He was a guest on the 72+ EFL podcast this week
Daniel Clark Content Editor
17:55, 30 Jan 2026
Darrell Clarke, Manager of Bristol Rovers looks dejected after losing during the Sky Bet League 2 Match between Bristol Rovers and Swindon Town at Memorial Stadium on 13 December 2025. Photo: Tom Sandberg/PPAUK(Image: Tom Sandberg/PPAUK)
Former Bristol Rovers manager Darrell Clarke has spoken the first time since he was sacked as the manager of the Gas in December.
Clarke left the club after 10 straight defeats in League Two saw them slip into the relegation zone on December 13 to bring an end to his second spell at the club.
Speaking for the first time since losing his job, Clarke was a guest on the 72+ EFL Pod this week where he addressed the poor run of form that ultimately cost him his job, while insisting that his long-standing career in the dugout remains firmly on track.
Reflecting on the final weeks of his time with the Gas, Clarke admitted that he needed space to decompress after a difficult sequence of results.
(Image: Bristol Post)
“I think when you lose your job as a manager, you need your time to process,” Clarke explained to host Aaron Paul. “I had a disappointing six, seven weeks at the club where we had an awful run in ten games. But listen, that won’t define me. I’m in nearly 700 games now. I’ll bounce back. It just took a little bit of time to get my head around it and reset and then go again,” he added.
Following on from a discussion about Championship side West Bromwich Albion and the struggles they were facing, Clarke spoke about the recruitment challenges he faced at the Memorial Stadium, highlighting the difficulty of overhaul in the lower leagues.
He pointed out that while managers are often judged on their new signings, they are frequently constrained by existing contracts and the financial legacy of previous seasons.
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“I’m a realist,” Clarke said. “You go in the summer, you get a group of players that are contractors of the club… you’re working on things and you get a plan in place. But the plan involves still working with the vast majority of the budget of the players that are already in.”
He specifically noted that significant investments in the attacking third did not yield the expected returns during his final months in charge:
“Bristol Rovers spent over a million pounds on Promise Omochere, Shaq Forde, and [Ruel] Sotiriou in the attacking options of the pitch. To be honest, great lads as they are, they haven’t produced what we’ve been wanting as a football club.
“Now, to be able to change that round in the lower leagues, you need those windows, you know, a bit similar there to the West Brom manager at the minute.”
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