He has been a Bristol Rovers for almost a year, but we still don’t really know how good Trevor Clarke is. Through no fault of his own, of course; he has been hampered by a string of injury setbacks and his appearance count in League Two was just seven by the end of the campaign.
Yet that has not stopped Joey Barton from putting his faith in the Irishman, awarding him with a new two-year contract with the option for a further 12 months. No other player at the club has such contract security.
This is a player who already had a one-year option in his initial 12-month contract with the Gas, and that surely would have been the easy option for Barton and Rovers. Take another year to assess Clarke and see if his injury issues subside, but no, the manager has instead delivered a huge vote of confidence in the player.
