All Change at Bristol Rovers as The Gas Get Their League Two Preparations Well Underway

The good news began just a few days after the end of the season to be fair, as outgoing boss Inigo Calderon was replaced by Darrell Clarke, arriving for his second stint in the managerial hotseat at the Mem. Darrell always said that he had unfinished business at the club and even if they had tried, I don’t think our owners could have made a more welcome, not to say popular, choice to take charge of our club.

It won’t be plain sailing for him this time around but, if you recall, it wasn’t exactly a bed of roses for him during his first managerial stint. The poisoned chalice that was the manager’s job at the Mem back in 2014 was handed to him with seven games of the 2013/14 campaign to go, just after the transfer window had closed.

The squad at his disposal then were very much like the squad we saw last season; it contained too many players who were simply not good enough for the level they were playing at and we were relegated out of the league on the final day of the season following a home defeat at the hands of Clarke’s hometown club, Mansfield Town.

That relegation hit him hard, but he was determined to lead this club back into the league at the very first opportunity and he set about building a squad to do just that. He knew exactly what he wanted from his team and realised just how tough the top tier of non league football would be and so he signed players who had experience of lower league football and were prepared to give their all for the shirt.

And so, players such as Lee Mansell, Stuart Sinclair, Matty Taylor, Dan Leadbitter, Jake Gosling and Andy Monkhouse, to name but a few, arrived to join those who had remained from the previous season, think Steve Mildenhall, Tom Parkes, Mark McChrystal, Tom Lockyer, Ollie Clarke.

Along the way, Jermaine Easter and Chris Lines arrived to bolster the squad and although they could only finish second in the league, behind Barnet, promotion was achieved in a dramatic play-off final penalty shootout against Grimsby Town.

Clarke achieved what he had set out to do, through building a resilient and reliable squad and developing an amazing team spirit, particularly after an inauspicious start to the season.

He fostered a siege mentality; it was Bristol Rovers against the world as far as he was concerned and anyone who didn’t buy into it were of no use to him or the club. His man management skills were second to none and players loved playing for him. Everyone working for Bristol Rovers became part of the team that season and it was down to his energy and his belief in what he was doing and wanted to achieve that saw his side over the finishing line.

It was much the same the following season when, incredibly, he presided over another promotion, from League Two into League One. The belief and the camaraderie that had served him and his side so well in their one year sojourn in non league football shone through once again and a final day home win against Dagenham & Redbridge meant that he became the first Rovers manager to lead the club to back to back promotions.

There was a tenth placed finish in 2016/17 back in League One and the following season saw his team end the campaign in 13th place. He began the 2018/19 season still in charge but was gone by December 2018 and while many of us can speculate about the reasons for his departure, only he knows what really went on behind the scenes at that point.

That was then, though, and this is now; what I can tell you is that Darrell is a man of principle and he will want complete control of all playing matters. Yes, he will consult and seek advice from others, but the final decision on who to sign and what team to select will be down to him.

He will have learnt from his experiences at Walsall, Port Vale, Cheltenham Town and Barnsley and I suspect he will be a better manager because of his time at those clubs. He will be acutely aware of what Rovers fans expect of him and his team and whilst it might be a big ask to expect him to lead this side back to League One at the first attempt I wouldn’t bet against him fulfilling the promotion dream once again, though it may take a little bit longer than some people might be thinking. What he will give supporters is a team that will be full of spirit and determination and players who take pride in playing for our club, traits that were sadly lacking last season.

From the outside looking in, it would appear that he has been allowed to select and bring in his own backroom staff.

His two assistant coaches, Jon Stead and Rhys Carr, have been carefully selected as people he can work with. Stead worked with Darrell at Barnsley and was a much travelled striker during his playing days, which only came to an end four years ago. He appeared in over 600 league games for 12 clubs, scoring 143 goals and his experience with our strikers should prove to be invaluable, though in my opinion he needs a few more to work with!

