Management is a multi-faceted job. There are tacticians, leaders and recruiters, but without proficiency in all three categories it is close to impossible to find success.
At Bristol Rovers, Joey Barton has ticked all three boxes. Not instantly, but in time to achieve their promotion goal and deliver the most incredible promotion journey.
League One will pose different questions to the manager and his players, but the job he has done this season should inspire confidence ahead of the new campaign, provided he can continue his success in the key areas of management.
Recruitment
Without unlimited resources, turning a club in the state Rovers were in after relegation in one transfer window is very, very difficult. Not only is recruitment an inexact science, with every acquisition at risk of failing to deliver as desired, but a wholesale clear out and rebuild typically takes time to bed in.
This proved to be the case at the end of the summer transfer window, when 17 first-team signings were made. With the benefit of a strong budget for the level, the vast majority have been hits for Rovers, but there was a period of adjustment and meshing before the Gas got into gear. By the business end of the season, when the pretenders started to fall away, Rovers were only getting stronger and that was in large part due to the character and undoubted ability of the squad the manager had assembled.
This was not aided by two key misses in the market in Barton's first window. As referenced above, that is not a bad ratio when making so many signings, but the arrivals of centre-back Mark Hughes and Brett Pitman did not work out as planned. Injuries did not help, of course, but if they were swapped for more effective additions then there is little doubt we would be talking about a league title in the trophy cabinet, rather than third place.
But silverware besides, there is very little between finishing first and third in League Two, and two masterful additions in the January transfer window enabled the Gas to realise their potential and, ultimately, win promotion on the last day of the season.
Firstly, James Connolly. Such little fanfare was made of his acquisition on loan from Cardiff City, in part due to Rovers wanting to keep Peterborough United on their toes ahead of an FA Cup tie, but there was no signing video, no press release and his announcement was a mere tweet of his shirt hanging in the dressing room before kick-off.
To say this was an under-the-radar deal is an understatement. It is very rare that no major picture libraries like Getty Images and JMP have images of a player in their archives, but at the time Connolly was that low profile.
At the time, it seemed doubtful that he could be the only answer to Rovers' defensive woes and the retirement and departure of Hughes to Plymouth Argyle. How wrong that view proved to be.
Connolly had a transformative effect on the back four; a perfect partner for fellow 20-year-old Connor Taylor and the Gas rapidly developed into a miserly defence.
At the other end of the pitch, the Gas already had plenty of talent in attacking midfield, but the manager wanted more. After deals for Callum Camps and Liam Sercombe could not be struck on January deadline day, Barton showed the power of his contact book to pull off the loan signing of Elliot Anderson with the clock ticking.
In his 20 starts, Anderson was the best player in the fourth tier. The 19-year-old Newcastle United starlet had no business playing as low as League Two, but there he was in the blue and white quarters, plundering seven goals and six assists from the left wing and driving the Gas to promotion.
Moves for Ryan Loft and Jon Nolan, meanwhile, were not instant successes, but Loft still has time and potential to come good, while Nolan was a punt worth taking on a short-term deal.
But again, in the notoriously difficult January window, a 50/50 record is very good, particularly when your hits are such huge successes.
No one is perfect at recruitment in this game, but it is what managers' job security often relies on and Barton has shown his capability to firstly build a squad with the many good tangible and intangible qualities, and secondly make smart, impactful additions and adaptations.
The recruitment job facing Barton this summer is more straightforward than the total reset required a year ago, but there will be challenges in the market and he has shown his strengths, which will be vital as the Gas prepare to enter the fray of a very competitive League One.
Tactics
League Two comes with its stereotypes and anecdotal tales of the rough and tumble, route one tactics and poor pitches. There is a semblance of truth to that; it is a vastly different battlefield to League One, which is a more measured, tactically astute arena. In the fourth tier, there are some teams that treat the ball like it has wronged their family members.
There was certainly a period of adjustment that Rovers had to go through, particularly with many of Barton's signings coming from the divisions above or under-23 setups. And at times, it felt like Rovers were falling into the stereotype, playing more directly than was required when they had more technical and creative talents to work with.
There were also defensive struggles, but this felt more like a personnel issue. Injuries created instability, some signings were not successful and youngsters were learning their game.
Control is something many managers, Barton included, crave, but the Gas had very little of it in the early stages of the season. They would become tangled in frenetic, end-to-end games meaning James Belshaw was a very busy man and Rovers were allowing the randomness of League Two to take hold.
In conjunction with the midseason recruitment, that would start to change and Barton's gameplan began to take effect. With a more secure and athletic defence, the Gas were able to defend closer to the halfway line, starving teams of possession and chances and, in turn, helping to sustain their own attacks.
Defensively, Rovers became excellent, conceding just 16 goals in their final 25 games – including only two in their last nine at home.
In attack, Rovers were not always the most fluid, but their high press gave their flair players possession in great positions and they took advantage. And when they needed to chase, as they did against Rochdale and Scunthorpe United in the last games, they could find extra gears.
It took time, but Barton showed adaptability to crack the tactical conundrums of the fourth tier. League One will be a very different challenge, but they appear to be well built to cope.
Man management
This has emerged as Barton's greatest strength. Convincing a group of men that nothing is beyond them is not an easy task, but by the end of the season, the manager had accomplished this feat.
At times, it appeared Barton could be applying too much pressure to a squad in the infancy of its development by declaring his bold promotion claims, and his ruthless handling of the Luke Thomas situation split opinion.
In time, it has proved that the manager has handled those situations masterfully. Time and again, the Gas came through in the biggest moments, and their penchant for ridiculous comebacks is no coincidence. At no point in any game did they believe victory was beyond them.
And Thomas, specifically, benefitted hugely from the manager's tough love. He became an important player in the run-in.
Buzzwords like "culture" and "ethos" get thrown around, but it is clear Barton has got everyone within the football operation aligned and working selflessly in unison. The result was an inexorable ascent through the pack and into the top three.
The last two games alone are evidence enough of the sheer belief that exuded through the players, certain in their view that nothing was impossible. They would score 11 goals in 135 minutes of football to snatch promotion by the slimmest of margins.
It was not always this way, with Barton facing self-doubt in the autumn as Rovers stumbled out of the blocks, but once the loose ends were tied up with recruitment and tactics, the Gas surged so rapidly that it is hard to doubt whether they were the league's best team in terms of form as the season ended.
Aaron Collins' in-house interview with the club's media team this week emphasised the confidence has been instilled by the manager "We’re on a roll," Collins said. "We all believe in what the gaffer is doing and, with a couple of additions in the summer, we believe we can go up again. The sky really is the limit. You’ve got to aim high."
League One will bring different recruitment and tactical challenges to those experienced in League Two this season, but when it comes to managing the mentality of the group, Barton is in the sweet spot and he has to maintain that belief while integrating new players.
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