Joey Barton has conceded the chance of Connor Taylor returning to Bristol Rovers on loan looks remote, with the Gas manager exploring other options in the transfer market to reinforce and improve his defensive options.
Barton admits he would love to take Taylor back for another season, following his stunning campaign in League Two last term, but with the 20-year-old starting for Stoke City on Saturday and Harry Souttar’s injury comeback further delayed into October, he looks to be staying at the bet365 Stadium.
With James Connolly, Alfie Kilgour and Luca Hoole - who’s in the process of being converted from right-back - as his senior centre-backs, albeit two of the three aged only 20, Barton is short of options and depth in that area.
Ideally he would like to bring in two players in that position before the window closes on September 1. Crystal Palace’s Jake O’Brien is a player under consideration but Barton is having to play a waiting game with several Premier League clubs as they end their pre-season campaigns and begin to make decisions on which players to loan out.
“If he’s starting for them, he isn’t going to come here. If he’s starting for Stoke City in the Championship, I’d be surprised,” Barton said of Taylor. “As I say, we’d love to have Connor back, but he isn’t our player and we’ve got to have different irons in the fire.
"We’ve got a few different options there, but again teams are keeping players in for pre-season, mainly Premier League, and they’re going ‘No, we’re going to keep them for another week’ because they’re a week behind us.
“We’ve just got to be patient and wait for the shakeout. Usually at the end of the January window and the summer window we advance the group and lots of stuff happens, as you know, in the last 24 hours of the market, let alone the last 24 days. Elliot Anderson happened in the last five minutes and Antony Evans was the same.”
Those latter two examples Barton references - Evans was signed in the penultimate day of the summer window after his contract was cancelled by Paderborn, while the Gas turned to Anderson on January 31 as a move for Callum Camps fell through - gives the manager the confidence he will be able to form the squad he wants by the start of September.
He’s declared he wants “six or seven” new faces with the expectation that comprises two centre-backs, a left-back - having raised question marks of Trevor Clarke as a credible and consistent starter - a central midfielder, one or two wide players and another striker.
Rovers remain in informal discussions with Barnsley over Luke Thomas, who played 29 minutes for the Tykes against Plymouth Argyle on Saturday, while AFC Wimbledon’s Luke McCormick is a long-term target, with the midfielder left out of their matchday squad as he seeks a move away from Plough Lane.
Barton accepts that the dynamic has changed in terms of Rovers’ position in the market compared to last season in League Two. Then, they were among the bigger and more well-resourced clubs in the division, with a budget to reflect that.
Having made the step up to League One, they’re now, in his words, “minnows” in terms of ability, resource and financial clout; emphasised by Ipswich Town spending £900,000 on left-back Leif Davis last month or Portsmouth signing striker Colby Bishop for £500,000 - the sort of fees Rovers aren’t in any kind of position to offer.
“We’ve got to be patient, there is a month to go in the window,” Barton added. ”It would be nice to have some of the bigger budgets (in the league) because you can force the issue, you can offer five hundred grand or £1million or £1.5million, because that’s what we’re up against now.
“Last year we were not up against that, this year we’re not the biggest fish in this pond. We’re a minnow and we’ve got to scrap for every point we’re going to get.”
SIGN UP: To receive our free Rovers newsletter, bringing you the latest from the Mem
READ NEXT:
