Bristol Rovers deserve credit for 2024 summer action: View | OneFootball

Bristol Rovers new Director of Football George Friend has taken a giant step towards meeting Hussain Al Saeed's commitments

Highlights

When former Bristol Rovers defender George Friend became director of football, he would have known the extent of his challenge in delivering a team capable of meeting the ambitions of the newly structured ownership.

The Gas were set to lose around half of their squad with contracts expiring and loan players returning to their parent club. As well as a completely refreshed coaching unit, brought in to support Matt Taylor. There would be massive upheaval both on and off the pitch.

One year of new ownership structure

Almost a year to the day since the Gas confirmed that Hussain Al Saaed had purchased a controlling stake in Duane Sports – the company founded by co-owner Wael Al-Qadi and his family to hold the club’s assets – and Bristol Rovers have had a strong start to the transfer window.

With a total of 13 signings up to the time of writing, the Gas left supporters in a dizzying head-spin as they announced seven signings in the first seven days of the window. Isaac Hutchinson was first over the line and the highly-rated 24-year-old was brought in as a replacement for last season's Player of the Year Antony Evans, who left the Gas for Huddersfield Town following a summer of speculation pointing towards his certain exit.

Gas break decades-old record for a transfer fee paid

Only in January of this year did Rovers break a decades-old transfer record when it was reported they had agreed a club-record deal for Kamil Conteh. Not content with breaking it once, the club would break it for a second time this year with the signing of 23-year-old Promise Omochere.

On taking over the club, Al Saeed set an ambitious target of improving the infrastructure and building a squad capable of challenging for promotion to the Championship within 3 year and the club chairman is certainly not holding back in trying to achieve that goal.

Speaking directly to Gasheads in an open letter back in February the co-owner said: "This past December, we appointed Matt Taylor as our manager, fully confident in his abilities to transform our squad into a formidable force within the league. His vision and leadership perfectly align with our ambitious goal: promotion to the Championship within the next three years.

"We are committed to providing Matt with full backing and the resources needed to make this vision a reality. This summer, during the transfer window, we will work closely with him to acquire talented players who share his ambition and are eager to contribute to the success of Bristol Rovers.”

Al Saeed may not wish to be reminded too often of that commitment but there can be no accusations of the ownership not backing the manager and not living up to their commitments as the Gas assemble a squad of young, dynamic, talented and hungry players on relatively long contracts covering the next three to four years.

Time will tell whether signings are a success

Of course, time will tell just how effective this summer’s recruitment will be, and we still have a few weeks remaining until the window slams shut on Friday 30th August 2024, but director of football Friend has certainly hit the ground running.

Taylor has spoken of his expectations that there will be more incomings and outgoings before the transfer deadline, as per Bristol Live's Bristol Rovers reporter Dan Hargraves on X, so Gasheads will eagerly await who will be next to adorn the blue and white quarters.

It is clear that the owners are once more backing their manager and continuing to respond to last season’s concerns.

With all that said then, it really is hard not to give credit to the new owner and to the entire recruitment setup at Bristol Rovers for a summer that so far must generally feel like it's going to plan.