Bristol Rovers have secured their first signing of the summer window with midfielder Jordan Rossiter signing from Fleetwood Town for an undisclosed fee.
Rossiter has signed a two-year contract at the Mem and is reunited with manager Joey Barton having worked with him at Highbury Stadium and previously at Rangers, where the pair were briefly teammates. The 25-year-old is a product of Liverpool’s academy and became the Reds' second youngest ever goalscorer after finding the target against Middlesbrough in the League Cup in 2014, aged 17.
Unfairly dubbed “the next Steven Gerrard” as he developed through the academy, he was unable to make a first-team breakthrough at Anfield and left in 2016 for Rangers where he made 16 appearances, playing alongside Barton in six games at the start of the 2016/17 season.
Capped by England from Under-16 to Under-19 level, Barton then signed him for Fleetwood in 2020, initially on loan and then a permanent, where Rossiter made 65 appearances in all competitions across two and a half seasons and captained the Cod Army last season.
Along with his manager, the Scouser will find familiar faces in the Rovers dressing room in the form of Paul Coutts, Sam Finley and Harvey Saunders.
Midfield has been an area of concentration for Rovers in the early stages of the window following the departure of Glenn Whelan at the end of the 2021/22 promotion-winning campaign. Rossiter can help fill the void left by the veteran’s departure, as he can operate as a holding player or in a more box-to-box role akin to Finley.
The Gas secured Antony Evans on a three-year contract earlier this month but are still understood to be in the market for at least one creative midfielder with AFC Wimbledon’s Luke McCormick and free agent Callum Camps among their targets.
The possible loan returns of Elliot Anderson and winger Luke Thomas, albeit both situations very much up in the air as they return for pre-season at their parent clubs, would also further swell Barton’s creative options.
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