09:42, 14 May 2025<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_GettyImages-859022404.jpg\")
Bristol Rovers head coach Darrell Clarke pictured during his first spell at the club(Image: Pete Norton\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
New Bristol Rovers head coach Darrell Clarke has admitted that his relationship with Gasheads built during his first spell in north Bristol was a “massive pull” when making the decision to return to the Memorial Stadium, while also noting the club’s “massive potential.”<\/p>\n
Clarke was confirmed as Rovers’ new head coach last week, two days after the sacking of Inigo Calderon was announced following the Gas’ final League One match of the season at Blackpool with relegation already confirmed – a 4-1 defeat.<\/p>\n
Despite dropping into League Two, the mood amongst supporters was lifted when news broke that the fan favourite would be returning to Rovers, six-and-a-half years on from the end of his first spell.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Former Bristol Rovers defender makes ‘fantastic’ claim with Gas yet to realise potential<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol Rovers defender scores FA Trophy final goal at Wembley for loan side<\/a><\/p>\n Speaking to club media in his first interview<\/a> back with the Gas, Clarke said: \u201cIt\u2019s great to be back. I\u2019m 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\u2019m really looking forward to it.<\/p>\n “The rapport with the fans was a massive pull for me, but also, it\u2019s still a club with massive potential. If you take away from my previous period here, you\u2019d still look at the club as a very big club in a division that we shouldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n “I\u2019m just really, really pleased. I have been to the training ground this morning. That\u2019s 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\u2019ve seen. I\u2019m meeting a lot of new people, but I still feel the passion in the place initially meeting a lot of the work staff. I\u2019m really looking forward to what we\u2019ve got to do. We\u2019ve got a lot of work to do, but I\u2019m really looking forward to getting started.”<\/p>\n Over the course of four-and-a-half years in charge, Clarke led the Gas to back-to-back promotions after being relegated to the National League, before establishing the club’s position in League One with their highest league finish for 25 years – 10th.<\/p>\n Since the end of the 47-year-old’s first spell at Rovers in December 2018, Clarke has managed the likes of Walsall, Port Vale, Cheltenham Town and Barnsley.<\/p>\n With Vale, the returning Gas boss added a third promotion to his managerial CV when winning the League Two play-offs in 2022, while with Cheltenham, Clarke almost led a side who hadn’t scored in their first 10 league games to survival in League One. Even at Barnsley, many supporters have since expressed that he was unfortunate to lose his job after nine months.<\/p>\n Signing a three-year deal at the Mem, the Rovers head coach will have long-term ambitions for guiding the club closer towards its potential, however, the immediate priority will be getting promoted out of League Two as quickly as possible ahead of a campaign back in the fourth tier.<\/p>\n Join Bristol Rovers Live’s Whatsapp community for all the biggest Bristol Rovers stories sent straight to your phone<\/strong><\/p>\n Bristol Rovers Live<\/a> is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.<\/p>\n Through the app, we\u2019ll send the Bristol Rovers news, live match coverage, team news, transfers, fixtures, analysis and more straight to your phone.<\/p>\n To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select \u2018Join Community\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live<\/a> team.<\/p>\n We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.<\/p>\n To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose \u2018Exit group\u2019.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/p>\n Click here to join our WhatsApp community.<\/a><\/p>\n “I have come back to win,” Clarked declared. “I\u2019ve come to get this club back challenging to try and get into the Championship, albeit we\u2019re going to be starting in League Two. But it\u2019s all gone now. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n “We have to move on, and it\u2019s up to us to pick our fans up, and that\u2019s a message I repeated when I took the club into the National League was that it\u2019s 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\u2019s what our supporters deserve.<\/p>\n “I\u2019m not coming back if I\u2019m not hungry. For me, I\u2019ve 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\u2019t 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\u2019s gone wrong and I think I\u2019ll 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\u2019s not going to be easy.<\/p>\n “There\u2019s going to be a load of speedbumps in the road. We\u2019ve got to get out of League Two first. It\u2019s a hell of a task, and when you\u2019ve been relegated, there\u2019s a hell of a lot of work to be done. But I\u2019m confident in the work, and I\u2019m confident that I\u2019ll 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.”<\/p>\n READ MORE: From VAR to UFOs: Bristol Rovers legend Ian Holloway lifts lid on ‘random’ latest book<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol Rovers coach departs club with changes to coaching department to be confirmed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Darrell Clarke has conducted his first interview since returning to Bristol Rovers for a second spell as head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,2707,748,46615,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-100375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-rovers-fc","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-darrell-clarke","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114505395961226155","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0_WhatsApp-Phone.jpg\")
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