Both men were placed on the transfer list and told they were free to find new clubs last week after failing to make an impact in their first season with the Millers.

Goalkeeper Loach, hailed as a marquee signing last summer, made just four appearances while Newton featured 14 times.

Loach spent time on loan at Bury, Peterborough and Yeovil and clubs have been in contact about signing him.

“It’s not worked out for Loachy, with all the best intentions when we signed him,” boss Evans said.

“Adam (Collin) had seen him away and then when Adam had a little dip in form we brought Emi (Martinez) in and we weighed up our options.

“We had set a benchmark and we felt with Loachy, he is a young man that wants to play, we just felt he wasn’t going to be number one and he would be sat watching a lot of the time.

“That was a joint one, he asked if he could explore his options and we said yes.

“He was in the England squad two years before we signed him, he has got everything in terms of pedigree but I have always maintained as a manager you pick a team and sometimes a lot of people in the stadium would disagree with you.

“Adam had a little dip and we put him in in the early part of the season and we wanted him to grab that opportunity but he never grabbed it and Adam quickly took his shirt back.

“It’s a disappointing one but we have had some clubs in League One and some in League Two, there have been a number of clubs on the phone showing some interest.”

Newton arrived in South Yorkshire in May 2014 before the Millers’ knew what division they would be playing in, with Evans’ men playing in the League One play-off final just days after his arrival was announced.

Injury affected the first part of the season, before the former Newcastle midfielder got the chance to nail down a place in the right-hand side of the Millers’ midfield.

But he failed to do that and does not figure in Evans’ plans for the 2015/16 campaign.

“Connor was a young man who had an exceptional season with St Mirren and he was our first signing and he signed not knowing what league we were going to be in,” Evans added. “That’s the type of kid he is, he is so enthusiastic.

“He is another one who wants to play football and that was in our thinking and in recent months he was knocking on our door asking why he wasn’t playing.

“But if we are going to improve we have to say ‘where are we going to put him in our team when we have got the boys who played in the last five games’.

“Is he going to be in front of them? No.

“Secondly if we are going to try and sign some quality and add competition to the ones who are in, where would Connor fit in.

“There’s a player there for sure, but we probably decided that he needs to go and play some football.”