Matt Taylor reveals Bristol Rovers' pre-season plans, hopeful loan returns and 24/25 expectations

We're approaching the end of the first fortnight since the season ended and the desire for Bristol Rovers to return to action may have already kicked in for some supporters but, in truth, we're still extremely early into what will end up being a hectic summer period.

When the next time we'll hear from Matt Taylor will be is currently unknown but it will surely be a good couple of weeks at least and so the Rovers manager did provide us with a hefty final sample to dissect when speaking to BBC Radio Bristol as part of an end of season review.

The scale of the job the Gas' recruitment team face over the next three months has been well known for weeks now but it became more real when we saw the retained list released last week which confirmed that seven players would be released alongside the six loanees returning to their respective parent clubs while three players in Scott Sinclair, Luca Hoole and Jordan Rossiter have been offered contracts.

In an ideal world, 10 shiny new players will be at Rovers' disposal and through the door come day one of pre-season but that simply won't be the case. However, that doesn't mean that the Gas won't try to get a decent amount of their business done in time for the first day of their preparatory schedule.

As is always the way, rumours are already flying around and as the weeks go on we will hopefully start to build a clearer idea and understanding of the business we can expect from Rovers over the upcoming transfer window. For now though, Taylor has offered a decent overview to set expectations in a bumper interview.

There was plenty to take away from his recent season review but some topics sit higher on the agenda than others. So, we've divided up the Gas boss' recent discussion with BBC Radio Bristol into a handful of the main talking points.

'Old school' Matt Taylor makes boredom point

There's never a set date or week in the calendar on which the first day of pre-season falls every year so it's always subject to speculation until officially confirmed but Taylor revealed that his players and staff will actually experience a particularly elongated period of time off. Day one of preparations for the new campaign is scheduled for Monday, July 1 meaning that, at the time of writing, there's still over seven weeks left to go until players and staff alike report back to The Quarters.

Of course, you would expect a decent amount of arrivals to be confirmed between now and then but, regarding the players that are still contracted, that is a particularly long break.

Modern day players are generally extremely disciplined when it comes to looking after their bodies over the course of the off-period and some could well have international football to play such as Kamil Conteh with Sierra Leone but you would imagine that it won't be long until they're itching to get back to it.

On pre-season, Taylor said: "July 1. It’s incredible, I’ve never had eight weeks off or a straight eight weeks as a manager, coach or a player. For whatever reason it’s fallen as the longest period. I spoke to Chris Martin and Scotty Sinclair and they were exactly the same so I think boredom will set in for a lot of people, especially the players so we’ve got to get the right balance.

"I use that word all the time, where they have their rest and recovery, some are on the treatment table, some have had surgery, some are in different situations but then how we build towards the first day of pre-season where you’ve still got to have more in terms of your fitness and growing into it in terms of your body and then the footballing aspect comes. We won’t peak the first game of the season but 10 or 12 games in we should be at our fittest and firing and hopefully we’ll look like how I want us to look like because I think most bodies will be through the door for that window as well.

"So getting the balance right. This isn’t just on the last 24 hours. The players have known this for long periods and I think everyone has known this, it’s almost the elephant in the room. A few staffing situations to sort out which obviously we’ve alluded to and then having the plans in place but also who’s going to deliver each part of the plan and where each member of staff and the players fit into that and then ultimately recruitment as well.

"Even though it feels as though eight weeks is a long time, from this point onwards things will be going pretty quickly. What we do in the next eight weeks and then the next six weeks and then up until the end of the window will determine whether we’re successful or not."

On the type of programme the Rovers manager would set out if he was in control of it, the 42-year-old laughed: "I’m as old school as they come. I would flog them within an inch of their life and they’d be sick in buckets after every session but the sports scientists and medical provisions of the world take charge of that. I’m old school, I’m not data-orientated, I’m more in terms of feel and to see the players producing and giving absolutely everything. Generally you can tell when the players are giving absolutely everything and a little bit more.

"That’s what will be expected to start pre-season but pre-season now is different to how it was five and 10 years ago when players would come back in worse shape. These are modern day athletes now who, even in their off-season, go on these training camps in God knows where and have individual coaching and they keep themselves so fit.

