They left it late, but Joey Barton and Bristol Rovers found defensive reinforcements in the final minutes of the January transfer window. Deals were announced for Aston Villa prospect Lamare Bogarde and Stockport County defender Calum Macdonald as the 11pm deadline struck.
The pair increased Rovers' January incomings to five, joining Jarell Quansah, Ellery Balcombe and Grant Ward. Meanwhile, five players exited the club across the month, with Bobby Thomas being the only true surprise departure, heading elsewhere alongside Harvey Saunders, Trevor Clarke, Alfie Kilgour and Zain Westbrooke.
So five in and five out for the Gas, and Barton hopes that will equate to a strengthened squad over the final 17 games of the season for the Gas, who hold aspirations of challenging for a top-six place despite successive league defeats.
Those poor results at Accrington and Morecambe exposed the existing flaws that the Gas had been surviving through beforehand, with a potent attack covering for a leaky defence, and the deadline day additions will help address that problem if all goes to plan.
Gasheads were made to wait and some felt a bit underwhelmed by the club's dealings on deadline day, but the reality is Rovers' best business throughout the January window involved no deal at all...
Two in, none out with wishlist unfulfilled
Unpredictability was the only certainty going into the day and that proved to be the case; for a long time it looked like Barton would be left frustrated, but the Gas got a couple of deals done in the end.
It was anticipated a much busier deadline day was in store, with Barton talking up the prospect of up to five incomings and multiple departures after Saturday's bruising defeat at Morecambe. In the end, some things on his wishlist proved elusive, and it appears his suggestion that he had "made his mind up" on certain players leaving was more a final warning rather than a statement of his true intent.
Indeed, there is no suggestion that the Gas were actively working on shipping players out throughout the day, with the focus on incomings.
Ahead of deadline day, Barton declared he wanted a centre-back, left-back, centre-midfielder and a winger before the end of trading, and two – or possibly three – of those boxes were checked with the pair of arrivals on Tuesday. Macdonald will compete with Lewis Gordon for the left-back spot and Bogarde is billed as a central defender, bringing much-needed depth in that area, but he can also operate in the heart of midfield.
Barton admitted he had a hunch that a winger would prove elusive and that proved to be the case. The Gas wanted a right-sided player who is left-footed, which is a very desirable skillset with the novelty of inverted wingers in the modern game. This will be a priority position for the Gas to fill in the summer when they will likely pursue a permanent move for the then out-of-contract Luke Thomas.
In terms of the numbers, the Gas are one or two short of what would have been ideal. In terms of quality, we will have to wait and see.
The best possible piece of business was achieved
Gasheads wanted to see more new faces brought in late in the window, but the truth is it may have been impossible for Rovers to have done better business this month than keeping hold of star man Aaron Collins.
Throughout the day, there were panicked suggestions on social media that the 14-goal striker was off, fuelled by an unfortunately-timed Instagram story (Welcome to 2023). First Middlesbrough were mentioned, then Swansea City. There was no credibility to either suggestion.
The Gas are in a strong position when it comes to the 25-year-old's future. When the time is right, they will certainly not stand in his way, but the fact he has two and a half years remaining on a contract that has no release clause means they are in a good bargaining position.
The several million Rovers would have demanded for the Welshman, as a result, would have been prohibitive for almost any potential suitor. Still, Barton admitted he was fearful Rovers could be "raided" late in the window – with Collins surely on the radar of every scout in the country.
With 10 assists to go with his 14 goals, Collins has contributed to more than half of Rovers' 43 league goals this season and his dual threat as a scorer and a creator makes him almost irreplaceable; he is two players in one and no realistic signing would have been more important than he is to the team.
Coupled with the fact Josh Coburn's loan from Middlesbrough remains intact and will run to the end of the season, Rovers' best asset – their strikeforce – remains.
Don't forget Sinclair
With the hype and chaos of the end of the window, it is easy to forget that there was another crucial signing this window: Scott Sinclair's new 18-month contract, which brought uncertainty over his future with the club to an end.
The 33-year-old was a no-brainer of a signing when he joined on a short-term agreement in October, and it has paid off handsomely for the Gas with three winning goals out of the four he has scored in his 16 appearances.
Considering the fact he has played as a wing-back for the majority of his second spell with Rovers so far, those numbers are more impressive and they initially seem and it took little time for him to show he is still an excellent player at this level despite coming in cold after six months without any game time.
Replacing his quality and experience, plus the fact he is a leader by example, would have been very difficult and Rovers have done well to tie the academy product down not only for the rest of this season but the whole of the next one, too.
The fringes have been cut back
Four of the five players who left the Gas in January combined for just a total of 12 League One starts, with Bobby Thomas the only regular starter to leave the club, choosing to end his loan stint early to seal a move from Burnley to Barnsley.
Centre-back Thomas would be a handy asset, although the signing of Quansah would have pushed him onto the bench with everyone fit. Kilgour, Saunders, Westbrooke and Clarke, however, were limited factors when it came to first-team selection, particularly when it came to Barton picking his starting XI.
Saunders, deservedly, was a popular player on the terraces before his switch to Tranmere Rovers, but he was caught at the back of a long queue of attacking options.
Clarke could never nail down the spot at left-back and wing-back when he had the chance and Barton's selections made clear Kilgour was not the type of defender he was looking for. And then Westbrooke was the furthest on the fringes of all, playing just once in the league and that was on the opening day due to a shortage of options.
They are all talented players, but based on their limited usage alone, they are not going to be sorely missed. In their place is a new left-back to fight it out with Gordon, two young defenders in the mobile and technically-proficient mould Barton prefers, an experienced central midfielder and another goalkeeper.
The next five months will reveal how much Rovers have gained from these deals, with most of them unknown and unproven quantities, but they have lost relatively little production in the departed players.
Wait and see
Looking ahead, all five players signed have something to prove. Of course, that to an extent is always the case when joining a new club, but it is particularly true in this case.
Ward is a respected and experienced midfielder who performed pretty well off the bench on his debut despite it being a dismal afternoon for the Gas. But he is coming off very little competitive football after a serious ankle injury that marred the end of his time at Blackpool. The 28-year-old has proven he has the ability, but he will need to prove his robustness in the weeks ahead.
Goalkeeper Balcombe looks the part and there are good reviews from his loan spell at Crawley Town in the first half of the season, but the decision to drop James Belshaw has been met with some scepticism from fans and the Brentford loanee had a difficult debut at Morecambe. He will be eager to show his command between the sticks in the coming games.
Both Quansah and Bogarde are talented prospects who have represented their countries at various youth levels, and Quansah's debut was impressive despite the mess occurring around him, but they are untried in the senior game and we will see how they fare in the deep end until the end of the season.
And Macdonald has made plenty of senior appearances for a 25-year-old, closing in on 150, but just 12 of them have been in League One. The majority of his football has been played at the level below and he will want to prove he can cut it in the third tier after leaving Stockport.
With all this context taken into account, it means the theme of deadline day – unpredictability – is carried forward, so reserving judgements until we've seen these lads play a few games is advised.
One year on, there may have been no Elliot Anderson on deadline day for the Gas. But we didn't know Elliot Anderson was going to be Elliot Anderson until we found out he was Elliot Anderson.
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