Rovers chat - Barnsley fall-out, Hanlan breakthrough + EFL Trophy debate
Grant McCann says no talks have yet been held regarding the futures of Doncaster Rovers' loan contingent.
Thimothee Lo-Tutala (Hull City), Connor O'Riordan (Blackburn Rovers), Charlie Crew (Leeds United) and Damola Ajayi (Tottenham Hotspur) are all on proposed season-long loans in DN4 whilst Toyosi Olusanya's (Houston Dynamo) arrangement is set to run until early January.
Often, as the New Year approaches, discussions are had on whether to allow the deals to run the course of the season or bring it to an early end. The latter option has played out on a few occasions at Rovers in recent seasons with the 2024-25 campaign seeing both Brandon Fleming and Ephraim Yeboah return to their parent clubs in January.
When quizzed by the Free Press on whether talks have happened yet regarding the aforementioned quintet, McCann said: "No, nothing (yet). We're always in dialogue with the clubs to let them know how their players are doing and give them feedback. Sometimes their loan managers come in and watch training, which we're open to. But there's no real indication of what's going to happen from either end as of yet."
Connor O'Riordan is one of five loanees within the Rovers squad. (Photo:Howard Roe/AHPIX LTD)placeholder image
Connor O'Riordan is one of five loanees within the Rovers squad. (Photo:Howard Roe/AHPIX LTD)
Rovers travel to Lincoln on Saturday where they'll come up against a familiar face in Rob Street. The forward enjoyed a magnificent loan spell in the second half of the title-winning season, scoring 12 goals. That endeared him to the Rovers fanbase but McCann admits a permanent move was never really a possibility.
"It was always a non-starter," he says. "Lincoln turned down a bid of well over £1million at the start of the season and that tells you how well he did here in such a short space of time and how well he was respected. He got into really good positions and took his chances.
"I know we brought in Sean Grehan for a small fee from Crystal Palace (last summer) but since I've been here we haven't spent money and so we're certainly ain't going to be splashing out £1million for a centre-forward even though how much we really rate him."
The trip to Sincil Bank will see Rovers attempt to end a long winless streak in League One - one that stretches back to the first week of September. Performances have picked up though in recent weeks, leading to confidence from the Northern Irishman that a breakthrough is imminent.
He added: "I've been pleased with the last three or four games in terms of the performances and if we can continue that then we'll start winning games and climbing up the league. But we're coming up against a good team who've had a really good start but the reality is if we can beat them then we're four points behind them. And that's how tight the division is."
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