Carr has an impressive CV for a young coach and is familiar with Rovers through his previous stint as Lead Professional Development Phase Coach. He has also worked with Sheffield United, Bristol City and Coventry City, as well as gaining experience as Assistant Coach to the Republic of Ireland Women’s side.

Before we move on to player recruitment to date, there have been further backroom changes with the appointments of Gavin Crowe, Sam Pashen and Kyler Burns.

Crowe, the new Head of Medical and Performance, was our physiotherapist under Darrell back in 2015 before moving on to Cheltenham, where their paths crossed again during Darrell’s time in charge at Whaddon Road. The fact that they will be working together for a third time proves, I think, that the manager respects the people who have previously worked with him and has been given a free hand to appoint backroom staff he trusts and who he knows won’t let him down.

Burns has also moved to the Mem from Whaddon Road and takes on the role of Lead Sports Scientist, while Pashen is the new Lead Strength and Conditioning Coach.

Having restructured his backroom team with people he knows he can trust and can work with, Clarke then set about building a squad capable of challenging for League Two honours this season and, at the time of writing, had brought five players in. However, I suspect that number to increase over the coming days, especially ahead of the training camp in Spain.

First to arrive was Jack Sparkes, a left back or left wing back by trade and a player who has played against Rovers five times in the league, twice for Exeter, twice for Portsmouth and once for Peterborough as well as playing for Exeter in their 5-3 win against us in the Football league Trophy match in November 2021.

A combative player during his time in the game, Sparkes should prove to be a welcome addition to the squad down that left hand side and will strengthen one of last season’s problem areas. Not only a tidy player, Sparkes was heavily involved in community outreach work whilst with his first club, Exeter City. He engaged with students at local schools and cycled 30 kilometres a day during Covid, raising £1,600 for the NHS. A perfect ally for Taylor Moore and our Community Trust, it would seem!

The signing of Macauley Southam-Hales is an interesting one, as he comes highly recommended by his former club, Stockport County, whose CEO Simon Wilson said this about our new defender: ‘One of the best people…a leader of others, he is such a giving person and would do anything for anybody. He parks any personal motive for the good of the group, community or cause and his personality is infectious.’

A glowing recommendation, but can he play? At 29 he has spent the last five years with Stockport, but injuries restricted his appearances. Overall, he appeared in 58 National League and 47 Football League games for the Hatters.

He is known to be quick and direct and as well as being a resolute and determined defender and can also add something going forward. If he can remain injury free, then he could be the answer to the right-back position vacated by Jack Hunt and one or two others who simply couldn’t play there.

Unlike Sparkes, he’s never faced Rovers in any competition, though the seven minutes he played for Fleetwood Town, in his only league outing for them, saw him play alongside Paul Coutts and Jordan Rossiter.

Goalkeeper Bradley Young is an interesting signing; has he been handed a two year contract to come and sit on the bench all season, or is he a serious challenger for the number one jersey?

The Sunderland fan has played for Hartlepool United in two separate spells, which would have pleased his partner and family, as they all support that team, who can also boast Darrell Clarke as one of their former players! In all, there were 10 National League appearances for Hartlepool, to sit alongside his 48 matches for Leicester City at U-21 level.

He has one England U-19 cap to his name and is said to be a great prospect but, at 23 years of age, he has yet to make his league debut, is a year older than Jed Ward, an England U-20 keeper with 38 Rovers league games under his belt so mark Brad down as one to watch! It’s quite possible, of course, that another, far more experienced keeper will be joining us, and that, in all probability. Will mean another loan spell for Jed.

Another returnee – I wonder if there will be any more? Is Alfie Kilgour, who could barely hide his delight at being back at the club he grew up with.

Now an experienced central defender, Alfie knows what supporting Bristol Rovers means to fans. After all, he’s one himself! Darrell Clarke was the manager who gave him his first pro contract and I’m sure he would have been the manager to give him his league debut had injury not intervened.

In a Gloucestershire Cup tie against Slimbridge at the Mem in 2016/17, Alfie sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury, which kept him sidelined for 10 months. I remember the incident well, for I was sitting alongside Tom Lockyer in the East Stand and we were commentating on the game for the club website and it was obvious that it was a bad injury. However, Alfie worked incredibly hard to regain his fitness and embarked on a number of loans with local non league clubs.

