Darrell Clarke and DoF Ricky Martin discuss their plans and ambitions for Bristol Rovers - Fan Banter
They finished the 2024/25 season with 22nd in League One with 43 points from 46 games played, four points from safety.
Martin, new to the role, emphasised a thorough review of football operations, leading to Clarke’s appointment, replacing Inigo Calderon, as the top choice due to his alignment with the club’s goals.
Clarke highlighted the importance of their collaborative, challenging relationship to drive success, focusing on rebuilding the squad and backroom staff with a winning mentality.
Both stressed quick, methodical decision-making, with player and staff changes already underway to prepare for the new season.
Clarke, returning to the club, expressed a hunger to rectify past failures, build a new legacy, and reconnect with fans, aiming to challenge for promotion from League Two.
They aim to foster unity across the club, leveraging the passionate fanbase to maximise on-pitch success.
“It’s been an eventful few weeks. Obviously, it was really disappointing at the end of the season to get relegated, but we really just needed to build on that moment to say the rebuild starts now, and I’m absolutely delighted to have Darrell sitting next to me as our new Head Coach.”
“I think when we got to the end of the season, we had a really thorough football review. We reviewed all the football operations. We looked at all the data. We looked at all the key milestones of what’s gone on in the season, and to the eye, we could see that there had been a lot of disappointments, but then you need to build about what we need to take to rebuild the Club and what we need to take to help us going forward. We then put a process in place, we interviewed several candidates, and I’ve got to say that Darrell was always our number one target, and he came out on top in so many areas.”
“I think, first of all, when I met Ricky, you want to feel the chemistry, I want to chat football, see where the alignments are, see if we seem to be on the same page, and pretty early enough, I found that with Ricky. He’s a footballing guy like me, and he says it as it is, exactly like me and for me, that start of the new era that kicks us moving forward.
“I think in this day and age now, there are Directors of Football, and I’ve worked with a few Directors of Football. Some have worked. Some haven’t worked, but I feel my early conversations with Ricky and a lot more conversations that we’ve had over the last week or so show that we’re building in the right direction, and that’s important because we’re in charge of the football operations at the Football Club. We’ve got a big, big job on our hands.
“We understand the work we’ve got to do, and we’re doing that together as a team, but we’re in charge of that. I know the Gasheads and what they’re like. They will judge us from now on. We can’t control what’s happened in the past. We can’t control that. All we can do is be positive moving forward. We’ve had a lot of conversations, and there’s a lot of work that Ricky and I are doing now to make sure that we get the backroom team and the recruitment right and make sure that we’re in a really good place come the start of the season.”
“Very, very much so. It’s vital, but it has to be a relationship where we challenge each other and we test each other. I can tell you now, we’re not yes men, and that doesn’t bring a healthy relationship. We’re here to do the best for the Football Club. We’re custodians of the Football Club. I said it here in my first spell. We’re custodians. We’re here to do the best for the supporters of this Football Club and to bring success on the pitch. With that, there needs to be challenges. There needs to be interaction.
“There needs to be really deep conversations and getting the right solutions to the problems that we share together. So, it’s vital that you do that, and my past experience should tell me in the success I’ve had at Football Clubs is that the relationship is really healthy when you’re challenging each other and pushing each other to get the right results for the Football Club.”
“Loads of work at the moment, and like Darrell said, during our conversations, we’ve been on the same page on so many aspects, and that’s something that I’m really excited about working. But like what Darrell said there, we’re going to check and challenge each other. We’re going to help each other. So, I’m going to be working with a lot of the support staff, all of the departments and the operational side at the training ground. Then together, we’re really going to be working on the recruitment.
“So, we wanted to work on the staff, and that’s been a big objective. It’s now about players, and we’re now moving towards that exciting phase and rebuilding the squad. There had been lots of decisions made on players, either retaining or releasing at the end of last season, and that’s been put to bed now. We need to start bringing the future players to come and represent this wonderful Football Club.”
“It’s all about people. So, whether it’s about players or staff, everyone at this Football Club has a part to play. From the stadium to the training ground and also the supporters. We all need to be aligned. We all need to get behind each other. So, we want the best quality people. We want the best type of person who can come here and deliver and ensure that we are preparing the team to get the best result every week.”
