Evans reveals the problems he had with Derek Adams at Bradford City

Evans is now playing part-time football for Radcliffe Borough after being released at the end of last season.

The 34-year-old admitted he’d had enough of the grind of the pro game - and blamed Adams for his “appalling” treatment during an unsuccessful second stint with the Bantams.

The pair had a previous history from their time when the Scot was managing Plymouth and Evans was playing for promotion rivals Portsmouth.

Speaking to the Portsmouth News, Evans said: “When I arrived, the Bradford team weren’t good enough for promotion, nowhere near.

“I’m pretty aware of what it takes to get out of League Two and it was all over the place. The calibre of the players weren’t good enough and, when I was out for three weeks with a hamstring injury, Stuart McCall got the sack.

“Then, in the summer of 2021, Derek Adams came in and, after a few weeks of him, I became completely disillusioned.

“I had to read his interviews after every game, oh my goodness.

“I’d be in the stands watching when injured or out of the squad and Bradford would get absolutely battered, yet he’d say ‘I thought we were excellent today’. Being surrounded by it all the time drained you.”

Gareth Evans never saw eye-to-eye with his former City boss Derek Adams (Image: Thomas Gadd)

Evans also criticised the training regime under Adams and the long hours spent at Apperley Bridge - a claim that the club dispute.

“Adams would have the players in for training from 8am and I wouldn’t be getting home until 6pm,” he added.

“You would train 10am-12pm, have your lunch, then we’d either be back outside or in the gym at 3pm.

“It was time-consuming, it was ridiculous. Why are we waiting around, it doesn’t take three hours for your lunch to go down – and his response was ‘I want the lads to earn their money’.”

Evans re-signed for McCall in September 2020, nine years after he had left to join Rotherham.

He played 52 times, scoring three goals - including the first one of the Mark Hughes reign against Swindon.

But after five successful seasons with Portsmouth, winning League Two and the EFL Trophy with a man-of-the-match display at Wembley as well as several play-off campaigns, Evans felt it was a comedown returning to Valley Parade.

“A part of me died when I left Fratton Park,” he said.

“I knew joining Bradford was a massive step down, this was League Two, and within a week or two of being there it was pretty clear we weren't going to get any success.

‘I didn’t actually regret my decision until the second year when Derek Adams took over, when I was treated appallingly for obvious reasons. We just didn’t like each other and that season fizzled out.

‘Mark Hughes brought me back into the fold temporarily, but by the end of the campaign I was shattered. Mentally I’d just had enough.”

Evans reached that point before City’s 3-0 defeat at Colchester on Easter Monday. It was his 600th career appearance - and would prove to be his last one.

He added: “It had taken us seven hours to get there because of a crash on the motorway, while my little boy was badly ill at home.

“We had individual rooms and I sat there thinking, ‘what am I doing?’.

“At that stage, I wasn’t playing massive amounts. I was training all week, then getting to the Saturday and not that involved.

“After 15 years I’d had enough of travelling the length and breadth of the country every weekend.

“For midweek games I’d be getting in at 4am on Wednesday morning after an away match so you’re shattered all day on Wednesday, then it’s back to training on Thursday and Friday.

“In that Colchester hotel room, it occurred to me I don’t really need this. You almost start thinking you’d be better off with a 9-5 job from Monday to Friday than doing this, at least you’re at home more often.

“It was an accumulation of different stuff – I'd just had enough.”