Bristol Rovers transfer plans on deadline day revealed amid Joey Barton conundrum

Bristol Rovers manager Joey Barton has given a transfer update ahead of Saturday’s League One clash at home to Wycombe Wanderers.

The Gas have made seven permanent transfers and have received four players on loan, in what has been a busy window for Rovers so far.

A total of three former loan players; Luke Thomas, Connor Taylor and Lamare Bogarde have returned, whilst there have been other notable additions, such as League One promotion winners George Friend, and James Wilson.

Gas’ squad currently sits at 30 and with players gradually coming back from injuries, it leaves Barton with personnel decisions to make ahead of Saturdays home encounter.

He said: ‘There’s only 16 players that can be selected for a match day, and obviously we’ve got more than 16-18 players, good problems to have, and it’s never easy leaving lads out, who have trained well in the week.

‘Unfortunately I only have 11 jerseys to give out and there’s going to be some good players on Saturday who are not going to be in those 11 jerseys. There’s some lads that are going to want to be on the substitutes bench to come and finish the game for us.’

A combination of experience and youth have been added to the squad this window. However, with Rovers’ tough start to the League One campaign , it begs the question whether Barton would like any extra additions to his already strong looking squad.

He said: ‘I think you never say never while that window is open, but I think we’ve done the major share of the recruitment.

‘This cycle there might be a little bit at the back end of it if a bit of value presents itself or we feel we can add a bit of quality certainly to one of the departments.

‘If not and the window closes tomorrow, I’ve got a really good group to select from, and we’ve got competition for places, driving training ground performance, which usually drives match-day performances and that’s what we’re looking for.’

The transfer deadline day is on Friday, September 1 at 11pm, where Rovers fans will be watching on to find out if any further signings will be added to Barton’s armoury.

By Harry Langstaff