"My day of going to Magaluf after drinking yourself silly with pint after pint and putting a bit of weight on so you could almost burn it off in pre-season, those days are gone. I’m 42 years of age and I’m not an old man in any way so the players are different now. I don’t even think they drink pints to be honest with you, they’re far too cool for that so I’m expecting everyone to be in good shape bar Connor Taylor who’s just had his surgery.

"He’ll be two weeks behind in terms of his rehab but the rest of the group I’m looking forward to coming back and they might not be back until July 1 but in that month beforehand I’m sure there will be a lot of interaction between the coaches and the scientists and the S&C coaches and the medical staff to make sure that everyone’s on the same page in terms of what their programme looks like and they have got a programme to be doing."

Rovers expected to have a smaller squad next season

The golden question right now that everyone would love to know the answer to is 'how many players will Bristol Rovers sign?' By losing 13, the natural expectation would be that it'll be a tally close to that figure and, although the Gas are likely to reach or come extremely close to the double figures mark for incomings over the course of the whole summer window, Taylor has admitted that the squad size will be reduced compared to last season.

Ironically, despite all of the injury and availability issues that cropped up over the course of the campaign, Rovers did have a particularly deep squad which was one of the first points the Gas manager made when he came into the job. Right now, the Gas have 15 players with up to three to add to that based on who signs the contracts that have been offered to them. The expectation seems to be that the final total will be more likely in between 20 and 25 than 25 and 30.

Naturally, further departures can't be ruled out but come the end of the transfer window that seems to be a realistic, ballpark figure for the number of players Taylor will have at his disposal while there was also emphasis on making a stronger effort to bring through youth.

Obviously, the club has big plans for its academy with hopes to improve its category status while the expansion of The Quarters comes into play too. Harvey Greenslade and Ryan Jones' respective departures were a real shame but, on the flip side, Jerry Lawrence and Kofi Shaw remain at the football club which is a decent starting point and pre-season will give the Rovers manager a better opportunity to assess and work with the pair and any other prospects that he feels could be ready for integration into the first-team picture before immediately dipping into the loan market.

Asked how many players he hopes to sign, the Gas boss was never going to pluck out an exact number but admitted: "We won’t have as big a squad as we had this season, finance dictates that. Within that, I think there will be a bigger aspect on the younger players and the youth side of it and how we can supplement the squad with our young players before going out into the loan market. I think that’s been reflected by some of the contract extensions which have been offered to our young players.

"So we won’t be as deep as we were but straight away there’s definitely, with the six loans and the seven released players, 14 players there. Will we be able to get the same number? No, because we can’t afford to do that. Can we get close to double figures? We have to and within those double figures we have to get the spine of it, we have to get some seniority in the right places to offset the younger players which are maybe going to be on the fringe and supplementing it.

"It’s important that I do touch on Harvey Greenslade who has been consistent out on loan at Oxford, but in terms of his future we are releasing him to allow him to chase his career and hopefully get back into the professional game.

"Ryan Jones whose loan, for whatever reason, was cut short at Bromley and came back to ourselves from January onwards. He’ll leave ourselves and hopefully go and get first team football elsewhere. So two young players who have also departed us for their benefit as much as ours. James Gibbons who’s been out on loan at Cambridge, I’ve mentioned him as well.

"So we’re trying to create pathways, generate pathways, put players in pathways for when they become first team players. It’s important that we’ve looked in depth in house before looking elsewhere because it costs an awful lot of money to keep bringing players into any football club, let alone ours.

"None of those decisions have been taken lightly and all of those seven players who have been released, we wish them all the best."

Regarding the academy side of things, this will obviously be a work in progress and Rovers would probably admit that they're still nowhere near the point they'd like to be at when it comes to developing players into useable assets in the first-team.

As mentioned above, Shaw and Lawrence are going to be the two players that come under the spotlight the most when it comes to which prospect will be the next one to break through, especially after Jed Ward's outstanding second half of the season. Who else could be added to the mix is yet to be seen but this is a plan that can't be utilised immediately and some patience, as well as investment in the academy, will be required over the coming years.

