Inside Rovers with Director of Football George Friend 

George Friend
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Bristol Rovers' Director of Football, George Friend, speaks to BRTV about his role at the club, his achievements in 2024 and plans for 2025!

So, George, thanks for sitting down with us today. To start, please could you introduce yourself with your name and job role... 

“I’m George Friend, and I’m the Director of Football at Bristol Rovers.” 

What does your job entail here? 

“First and foremost, I would say I am there to support the head coach, Iñigo Calderón. I am also the conduit between him and the board, making sure he’s in the best position to perform and have everything available to him to succeed at the club. On top of that, I run things at the training ground and look after the staff and the players there when needed. We have a really good setup at the training ground, and I like to help drive the performance, but hope that you can leave most things to the head coach and all the capable staff as well. 

“With the other side of the role, and people probably perceive it as majority recruitment, that is a part of it as well, but we have a recruitment department that looks after that side, and I will work closely with them. Especially more so when the window is open to make sure we get the right people in and out. Then, in general, it’s the strategy side, so trying to build things sustainably with a club model and a game model, to make sure that on and off the pitch we’re sustainable but keep performing.” 

Please could you tell us about your career and experiences so far and how they led you to Bristol Rovers... 

“With my career, it pretty much started and finished playing-wise with Bristol Rovers. As a nine-year-old, I joined. A man called Roy Dolling, who a lot of the older fans will probably know more than the younger ones, but he saw me from a Gerry Francis soccer school in north Devon. I came up to the training ground. I think it was called The Beeches in Brislington, which was very red mud, like clay. I always remember because it always used to go all over your legs and your boots and was a nightmare to wash off.  

“I was in that same youth team as Scott Sinclair. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay that long because it was too much of a drive for my parents to take up there, but I have that initial connection with Bristol Rovers, which is really nice. I went to a game where Jamie Cureton was playing, and it was against Wrexham. It was quite apt as well because that was a fixture that’s happened this year for us as well, which was a special one with a good result at home against them. So, I started there, and I won’t go on about my playing career because it’s not particularly interesting, but I played all through the leagues, from the National League to end up captaining Middlesbrough in the Premier League.  

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George Friend

“Throughout that time, I had a keen eye on recruitment and coaching. I took a player-coach role at Birmingham, but also throughout my career for the last ten-plus years, I have been doing a lot of recruitment, whether that’s courses, and forming my own ideas of how I want a role to look like when I retire. Hence, after discussions here and finishing my playing career at Bristol Rovers, it was great to be able to move into a role like this.” 
 
What did you and your team achieve in 2024? 

“So, initially, it was thrust straight upon me to get straight into it with the summer transfer window. There were 20 players out, and 16 players came in. It was the busiest and one of the toughest challenges I’ve gone through in a football capacity, but also a lot of enjoyable work and great to bring in some amazing characters. We’ve had players and characters that have come in that I feel really improved us as a club. There’s also staff involved in that, that we’ve brought in. 

“A new Head of Medical with Championship experience in Andrew Proctor, who has really helped that department. We’ve also got David Horseman, who is an incredible development coach. He’s worked in the Premier League and top academies. They are both local to Bristol as well, which I think is really important. We’ve also brought in a new Head of Analysis on the performance analysis side, which is fantastic in Lewis Needham, and most recently, we’ve brought in a sports psychology coach as well. These are all things that help improve the club, but also bring better performance and aid the players to put them in the best condition they can be in.  

“So, that’s been a big part of it, and the recruitment department, I was tasked with building that, and Chris Spendlove, who was here before, has become Head of Recruitment and is doing a fantastic job. We’ve also brought in a Recruitment Analyst/Technical Scout, Alfie Sparks, who again has done really well and is really helping the club a lot. Then, more recently, we’ve brought in a Data Scientist because, with recruitment, you have to have the data side, in my opinion. We’re not data-led, but we’re data-informed, and I think that’s a really big part. Dylan, who we’ve brought in on that, has been superb.  

“So, lots of additions in that sense, but we feel we’re bringing a bit of a structure and processes to it all. Hopefully, over time, we’ll see that succeed because certainly, in terms of recruitment, it takes a bit more time. I have to say the board's ambition to bring staff into the club in the same capacity as you’re seeing with some of these other videos with John, Ritchie and Mitch, there is the personnel in there to help deliver. There is ambition at the club, and we want to make sure all the departments are right to make sure we can succeed on the pitch.   

There is ambition at the club, and we want to make sure all the departments are right to make sure we can succeed on the pitch.
George Friend

“In terms of other sides in 2024, we built a game model. So, for those who may not be familiar with the term, it’s a way of playing. It's not a rigid style, but a way of playing that we want to see going forward for the club, and this will end up making us more sustainable in that respect. It means whoever is in charge over time, the recruitment remains the same, but the way we play remains the same, and there is not a huge turnover every year. It also helps our assets grow in a certain way of playing. 
 
“Finally, in 2024 I would say what I really tried to do is bridge that gap between the academy and the first team. We’ve seen the likes of Kofi Shaw sign a new contract and then go out on loan and do well. He’s doing remarkable at Yeovil. Jed Ward is the same out at Forest Green Rovers. We’ve got Dan Ellison. Micah Anthony is unfortunately back injured, but he again was out on loan. Even young Quincy Dixon has been on the bench twice in the FA Cup. So, I would like to think there has been good progress there in getting these lads closer to the first team, and that’s definitely and objective for the board over time, which I am going to help achieve.” 

What do you hope to achieve in 2025? 

“Sticking with the academy, I would love to see more players come through and more debuts and more impact on the first team. We have a few players close to that. I actually forgot to mention Ollie Dewsbury in the last question as well, who is doing so well playing his first experience of men's football. He’s recently gone on loan to Taunton Town. So, the academy side is a big thing for me. I think as well, going into the summer window in 2025, we would love to add more balance to the squad, which I always said to the owners, and they agreed that it’s going to take a few windows to find that, especially with the big overhaul last summer. But we’re really excited about that. 

“We want to match the ambition that they have with the infrastructure, new training ground, where we are now and the stadium. It would be great to get that on the pitch as well and have the players to execute that. I think we’re on our way there, and we appreciate the fans. They’ve been patient because we’ve signed a lot of young players, but they can see what the remit is and what we’ve been doing. I would also like to explore the wildcard options, which is the players from abroad. We have two spots that we can use, and I think that would be a real exciting time for the club to look into the international market. That’s something that if the right person is there or people are there, we would look to do in 2025.  

“I think finally, the big thing for me is wanting to build that connection between the club and fans. We worked really hard in recruiting Calderón, our head coach, who is an amazing character. We’ve worked really hard behind the scenes with the staff and with the players to want to build that connection more and more. I hope the fans appreciate that and can see that a little bit. But I want to build on that more because I know how important that is. I’ve made contact with some ex-employees, legends of the club. I won’t name all of them and who they are, but I’ve had good chats with them to try and find out more of the history of the club in that sense, what it takes, their experiences and what they’ve done. They have been really helpful. There’s so much passion in the area for that, and they’ve given a lot of good advice. We hope we can build on that connection because more recently, we’ve felt like it’s gotten stronger, and that’s a big, big motivation for me for 2025."

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Read Time: 9 mins