00:00Now for Bristol Rovers, obviously they're going to want to ensure that they continue to bounce back
00:07and make sure that Daryl Clark has that promotion experience and utilises it again.
00:12With Bristol Rovers, the club really had a great tenure in 10 years or so ago.
00:19I mean, in terms of the transfer business, it's a big window.
00:22It's a window where they have to make sure they do sort of clear out a few free agents
00:27and they get some real clever signings in to ensure that they are right bouncing back up.
00:33At the end of the day, they don't want to be anywhere nearly to come 12 months from now.
00:38They want to be making sure they're preparing for another League One season
00:41and hopefully it can all go to plan for Daryl Clark and his side.
00:46The transfer window is still ticking on and the contracts are there and the retain lists are there.
00:53For Bristol Rovers, we're going to our correspondent Dan.
00:55Dan, what do you think Bristol Rovers need?
00:58What can you sort of tell us about where they are in terms of this window?
01:02How they're viewing it?
01:03How they're going about their business?
01:04Is it sort of continuing from previous windows?
01:07Have they changed any strategies now that they have been relegated?
01:10And then they might need to change a few plans to make sure they go straight back up
01:14because Daryl Clark has come to a side where he could probably punch way above Bristol Rovers' weight,
01:20let's be honest.
01:20But surely something's enticed them to come back and there's a bit of a plan and a project to get them back to League One.
01:27So, Dan, what are your thoughts ahead of this window and how it's sort of panning out for Bristol Rovers ahead of the new campaign?
01:34Well, Charles, Bristol Rovers are still continuing their preparations in good fashion for the upcoming League Two season.
01:40They recently played at Bath and got a 1-0 win.
01:44John Stead commenting on that game, said it was a good exercise for them once again.
01:49Get some good minutes into the tank for a lot of players.
01:51And, of course, it is a win.
01:52Now, obviously, as we've mentioned before, wins don't really matter.
01:56The results don't really matter, to be honest, in pre-season.
01:58Obviously, you want to win because you want to keep that competitive edge and that sort of nature.
02:03But, let's be honest, it is about playing styles as well as fitness as well and getting good workouts and understanding the team as a whole and getting good cohesion and synergy into them.
02:11But, certainly, it's a good victory over Bath.
02:14So, what's next for Bristol Rovers?
02:16Well, obviously, they've brought in a lot of players already, but do they bring in any more?
02:20That's the question.
02:22Certainly, they've acted very early in this window, I think, with the means of getting players bedded in as quickly as possible before a lot of their pre-season fixtures.
02:29Obviously, they've had a couple already.
02:32They played Chippenham Town.
02:33They won 2-1 there.
02:34They lost against Stockport County on a warm-weather training camp 3-2.
02:39But, they were also quite happy that they managed to get the game back to 2-2, having been 2-0 down at one point in that game.
02:45So, overall, things are looking all right for them.
02:48I think, obviously, they want to get things just looking all right on the surface of things after what happened at the end of last season.
02:56But, actually, to be fair, internally at the club, things are also looking quite good.
03:00It seems as if it's a club that's got a lot more about it once again.
03:04I think a lot of players have commented on the fact that the training grounds had some subtle, refreshing, and just overall little bits done to it just to make it seem a little bit more professional, a little bit more quality.
03:16Not only for the new players coming in, but also for the current squad and the squad from last season who are returning to training to think, yeah, actually, you know what, things have been done here.
03:24And even though the way things ended last season wasn't great, actually, things are still looking in the right direction at the club.
03:31And it makes them feel as if, well, yeah, things are still decent, despite how poor things were at the end of last season.
03:36There's no denying that Bristol Rovers was a sorry place to be at the end of the previous campaign, but they've worked very hard over the summer to make things seem right.
03:46Obviously, appeasing the supporters, getting a good head coach in with some good assistance to him in the likes of John Stead and Rhys Carr.
03:53And then, of course, making a lot of signings early in the window to show that they do mean business in League Two and they're not just going down and sort of resting on their laurels.
04:01They want to get straight back out of that league again and get straight back up into League One.
04:06That's exactly what they want to do.
04:07They don't want to just be a club who, you know what, they've gone down, but then what?
04:12I think it's a case of they're a club who value themselves a lot and they think they should be higher up in the English football pyramid.
04:19And it's just about proving that they're capable and worthy of that now.
04:23Now, of course, obviously everything will get judged when we get to the season getting underway in mid-August,
04:28but they're certainly doing all the right things both on and off the field at the moment to make them seem like a club who still knows what they want
04:37and where they want to be in the short term and indeed the long term future of the club.
