Early interest and Taylor's personal call: How Bristol Rovers beat EFL clubs to sign Dan Ellison

Five signings in five days has certainly whet the appetite of Gasheads ahead of Bristol Rovers' upcoming League One season with more arrivals expected at The Quarters over the coming weeks.

The silence was never a concern, or at least it wasn't for some, given that the transfer window only officially opened two weeks ago. However, had Rovers gone into pre-season without announcing at least one signing given the scale of the recruitment job needed this summer, worries would have quite rightly become widespread.

Clinton Mola and Ruel Sotiriou are both players that played against the Gas in League One last season for Reading and Leyton Orient respectively while Isaac Hutchinson faced Rovers while on loan at Crawley Town in the League Two promotion season as well as being an unused substitute for Southend United in both matches against the Gas in the 2019/20 season. Bryant Bilongo is admittedly a bit of an unknown for Rovers having most recently played on loan in the National League with Ebbsfleet United.

Additionally, as technology improves and the game becomes more data-driven, even lower down the pyramid, it's relatively straightforward to find video footage of signings or read reviews - we're all guilty of thinking a player is going to be a world beater based on one YouTube compilation reel.

However, there's not quite as much material out there on Dan Ellison's game, with the 19-year-old centre-back joining from National League South side Chippenham Town.

The teenager became Rovers' fourth signing of the summer, penning his first professional contract in the game after an impressive breakthrough season in the sixth tier. With 30 appearances for the Bluebirds last term as well as playing on loan at Devizes Town and on dual registration terms at Westbury United, Ellison has gotten a taste of playing the men's game but, naturally, stepping up to League One level is a hefty jump.

Video footage is out there of the young defender in action, albeit limited, but you can only get so much of an idea of what a player is like or how they'll cope, especially at this age, from such content. In terms of getting to know the teenager as both a player and a person, Chippenham manager Gary Horgan is one of the best primary sources out there.

"To be honest, if I take a couple of steps backwards, it feels like he was doing a tour of the EFL clubs in the UK at one point last year," Horgan told Bristol Live. "We literally had everyone in the EFL and the National League coming to watch him.

"I spoke to George [Friend] quite early on in that process and they said at that point, ‘look, we’re quite keen on him.’ We managed to get him in with them training-wise so once he went in with them he sort of had a look and then he had a lot of concrete interest. There were loads that he looked at. He went in at Brentford so right up from the Premier League down to League Two, but there’s probably three or four that firmed up concrete interest.

"It’s been a few weeks, months in the pipeline really, and something that we’ve had to sit on for a little bit of time. Matt Taylor took the chance to call him and that wasn’t the case with the other offers he had on the table. I think he felt that Matt had taken the effort to give him a call which helped his decision."

As the Chippenham boss mentioned, Ellison had the opportunity to train with Rovers towards the end of last season as he was making up his mind on where to head next with a number of cards on the table. Alongside Brentford, Championship team Derby County was another big name keen on the defender.

However, having not yet picked the teenager's brains, you would have to assume that a factor that actually fell into the Gas' favour was their lack of a development team. At 19, the defender wouldn't be going into Rovers' under-18s side so, naturally, he'll be immediately enter the senior mix, something that, you would assume, couldn't have been said of the clubs interested with under-21s sides.

Naturally, it's still unclear how quickly we can expect to see Ellison's name on a League One team sheet, especially considering that he has centre-backs with hundreds of EFL appearances between them in James Wilson, Connor Taylor and James Connolly. It has to be said though, it's been some rise over the past year-and-a-half.

"He came into our academy 18 months ago just as part of our open trials," Horgan added. "He came in and did really well and as part of that we try and get our lads out to steps three, four and five. He was at Westbury at step four and did really well there.

"We actually had someone in on loan from a Championship club at the time as a centre-half and I felt that Dan, because we try and promote from within, was somebody who was displaying the same sort of skill set, if not better. So we felt that we were going to give him an opportunity having done really well at step four to come into the first team at step two and he hasn’t looked back.

"He’s performed admirably and to have played so many games at our level for someone who had only just turned 18 at the time is credit to him."

Alongside the scouting and analysis of players' games, character reviews are also incredibly important with the general consensus from those who know the new Rovers defender being that he boasts an incredibly mature head upon his young shoulders with an eagerness to learn and improve.

From the playing side of things though, comfort on the ball has been a common theme when asking about the teenager's game as has his aggressiveness, particularly when attacking from dead-ball scenarios, hence the four goals scored for the Wiltshire outfit last season.

"Probably the year before, in the under-19s," the Chippenham manager added, when asked when he first realised that Ellison could become part of his first team group.

"Our under-19s did the double the year before and, believe it or not, he was top scorer. A number from corners, the way he attacks the ball. I don’t think anyone in our club attacks balls from corners and dead ball situations as well as he does. We knew that he would be able to cope with it physically, it was just whether we would be able to give us the consistency and he showed that in his time at step four.

"As I said, we felt that he would be close to it and then funnily enough, fortune favoured him as a lad we took a chance on got an injury. He took his chance and did what we thought he could do."

The potential is evidently there and will need to be nurtured with good coaching but what will be particularly interesting if a similar type of deal is completed again before the end of summer.

In Rovers' official confirmation of the signing on Thursday, Taylor's quotes included reference to the manager's desire to build up relationships with local non-league clubs to help source talent, saying: "The local non league scene also will continue to be monitored closely as we look to grow links with all clubs near to the Bristol area.”

That's always positive to hear for managers within said local non league scene with Horgan adding further to that insisting that it words both ways. "A few years ago we took Harvey Greenslade from Rovers," the Bluebirds boss said. "I know that he’s had to move on from Rovers to further his career but if we can help Bristol Rovers develop some of their young players, ultimately we like to develop our own, but we need good networks in and around our local clubs. Bristol Rovers, Bristol City, Swindon, Cheltenham, if we can help them out and it helps us then absolutely.

"Clubs at our level rely on good relationships with their local clubs so hopefully that should be the aim. If we can help develop their talent and by all means, move some of our talent on through their system then it’s a win-win for everyone right?"