Asked if there needs to be improvement regarding the academy, Taylor added: "Yes. I don’t think that’s me saying that. Not just them improving but we’ve got to improve them by investing in it. It goes both ways. If we want to be serious about putting young players on the pitch who have come through our pathway and our academy then we’ve got to invest in it. Whether we improve the category status or the training facilities or the coaching capacity or the way the interaction looks when they earn a professional contract coming over here.

"Obviously we’ve had some young players here who have not trained all the time when they probably should have done. Do we have a development squad? Do we have enough numbers for an under-21s squad? Everything costs money ultimately.

"We know what we want to try to achieve and what we want to try and get towards and if we can have a self-sustaining squad and club mainly generated by our academy players then we’re in a fantastic position. You’ve only got to look at clubs who have done that nearby who have had huge success and then it also saves a bit of money into different positions on the pitch or to grow the training ground and the training ground as well.

"I think we’ve all got to improve, but then look forward to building that relationship and connection with the academy."

Taylor hoping it's not a final goodbye to all six loanees

As briefly touched on above, the loan market will inevitably be used over the course of the summer but it's about assessing what's available in house first before taking that option as opposed to immediately taking on another six youngsters for the season.

With January departures Ryan Woods and Lamare Bogarde included, Rovers signed eight players on loan over the course of this term which is a pretty staggering number but, regarding the six that were at the club come the end of the season, all go back to their parent clubs undoubtedly in better positions regardless of how supporters may assess their performances while at the club.

The point has been made before but Rovers have certainly done themselves no harm regarding their reputation for developing young players, admittedly belonging to other clubs, and should be seen from the outside as a decent option to send bright prospects to. Obviously, Elliot Anderson will be regarded as the pinnacle of modern day Gas loanees but, even though he didn't set the world alight in blue-and-white quarters, what Jarell Quansah has gone on to do at Liverpool this season after half a campaign in BS7 has been exceptional.

We've also seen a decent number of cases where loanees have returned to Rovers on permanent deals with Connor Taylor, James Connolly and Luke McCormick all recent examples and it certainly feels as though you can't rule out seeing at least one of the six players that were at the club this season return, bet that permanently or on another loan.

For the sake of discussion, you would probably guess that Elkan Baggott would be the most likely to make a return given how little he was playing at Ipswich Town while they were a League One and then Championship team, albeit he was developing with loans at Gillingham and Cheltenham Town, but the Tractor Boys are now a Premier League outfit which suggests that opportunities are likely to remain scarce. Additionally, the centre-back concluded his loan spell excellently and remains an extremely exciting prospect at 21, an Indonesia international and closer to seven feet tall than six.

On the six loanees, Taylor said: "Each loan player has probably shown how good they can be at different stages but you never get that consistency with young players, especially, the majority, on their first loans. I know Harvey was at Hull previously but didn’t play. Elkan was at Gillingham and Cheltenham and didn’t play much at Cheltenham so you get a lot of the experiences of the first loans with that group and you’ve all seen it. The ups and the downs, the performances have been high and low, little injuries and probably a bit of fatigue and burnout aspect to it as well.

"So we’ve learned about them as much as they’ve learned about themselves. One thing I do want to say is that I think all six go back in a better place and with a better grounding of what’s to come in the future. Will they go back and play first-team football straight away? Probably not but will some come back to us next season? I really hope so because there’s been some fantastic players in there and some real talent and you want to work with good people for a little bit longer. But that loan market is something that we’ve got to get right next season."

On keeping in touch with them, the Rovers manager added: "Of course we will. All of them. Hopefully we’ve got good enough relationships to keep in touch but we’ve got to be respectful that they go back to their parent clubs and a couple of their seasons are still going so they’ll go back into training. Some will go into international games or competitions and then of course they’ll go back into a pre-season in some capacity.

"But I think we’ve built strong relationships with both the players and the parent clubs and also other clubs as well to say we’re not a bad club in terms of option for loan players and hopefully we’ll be getting some, not different profiles, but not just young ones because we’ve spoken about the pathway for our young players. Why can’t we get some senior ones on loan in different positions to supplement the squad?"

What to expect in between the sticks

It certainly feels as though this isn't the last time we'll discuss goalkeepers and the situation between the sticks but ultimately the choice Taylor has to make is whether he sticks with Ward as his first-choice or brings in a more experienced 'keeper to take the 20-year-old's place with Ward then, you would expect, going out on loan. Either way, a new goalkeeper will have to come in because the only other option in the first-team is 21-year-old Matt Hall who is yet to play for Bristol Rovers.