“I think hopefully the supporters out there will see the way we’re going to work going forward. We need to review things quickly. We don’t want to sit and dally over things. Once a decision has been made, we’ll make that decision, and then we’ll move on. That gives us enough time then to support people and bring in the new players and new staffing structure. Whatever that will be. So, any decisions going forward, it won’t be rash. It will be done in a methodical way. We’ll review things, evaluate it, discuss it and then once a decision is made, that will be final, and we’ll move on to the next one.”
“I don’t think they were particularly hard decisions because we failed as a Football Club. Everyone has to take accountability for that. I think when you go down and you get relegated; it’s not just one thing as to why you get relegated. It’s numerous things that come into that one big picture because, no disrespect, there is no way this Club should have been relegated, in my opinion, with the resources that were given to it, but it’s happened. I think that accountability has to be had, and the changes have to be made.
“It’s as simple as that, and there will be more changes. We’re both aligned to understand that I know exactly what a Bristol Rovers player should look like. I know exactly what the fans expect from a Bristol Rovers player, and that’s where we will be aligned to make sure that we get those right players in that perform and honour the Football Club how we want it to be done, and that’s key. So, decisions have probably been a bit easier when you’ve gone down because it needed a blowtorch. To use my language, it needed a bit of a blowtorch, and we need to freshen the place up to get a winning mentality into the Club.”
“It’s about working with people and that collaborative approach. The recruitment team do a lot of great work behind the scenes, watching games and putting data and reports together and collectively, we’ll discuss that. We’ve all got different skill sets. I’ve got some experience working at different Football Clubs, and that’s certainly going to help me going forward. So, it’s certainly not a one-man-fits-all type of approach.
“It’s going to be collaborative, but then we’re going to have to make some good decisions and some quick decisions to make sure we get the right players into this Football Club. Darrell’s experience to know what it takes and what it looks like to be a Bristol Rovers player is going to play a big part in that.”
“We will have some expectations. We will have some standards. We will have some targets that we will discuss, and we’ll keep within the training ground, to be honest. It’s nothing that we’re going to put out there at the moment because, collectively, we know what we want to look like next season, and hopefully, the fans and the supporters will see that and will see the work that we’re doing behind the scenes is to enable us to be as successful as we can be on the pitch.”
“The energy at the training ground is really good already, and that’s without all the players being on-site and all the staff. You can feel it already. There’s a real sea change, a real change of momentum and that’s something that’s going to be driven by myself and Darrell. We’re leaders here, and we’ve got to be at the front, and we’re going to inspire, motivate and really try and engage everyone to get on this journey because it’s going to be a hell of a journey. We’re going to ensure that we maximise everything we’ve got in the building, maximise everything we do at the stadium to ensure we get the best success for the Club.”
“Listen, I enjoy pressure. Some people say never go back. I don’t agree with it. For me, I built a legacy the first time around, I apologise for the last year in charge because that was a disaster, to be honest with you. I understand why that went wrong, and I blame myself for that, but we had four fantastic years, in my opinion, and now it’s building a second legacy. I’m desperate to finish what I call unfinished business.
“So, that’s going to be the task at hand. That’s what we’re going to be working hard to achieve. Does that come easy? No. Does it heck? It’s easy to say we want promotion, and we want to compete in the Championship. It’s all easy to say, but the proof is always in the pudding, and what we will be doing and what I can promise our supporters is that we’ll be giving absolutely everything to bring success back to this Football Club. They deserve that, and you do that by getting everyone to buy into that, which we will be doing with our staff, with our players, and hopefully, everybody follows because if you’re not, they won’t be staying on the journey for too long.”
“It’s great to be back. I’m really pleased. Not a lot has changed at The Mem, if I am being honest with you, but to be back here after such a long time away, I’m really looking forward to it.”
“The rapport with the fans was a massive pull for me, but also, it’s still a Club with massive potential. If you take away from my previous period here, you’d still look at the Club as a very big Club in a division that we shouldn’t be in, and where we should be competing is where we need to get back into. So, the pull of that was massive, but certainly, the connection with the supporters was key.”
