New Bristol Rovers head coach Darrell Clarke has already been in contact with some of his squad having officially taken charge of the GasDarrell Clarke has officially started his second spell in charge of Bristol Rovers(Image: Bristol Rovers FC)

Darrell Clarke has confirmed that he has already spoken to a couple of Bristol Rovers players since returning to the Mem, but the Rovers boss insists that the coming weeks serve as a good opportunity for the squad to “switch off” following their relegation from League One.

Having been confirmed as Inigo Calderon’s successor less than 72 hours after the club announced that the former Brighton youth coach had left the Mem following the final day of the season, Clarke has now officially started his second spell in charge in North Bristol, with his contract getting underway on Monday.

Although that means the 47-year-old has only officially been in post for a matter of hours, he has already been hard at work at The Quarters, conducting interviews, meeting staff and holding various meetings with director of football Ricky Martin. While Clarke has also held conversations with some players in the two weeks since his announcement, he is planning to afford the squad some downtime before the real work begins in pre-season.

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“I’ve spoken to a couple of players and I’ll have more conversations with them in early June when they come back in,” the Rovers boss told Bristol Live at The Quarters on Monday afternoon. “But I think it’s a good time for them to switch off mentally from it.

“It’s been a challenging season for them, they’ve let the fans down, they’ll have their individual opinions of why it went wrong and what went wrong, but for me, they rest now and I’ll start to liven them up early June.”

The playing squad are not due back at the training ground for pre-season until June 23, meaning Clarke, Martin, and the recruitment team have the best part of five weeks to put the back-to-back promotion winner’s stamp on the team and their preparations ahead of the upcoming League Two campaign.

Since returning to North Bristol, where the 47-year-old spent four-and-a-half years in charge between 2014 and 2018, Clarke has made no secret of his desire to get the Gas out of the fourth tier and competing at the top of League One. Although the luxury of a full summer of preparation is one that he appreciates, he knows it will mean that expectations rise heading into the start of the campaign.

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“It doesn’t give me any excuses, does it?” the Rovers head coach smiled when asked if he was relishing having a full summer and pre-season to prepare. “Look, you want as long as you can to prepare for the summer, the pre-season.

“You want as much time as you can, but the key thing is that you get the culture right on day one, because it will be different to what the other two managers have been like. That’s no disrespect to what other managers have been like; everyone has a way of working, but I have a way of working now, and I expect the culture and the environment. There’s a desire to win, but we enjoy the environment.

“That means, that period of time where you get that chance to build and you get a chance to build a squad, that can be hit on day one of pre-season because one thing I do want is to make sure this place is bouncing everyday with energy, with a desire to win and players to get better.”

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