derby win over Huddersfield Town over the weekend capped off a man of the match performance. He has started and completed 90 minutes in two of the Millers’ three league matches since joining his new club just over two weeks ago - something he did only once in his two seasons with the Owls.

"The boy has worked so hard for us in the last 10 days,” Evans said. “He came here with a reputation that he doesn't work hard, Let me tell you, Mallik Wilks works hard. I’ve seen him score one for the youth team and I was the one who sanctioned his first pro deal at Leeds United. I’ve seen him do it as a kid. ‘S*d Wilks', I used to call him and a more impolite name than that. When I’d get on the coach and be in my office. He’s done that against me for Hull, particularly with Grant McCann.”

It comes days after Evans made a lofty comparison with a recent England player. In a column penned for our sister paper the Rotherham Advertiser, Evans said: “Our new boy, Mallik Wilks, reminds me of a certain Ivan Toney. I signed Ivan from Newcastle United when I was manager of Peterborough United in 2018 and it was the perfect move for him at the time. He hasn't done too badly since, has he! Didn't I see him in an England shirt at the recent Euros? Ivan wasn't getting a look-in with the Magpies and he needed a refresh and reset.

“He'd been at Newcastle for a good while under Rafa Benitez and had been told he wasn't going to have any chance of getting near the first-team group,. He'd had a period of different loans and I said to him: ‘Come here and be loved.’ It's like that with Mallik. He's had two frustrating seasons with Sheffield Wednesday and now he has a chance to revive his career at AESSEAL New York Stadium. It's a reset for him here and he'll feel our love as we get him going again.”