Head Coach Darrell Clarke and Director of Football Ricky Martin discussed their plans and ambitions for Bristol Rovers with BRTV.
Clarke returned to the Gas last week for his second spell in charge after a successful first stint, leading Rovers to back-to-back promotions between 2014-18. The 47-year-old signed a three-year contract with the Pirates ahead of the 2025/26 Sky Bet League Two campaign.
Martin, who previously worked as a Technical Director at Sky Bet Championship teams Stoke City and Norwich City and as Academy Manager at West Ham United, joined the Club in March.
Clarke and Martin reflected on their early conversations before discussing recruitment and aims.
So, Ricky, to start with, how have you settled into life at Bristol Rovers?
"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."
Why did you think Darrell Clarke was the right man moving forward?
"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."
Darrell, how positive were those early conversations with Ricky especially?
"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."
Darrell, how important is the cohesion between you both?
"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."
Ricky, the previous season has only just finished, but how much work is going into the new campaign?
"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."
You mentioned the staff there, Ricky. How important is it to get the right backroom staff for Darrell?
"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."
You mentioned decisions on players already. How important was it to get it done really early?
"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."
Darrell, how important was it to get a lot of the work done early?
"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."
Ricky, Darrell mentioned it there. He knows what a Bristol Rovers player looks like. So, how much will you be able to lean on him on the recruitment side?
"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."
Ricky, what are your ambitions for Bristol Rovers for the season and the future?
"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."
This work behind the scenes makes it seem like everything is going in the right direction. Is there a feeling of excitement, Ricky?
"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."
Finally, Darrell, it’s a big journey and a big challenge, but something that really excites everyone here as well...
"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."
