Bristol Rovers’ summer window is a marathon, not a sprint, and they are still making early strides

There was always going to be plenty of anxiety throughout the Bristol Rovers fan base this summer, with the club facing one of the biggest transfer windows in recent years as a new-look recruitment structure leads what will have to be a team review.

Rovers released seven players and saw a further six loanees return to their parent clubs at the end of last season, meaning that, with the click of a finger, Matt Taylor’s squad was 13 people lighter. That total could rise further as the Gas continue to await decisions on the futures of Scott Sinclair, Luca Hoole and Jordan Rossiter who have been offered new contracts.

Furthermore, players can still leave on loan or permanent deals in the current climate, suggesting Rovers will do well to keep hold of Antony Evans this summer, with promoted Portsmouth believed to be among those keeping an eye on the Player season from Gas.

There’s no sugarcoating it, this is a tough job to be done right before Taylor’s first full season in charge and what looks set to be the toughest League One for some time. However, that doesn’t mean supporters should be worried that the Gas have yet to make a signing.

We get it, as a football fan you’re never short on patience and with this summer window being of particular importance, we all want to make sure the wheels are in motion behind the scenes. There has been no public communication from George Friend in his role as director of football since March’s fan Q&A, while head of data and analytics Adam Mahoney was thought to be a key player in this new recruitment structure , but surprisingly announced his departure from the club a month ago.

It also doesn’t calm the nerves when you see rivals signing players, particularly Rotherham United, who have already added six new faces to their pre-June roster, with Jonson Clarke-Harris, Sean Raggett and Joe Rafferty being particularly eye-catching additions . But in fairness, the budget the newly relegated side will have to play with, as well as their ambitions for this campaign, are very different to Rovers and not the sort of specimen Gasheads should be too concerned about. They’re also in League One, but with all due respect that’s probably as far as the ‘rival’ title can stretch.

On that note, at the time of writing, just 13 players have been signed by League One clubs, with six heading to the New York Stadium, almost half. Mansfield Town made two additions, while Wycombe Wanderers, Peterborough United, Stevenage, Stockport County and Wigan Athletic made one each. Rovers are therefore one of 17 clubs, 70% of the league, who are yet to complete any business.

Meanwhile, as we know, money talks and Rotherham offer some of the most competitive wages in the division. For Rovers, they don’t have the same fiscal capabilities as the recently relegated Millers and where they are in the economic pecking order of the division means that unless they try to sign a player that nobody else wants (which is unlikely) , such is the competition, there is a degree of having to wait your turn.

Steve Evans’ side are also among the favorites for promotion, which of course plays a part, especially when it comes to better free agents like Raggett and Rafferty, who have just experienced it with Portsmouth and ideally want to repeat it again.

You don’t win any prizes for being the first to make a signing, and the start of pre-season is still over a month away, with Rovers players expected to report to The Quarters on July 1. In addition, the transfer window did not officially open for two weeks, with the first day June 14.

The understanding is that most, if not all, of Rovers’ players are currently out of the country on holiday and you would expect the same to be true of most of the prospects they are courting. As Taylor said in his end-of-season interview, “nothing happens in May.”

Although with an alternative recruitment structure and manager in charge, the Gas didn’t make a signing until June 23 last summer with the arrival of James Wilson and have gone on to bring in a total of 12 players, 13 if you include his acquisition. Chris Martin after the window closed.

Taylor insisted he would like to get as many new faces through the door as possible for the start of pre-season to give him as much time as possible to assemble his new-look squad, but it is almost certain that the way he looks team. the first day of pre-season will still look different at 11.01pm on August 30 when the window closes.

The rate at which impatience is growing among supporters was probably not helped by the fact that the season traditionally ended early, already over a month on from the final day defeat to Wigan Athletic, but the EFL campaign only ended on Sunday. Even though most supporters were excited to see the end of the 2023/24 season, that brief period of joy that football is over has faded and attention has largely turned to the upcoming campaign for a few weeks, hence the anxiety. .

Furthermore, with more than a month to go from the end of the season and a few more weeks until the transfer window opens, and with it being a tournament summer with the Euros starting, we are currently in that lull where conversations between football fans have place. fueled by scraps with the existence of a news vacuum during this period. So when there is no news, the time is filled with expressing frustrations that there have been no new signs of a positive season to cling to. It happens every year and it’s certainly not exclusive to Rovers with every other fan base in League One whose club are yet to make a signing (over half) that demonstrates the same itch for any sign of a new upgrade.

It can be difficult for many, but whether you like it or not, you have to trust the process and have an element of patience because we’re over a month into pre-season and two and a half months away distance from a ball to be hit in competition. However, if there is no signature by July 1st, you can all come back to me and I will gladly eat humble pie.

Although there has been no official announcement to confirm this, there is a lot of work behind the scenes, with names such as Joe Edwards and Miguel Freckleton linked, while there was initial interest in Ronan Curtis, who has since remained in the League of two. by signing for Port Vale.

Generally, a summer transfer window is a lengthy process, but this summer in particular, the recruitment process is a marathon, not a sprint, with a player review required, suggesting the Gas will be close, if not exceeding the double digit mark when it comes to that. to the number of signatures made comes at the end of August. Taylor admitted his squad won’t be as deep as last season, but that doesn’t mean there’s still a slew of new faces to walk out the door.

One of Rovers’ best pieces of business last summer was a process that required great patience in the permanent signing of Connor Taylor. In a way, Gas have been monitoring their former loanee for over a year, but reports of their interest started to emerge as early as June, two months before the deal was completed. Direct transfer negotiations are always welcome but are a rarity.

Again, this reinforces the idea that this will very much be a marathon, and just because a few other clubs have made early progress, it must be remembered that Rovers are still taking their first steps and nothing will be rushed. It is football’s rarest entity, but patience is what is required at the moment.