Football Season Guide

Bristol Rovers have spent the majority of the previous season inside the top half, near the play-off places without actually breaking into them, and eventually finished 10th. This was a decent campaign for Darrel Clarke and his men, who only won promotion to the third tier at the end of the 2015/16 season but the manager had been quite vocal about his desire for successive promotions throughout the season. A peculiar thing regarding "The Gas" last season was the fact that they had a squad much bigger than teams who win promotion from League Two normally do. This has lead to numerous players finding themselves out of favour and even transfer-listed but, having been unable to get rid of the unwanted players during the season, Clarke has had to wait until this summer to conduct a clear-out that saw as many as eleven players leave the club - none of whom were regulars. At the same time, the Pirates have made a number of interesting signings. The likes of Liam Sercombe, Sam Slocombe and Adam Smith being proven League One players but Tom Nichols has it all to prove, having scored for fun in League Two with Exeter. He failed to show the same sort of form at now former club Peterborough though. All things considered, the situation with Bristol Rovers is pretty clear-cut, as it is very hard to see them as being weaker than last season. They have kept all the players that they wanted to keep, while adding some quality to the squad.