Darrell Clarke has confirmed he will be seeking talks with Fulham over the possibility of extending the loan spell of Lyle Della-Verde. He has been impressive in the four games in which he has featured for Rovers since arriving from Craven Cottage on a month-long loan deal at the start of November, and Clarke said: "It is one of those where we have him for the month and we would like to extend that. He plays the game with a lot of confidence, but with young lads it is a lot to do with consistency. I am not getting carried away because the lad has only had three good games, but he has done well and we'd like to keep him here a bit longer if we can. Lyle is a 19-year-old kid, who only played his first full senior game the other day and I have to manage him properly. He was struggling with a bit of stiffness before the game and we have to be careful in how and when we use him."
I hope we can keep him until January - he's lively and attack-minded - just what we need to balance our old-timers in Monkhouse and Mansell. I can't help but wonder if John Ward had signed more Della Verde-types last season - young, hungry players from Championship clubs, rather than some of the crocks and journeymen we ended up with - whether we'd still be a league team?
Ward was too stubborn to bring those kind of players in. There was no flair whatsoever in last season's team.