It was Graham Coughlan who handed Alfie his long awaited league debut, a cameo appearance against Gillingham in March 2019, the first of his 91 league appearances for Rovers.

Mansfield Town paid £50,000 to take him to Field Mill in January 2023 and, reluctantly I believe, Alfie was on the move when I’m pretty sure he would have preferred to have stayed at the Mem. He started well under Nigel Clough’s management at Mansfield, but the injury jinx struck again, and he was to miss almost the entire 2023/24 campaign, a season when Mansfield were promoted to League One.

He returns to the Mem having made 41 league appearances for the Stags and, providing he stays free of injury, I fully expect him to be part of a formidable defence alongside Connor Taylor in the months ahead.

Josh McEachran, who has joined the club from Oxford United will provide the experience in the middle of the park. Having begun his career with Chelsea, he’s played for Swansea, Middlesbrough, Watford, Wigan and Vitesse Arnhem on loan and also appeared in the colours of Brentford, Birmingham and MK Dons prior to his move to the Kassam Stadium.

Early in his career he gained England international honours at U-16,17, 19, 20 and 21 levels and was on a very long shortlist of players ahead of the Great Britain squad being announced for the 2012 London Olympics.

He played for Oxford, alongside Gatlin O’Donkor, at the Mem in January 2024 when his side were on their way to gaining promotion to the Championship though there was no win bonus for him and his teammates that day as Rovers ran out 3-1 winners.

My one concern regarding his signing is that he doesn’t bring any goals to the midfield. In fact, according to my records the only league goal of his career came for Brentford, against Birmingham City, way back in October 2018.

On paper, the five signings made to date look to be an upgrade on what we saw last season, though goalkeeper Young is obviously one for the future and has been handed a ‘two year trial’.

The defence is shaping up nicely and we do seem to have both full back/wing back positions covered, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see another central defender arrive before the big kick off.

We do have some talented midfield players in Isaac Hutchinson, Kamil Conteh and Kofi Shaw, who will no doubt be helped by the experienced McEachran and if we want wingers, then of course we have Luke Thomas who, I believe, will be a much improved player under Darrell. Having said that, those midfielders don’t have that many goals between them and unless they can step up then a goalscoring midfielder remains a priority in my opinion.

The same can be said of the strikers. Ruel Sotiriou top scored with a measly six goals last season and that, for me, is simply not good enough. I’ve no idea if he’s staying with us, but if he is then he needs to up his game. Promise Omochere may be one answer up top, but injury curtailed his season and when he did play, there was very little support from his colleagues. If what we hear is correct, he’s a player Darrell wanted to sign for Barnsley, so he must rate him; let’s hope he has an injury free season and gets amongst the goals and show why he’s our record signing.

Maybe Shaq Forde will step up. We certainly didn’t see the best of him last season, so maybe it’s his time. We do need a couple more strikers, I feel, one of them being a ‘fox in the box’ someone who will capitalise on playing alongside a striker with a physical presence. I know that Jonson Clarke-Harris and others have been mentioned, and I’m not forgetting the emerging talent that is Ollie Dewsbury though I suspect he will be sent out on loan again for at least part of this season.

It’s all about opinions, of course, and these are just some of mine. The early recruitment looks, on paper, to be shaping up well but we all know that games, or titles aren’t won on paper. Of the players still here from last season, they will all know what to expect this time around – last season some of them looked intimidated when they stepped out on to the pitch but with a year at the Mem behind them, I expect the likes of Taylor Moore, Bryant Bilongo, Clinton Mola and Joel Senior to be challenging the newcomers for a first team spot and you can be sure that there are more new signings waiting to happen.

What I would like is fewer loans from Premier League or Championship clubs and I would also like someone to explain to me exactly what our project is as I’m forever seeing that players can’t wait to be part of the project at Bristol Rovers – have I missed something?