From The Post....
Bristol Rovers chairman Nick Higgs says there is money available to manager John Ward should he need to make an emergency foray into the transfer market. Higgs confirmed money has been set aside as a contingency, but, with an early-season injury crisis expected to ease "week-on-week" over the next month or so, he expects Ward to hold fire on any further transfer activity for the moment.
Higgs said:
"We put a strategy in place at the end of last season, and I'm pleased we managed to achieve all the things we set out to do in terms of bringing in our first-choice signings over the summer. The first priority was to agree permanent deals for the players who had done well for us during their loan spells over the second-half of last season, and it was a case of being patient and not rushing off to do other things in a panic.
We have also had been pleased with the amount of young talent that has started to breakthrough into the senior squad, but we always have to have a contingency in place in case we lose a key player.
There are funds available to bring a player in if we need to, but, at this moment in time, I know the manager is happy with the squad he has at his disposal.
We're expecting to see a couple of the injured players ready to return over the next seven days or so, and then I'd expect the situation with some of the others to improve week-on-week after that. It is hard to measure where we are or what we need until we start to get those players back out of the treatment room.
We showed we had the ability to challenge all of the top teams in the division with pretty much this squad of players over the final part of last season. Let's see how we go when we have a few of the senior players back and then we will be in a better place to review the situation
The wage cap rule has gone against us as a club because of the situation we have had with so many injuries, but I am still a firm supporter of it. Clubs in the lower leagues, in particular, need to start getting their houses in order because too many are going into administration. The wage cap is one way to try to stop that sort of thing happening and I'm very much in favour of it."
Bristol Rovers chairman Nick Higgs says there is money available to manager John Ward should he need to make an emergency foray into the transfer market. Higgs confirmed money has been set aside as a contingency, but, with an early-season injury crisis expected to ease "week-on-week" over the next month or so, he expects Ward to hold fire on any further transfer activity for the moment.
Higgs said:
"We put a strategy in place at the end of last season, and I'm pleased we managed to achieve all the things we set out to do in terms of bringing in our first-choice signings over the summer. The first priority was to agree permanent deals for the players who had done well for us during their loan spells over the second-half of last season, and it was a case of being patient and not rushing off to do other things in a panic.
We have also had been pleased with the amount of young talent that has started to breakthrough into the senior squad, but we always have to have a contingency in place in case we lose a key player.
There are funds available to bring a player in if we need to, but, at this moment in time, I know the manager is happy with the squad he has at his disposal.
We're expecting to see a couple of the injured players ready to return over the next seven days or so, and then I'd expect the situation with some of the others to improve week-on-week after that. It is hard to measure where we are or what we need until we start to get those players back out of the treatment room.
We showed we had the ability to challenge all of the top teams in the division with pretty much this squad of players over the final part of last season. Let's see how we go when we have a few of the senior players back and then we will be in a better place to review the situation
The wage cap rule has gone against us as a club because of the situation we have had with so many injuries, but I am still a firm supporter of it. Clubs in the lower leagues, in particular, need to start getting their houses in order because too many are going into administration. The wage cap is one way to try to stop that sort of thing happening and I'm very much in favour of it."