The Sheffield United manager Nigel Clough has insisted that allowing the convicted rapist Ched Evans back to train with the club was not a precursor to offering him a deal.
Asked on Sky Sports News whether allowing Evans to train at the club would lead to a potential contract at Bramall Lane, Clough added: “That’s a long way from being true.”
United had released a statement on Tuesday in which they neither confirmed nor denied they were willing to re-sign Evans, saying: “While some have speculated about whether the club will or should invite Mr Evans to return to SUFC as a registered footballer, the club is not prepared at this time to decide that issue.”
Clough insisted: “The statement said that he is purely down to train with us and we will take it from there.”
In a further interview with BBC Radio Sheffield, Clough said there was no timescale on whether a decision would be made to offer Evans a deal.
“It’s nowhere near being decided, as it said in the statement,” he added. “It goes in stages. How you can sign a player who hasn’t played for two years and seven months? I don’t think anyone is in a position to do that.
“We don’t have a timescale on it, believe it or not it’s not at the top of our priorities. We have four games in 10 days, two in the cup and two in the league, which will determine whether we are going to stay in those competitions and get back into the top six.
“That is our priority. Not a player who is training with us at the moment. I have no idea on the plan for him. The statement was just released yesterday, the next stage is sorting out some sort of training programme.”
Clough admitted that he was consulted over the decision but refused to comment on whether he agreed with it.
“Everything the club want to say at this time is contained within the statement,” he said. “It said at the bottom that the club won’t be commenting any further and I will adhere to that.
“All the staff at the club have been consulted. As an employee, I have been consulted like everybody else.”
The Football League confirmed it would have “no option” but to re-register Evans should he be offered a deal by Sheffield United.
Clough, who takes his team to Walsall in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy on Wednesday night, said: “I think everything has been deliberated properly, nobody has rushed into any decisions at the club.
“Everybody realises the gravity of the situation and seriousness of everything and that’s why it has taken so long to even get to this stage. It has been prompted by the PFA and that’s as far as it goes now. We deliberated as a club for some weeks and came to this decision. According to the law of the land he is entitled an opportunity to resume his career.”
The decision to allow Evans, who served two and a half years of a five-year sentence for the rape of a 19-year-old woman and whose contract with United ran out while he was in prison, back into training has been heavily criticised.
A petition calling on the club not to re-sign Evans has attracted over 157,000 signatures and the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said it was “appalled” at United’s decision.
The television presenter Charlie Webster has resigned as a patron of Sheffield United, saying: “I don’t believe a convicted rapist should go back to a club that I am patron of and should go back into the community to represent the community.”