Given his homegrown traits coincided with how impressive he was for an inexperienced goalkeeper in the second half of the season, you would expect that the verdict amongst the vast majority of Gasheads stands at keeping the number one position as it is and that only seems fair. Sure, going into the new season freshly 21, Ward will still make errors and may not offer the booming commands to the players in front of him that a more senior goalkeeper might have in his arsenal. However, he's shown on more enough occasions that he can thrive at this level.

Naturally though, at least one new shot stopper will have to come in to, at the very least, push Ward and compete with him for that number one shirt. But, after being handed a new four-year contract and earning his first call-up to the England under-20s squad, the club are evidently extremely excited about their homegrown goalkeeper.

"It’s all about performance and Jed has performed well enough to keep his shirt during the back half of the season, I suppose," Taylor declared when asked about the goalkeeping situation. "We obviously took him out for one game when we felt it was right to freshen it up with Matt Cox. He’s performed exceptionally well but still ahead of his time and we’ve probably seen that at times this season and it’s not only what Jed needs it’s what the team needs and the backline needs. It’s what Connor Taylor needs, our new signings will need. Who's going to be the glue around it and the goalkeeping position is so, so important.

"So we are going to recruit goalkeepers, or a goalkeeper. Do we know if that’s going to be first-team or a back-up to Jed? Those decisions haven’t been made quite yet but there’s another aspect where Jed’s in demand as well. There’s not many 20-year-olds that play consistently as he has done and get the international recognition on top of that.

"The contract reflects that we’re planning for him to be here a long time but you never know what happens in football."

Expectations for next season

Although it would certainly make headlines, Taylor is never going to come out with an exact position in the table that he predicts Rovers to finish in next season, especially in early May. However, it's no secret that no one is going to start coming out publicly suggesting that a promotion push is possible as was the case last summer.

That saw, with hindsight, expectations levitated, possibly unconsciously, to a point that was never realistic going into the campaign. Admittedly, the league looked and ended up being below par in quality and 15th place was underwhelming to some extent but it was also Rovers' second season back in League One and consolidation was what the Gas needed.

Although we'd love to start raving about the amount of quality players that are going to be signed and how much money is going to be splashed, it's not the reality. Writing with a sensible cap on, Rovers will have a budget that is probably regarded as mid-table, potentially lower mid-table, within the league while the division looks set to be a completely different beast next term.

Two giants in Reading and Wigan Athletic won't have points deductions and off-field financial issues to deal with. Newly-promoted Wrexham and Stockport County, you would expect, will have money to spend. Most notably though, the three clubs who have come down from the Championship, particularly Birmingham City, are going to be regarded as monsters at this level. That's not even discussing the majority of the other clubs that finished above Rovers in the league this time around.

Naturally the goal will always be to improve and progress on 15th place and 57 points seems to be realistic and a respectable ambition given the fact that the necessary work on this squad cannot be done within one transfer window.

As said above, Taylor was never going to pluck out an exact position or a region of the table when asked about his expectations for next season but he certainly has respectable views with the Rovers manager saying: "I think we have to learn from, not mistakes, but what happened this season where I think that we put ourselves, not on a pedestal, but in a certain position in terms of expectation of the league without even fully knowing what the squad was capable of or the league itself. I think we’re in a better position to give them a slightly different line towards those sorts of questions.

"If we were middle of the range budget-wise this season just gone and the financial strength of the league getting stronger next time round it probably tells you where we are and where we will start in the pecking order I suppose. But then you’ve always got to look up in life and in football and you’ve got to challenge the teams above you as early as you possibly can.

"It’s an incredible challenge with the league and the makeup of the league and it’s still not decided because there’s two monsters coming down from the Championship and probably another big club coming down from League Two as well and then we’ve got our own play-offs, in terms of League One, to look towards.

"But I think we’ve got to be realistic and Hussain used the word ‘patient’. I think that probably tells yourself and myself and the fanbase where everyone sees us going into next season. But with a new group and a fresh group and a different type of approach, I’m always going to be looking up as opposed to down."