“I’m just really, really pleased. I have been to the training ground this morning. That’s a massive upgrade from what I had last time. Coming back to The Mem, there are not too many familiar faces, to be honest with you, that I’ve seen. I’m meeting a lot of new people, but I still feel the passion in the place initially meeting a lot of the work staff. I’m really looking forward to what we’ve got to do. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I’m really looking forward to getting started.”
“A lot changes, I think. As you go through the games and different clubs that I’ve managed, I think I’ve grown as a manager. I’m still doing leadership courses, and I’ve still got more progress to make on that, but for me, I’m a lot more experienced. I’ve managed big games, and I managed big games when I was here.
“So, a lot of experience and know-how is the things that you pick up. Working with different owners and different football clubs has different challenges, but I’m more experienced to be able to cope with many situations now.”
“First of all, this Club is in mourning. I know this Club very well, and the fans are hurting, no doubt. People in and around the building are hurting, which is understandable because they’ve let the supporters down. I think there has to be that air of accountability which people are showing. I think that’s important, but I also think it comes as a fresh start for what we’re trying to do and what we’re trying to build here now.
“I have come back to win. I’ve come to get this Club back challenging to try and get into the Championship, albeit we’re going to be starting in League Two. But it’s all gone now. It’s a fresh era. When I decided to come back when the owners were in touch, and Ricky [Martin] got in touch, it was an easy decision for me because the potential is still massively here, but we have to forget the past now.
“We have to move on, and it’s up to us to pick our fans up, and that’s a message I repeated when I took the Club into the National League, the old Conference, was that it’s now time to get a team of players and a squad of players that the fans can be proud of and build a backroom team as well, which is a formidable backroom team that can bring success to the Club because that’s what our supporters deserve.”
“You have to find ways to win football matches. It’s as simple as that. I could sit here and talk about philosophies and high press, counter-press, playing through the thirds, balls in the box. You can talk as much rubbish as you like. The game is about winning. It always has been and always will be. I think the fans know exactly how I am on that. We’ve got a busy summer ahead to build a squad that’s capable of challenging for promotion. But also, the aim of the game is to win football matches, and that’s up to me and my staff to find that way to win games.”
“I’m not coming back if I’m not hungry. For me, I’ve got unfinished business here. The last year of my time here was very disappointing. I know why it was disappointing, and I held myself responsible for that, but I feel like there is now potential at the Club, and I didn’t necessarily have the finances when I was here last time to push on from League One to the Championship. I feel like the owners have backed the managers very well, and for whatever reason, it’s gone wrong and I think I’ll get the backing to be able to kick us on and hopefully get us challenging, eventually, to try and able us to get in the Championship. But it’s not going to be easy.
“There’s going to be a load of speedbumps in the road. We’ve got to get out of League Two first. It’s a hell of a task, and when you’ve been relegated, there’s a hell of a lot of work to be done. But I’m confident in the work, and I’m confident that I’ll be able to get a team out there and a squad of players here next year that do the shirt proud and hopefully have a successful season.”
“It’s huge, but what I will say is that I’ve managed over 250 games here. The fans will always give the players an opportunity to perform. It’s one of the greatest things about this Football Club is that you can get beaten one week, but if you’re at it in the next game, the fans will get behind you. I watched the game against Reading, where they performed atrociously in the back end of the season, but you wouldn’t have thought it the way the fans were behaving and getting behind the team.
“That’s great to be back involved with that, and I’m certainly not coming back fearing failure. I’m coming back with the appetite to put more smiles on the faces and build another legacy.”
“I’ve always loved coming back as an opposing manager because it gives me an opportunity to thank the fans for the support they gave me. Obviously, I had success here, but they gave me that opportunity that I’ll never ever forget when we got relegated to the National League. They gave me a chance to rebuild. They gave me support to be able to do that. Yes, we had some speedbumps in the road, but they gave me that opportunity and that, for me, I’ll never forget. That enabled us to bring success here, and that’s what we’re going to try and do once again.”
On looking forward to the first game at The Mem in front of a full crowd?
“It will be a very special moment for myself. I’m really looking forward to that. It’s a busy summer of work ahead. I would like to thank all the fans. I’ve had umpteen number of messages, phone calls and all sorts of nice messages coming through, and I just want to thank the fans for the support. I think they know what they are going to get from me. They are going to get absolutely everything to try and bring success back here.”
