Joey Barton has ruled out the prospect of Bristol Rovers signing any free agents between now and the end of the season insisting he’s happy with the squad at his disposal despite what he considered was a disappointing January window for the Gas.
Rovers fell to their third straight league defeat on Saturday, losing 2-0 at home to MK Dons four days after deadline day in which Barton admits they were unable to secure some of their key targets, particularly in defence, and graded the window 5/10.
Rovers made five signings across January with defender Jarell Quansah and goalkeeper Ellery Balcombe having started the last two games while midfielder Grant Ward played 86 minutes against MK Dons and Lamare Bogarde made his debut off the bench. Full-back Calum Macdonald is the only new arrival yet to be involved.
Clubs can still bring in players out of contract - as the Gas did with Scott Sinclair in October after the summer window had closed - and first-team coach Andy Mangan last week denied claims that former Nottingham Forest and Reading defender Tyler Blackett, a free agent after being released by FC Cincinnati, has been training at The Quarters.
Mangan did insist Rovers were still open in the market, should the right opportunity present itself to try and improve the squad, but speaking in the aftermath of the weekend defeat, Barton appears to have now closed that door.
“No," Barton said, when asked if he’ll be adding a free agent to the squad. “I haven’t seen who’s out there but I can’t see it. I’m happy with what we’ve got. I was quite vocal with what I wanted (in the window), it didn’t materialise that way but I’m happy the window is closed because we’ve still got Collins and Coburn in the building.
“We’ve had a few good additions. I think you’ve all seen what Jarell is, he’s a real quality player. Young Lamare is a real top player as well. He’s only a baby but I think he’s going to be a really good player; well thought of at Villa.
“So, to add them to our group is key. What you get out of young players who knows, but just the little cameo from what we’ve seen of them we know they’ve got quality. Ellery and Grant, who are a little bit older, have come into that.
“But we’ve flipped a few lads out, who just wanted to go and play, to freshen the group up. That’ll now settle down.
“February, the window’s closed, everyone knows where we are, we know the group we’ve got and we just have to get to work, and make sure we get three points out of the next opportunity which is a tough game at Lincoln away.”
With four straight defeats in all competitions, it’s the worst losing run of Barton’s reign since the conclusion to the 2020/21 campaign and Rovers are understandably playing like a team low on confidence. Given so many elements of his squad are fundamentally young and inexperienced, the ebbing away of self-belief can have a more profound effect than on senior players able to play their way back into form.
Next on the agenda for the Gas is an away trip to Lincoln City, who won for the first time in eight league games on Saturday, beating Accrington 3-0, before they host third-placed Ipswich Town at the Mem the following Tuesday.
“It’s natural, when you win, everybody’s happy and confident; you can win 5, 6, 7 games on the spin but if you lose three that affects confidence levels,” Barton added. “We’ve all played football and you play much better when you’re confident than when you’re apprehensive. The only way out of that is getting results and winning games.
“We can moan about it and we can talk about it - the only way to change the feel is to only produce on a matchday. So all the work we do in the build-up is only training, and training only takes you so far.
“When you get out there on the pitch, if you’ve had a great week’s training, it doesn’t count for anything unless you produce on the Saturday. So we’ve got to get back to playing as a team and being hard to beat and with the match-winners we have in our team, if we do that then we have a chance of beating anyone.
“We can beat anyone in this division - that’s the most frustrating thing because we’ve lost three games to bottom six teams. But it’s a great learning for our younger players in terms of, if you come off of it by just a couple of per cent, anyone in this division can beat you. Similarly, if you’re at it and as close to 100 per cent as you can get, then you can beat anyone.”
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