Ward is pleased with the way his group of players is coming together, as he didnât want to bring too much upheaval this summer. He said: âThe bulk of the group now are beginning to put themselves together. Maybe when pre season starts and we get a bit closer to the season, we might see if we can get a couple of loans in to strengthen things up a little bit, but I am quite happy with the way things have gone so far. A lot of the work was done in January, as they had to come at that particular time. There has been a lot of change in recent seasons, and I thought it was time to calm that down and give young players a chance to develop. We have got a good work ethic in the group, the young lads are learning all the time, and the old heads are important to make sure they keep their feet on the floor. It is great having young boys in there, but they can make mistakes, that is through youth and inexperience. The important thing for me when I first came was to get down the middle of the pitch, and we did that with Mildenhall and McChrystal and John-Joe OâToole. The centre of the pitch is an area I need to look at. We have a lot of youth and exuberance, we probably just need that little bit of experience â it is no secret that is an area of the pitch I am looking to try and get another senior player in. I am in touch with John-Joe and his agent. Even when we took him on loan we went right through to the last day of that before we extended that. John-Joe has ambition, he wants to play as high as he can. He is with a League One in Colchester but I think his chances there are going to be quite limited, but he is good enough to play at that level. He knows that and I know that. I am going to have to bide my time on that one. If I can get him I think it will be a fantastic deal, but at the moment I am reserved about that as there are so many things that are not in our favour. Rest assured I am trying very hard to do that, but it could go right to the wire.â http://www.bristolrovers.co.uk/news/article/ward-june5-856019.aspx Looks like then Ward will wait until the end of the transfer window for O'Toole and is quite happy to use the loan market to strengthen in other areas and I guess as a plan B if O'Toole fails to join us.
Hopefully JJ will prove his worth with us, no disrespect to your lot but he is too good for Div.2, just needs to get his head down and earn his place. Really pleased that Ward has turned things around for you, really nice guy who got a raw deal with us.
totally agree with you. way too good for league 2. he was 1 of the main reasons why we survived when bottom at new years day and want far from the play offs at 1 stage. when he left us we had 4 games to go and we struggled without him. way too good for league 2 but he wants 1st team football which your manager has declared he wont get so offer has been made and accepted so down to JJ. we all wont argue if he dont rejoin us as we respect that he wants to player higher league football. good luck to him in what ever decision he makes. im glad you stayed up by the way
I would like to see O'Toole come back but if he doesn't that midfield would need significant improvement
i like to think ward has a plan b, c, d & e in case JJ dont come. but my worry is that he dont. the fact that he is willing to wait for JJ all the way until the end of the transfer window worries me. thats 4/5 games lost without a player that we need and he still may not come. ward hinted as getting loans so when the transfer window closes if no joy then he will be searching for loans. this worries me. think we should give him a deadline so ward can move on to get other targets.
