Speaking to the clubs website after Sharps signed a two year deal earlier to rejoin the Millers from Shrewsbury, boss Evans revealed he had a bid of £100,000 turned down when he was Crawley manager.
But today he joyfully said: "It has taken a long time to get Ian here.
"He has had a fantastic two years at Shrewsbury, he is someone we admire and respect and I am looking forward to seeing him in action. We had him assessed for a long time at Crawley, but Shrewsbury had a big game coming up against Arsenal and GrahamTurner was worried it would be bad preparation for that, and could destabilise their promotion bid.
"It didn't take too much persuasion to bring the big fella back to Rotherham, he wants to be somewhere where the evolution of progression will continue."