Football Amid interest from Ipswich, Rovers must sort out Jonson’s future
BRISTOL Rovers may well achieve the remarkable feat of emerging from a global pandemic in a considerably stronger position then when they entered it ahead of the 2020-21 season, but one final crucial piece of the puzzle remains.
Putting transfer activity to one side for the moment, having secured new contracts for Alfie Kilgour, Anssi Jaakkola and Cam Hargreaves, began work on the training ground at Almondsbury and with Wael Al-Qadi establishing strong individual control over the club, the future of Jonson ClarkeHarris needs to be resolved.
Clarke-Harris remains under contract until June 2021 and is still the bona-fide superstar within Ben Garner’s squad, and the last six months has witnessed a slight change in strategy surrounding the 25-year-old.
In January there was an acceptance that financial restrictions in expanding the wage bill meant onoff contract talks would have to be shelved and the simple solution, that worked for player and club, was a sale. It was a reality that had not sat well with former manager Graham Coughlan.
But after a year of consistently finding the target in League One, with 18 months remaining on his deal at that time, that was the window in which the club could receive maximum value. It was a business decision that needed to be made for the betterment of the long-term financial health of the club.
However, despite the list of scouts regularly attending the Memorial Stadium and away grounds to monitor Clarke-Harris, the only tangible interest emerged from Charlton Athletic who made an informal verbal offer but when pressed to confirm in writing disappeared with the deadline approaching.
Given what soon then transpired since at The Valley, with East Street Investment’s ownership lasting all of six months and an embarrassing public fallout between majority shareholder and chairman over a lack of investment, it’s clear the Addicks weren’t exactly operating under a supreme level of professionalism at boardroom level at that time.
But even though they’ve moved on to a third ownership group of the season, director of football Steve Gallen remains and Charlton are understood to still maintain an interest in Clarke-Harris, although the spectre of Championship relegation could impact their plans.
Unlike six months ago, though, Rovers’ preference isn’t to sell but retain and extend his contract beyond the summer of 2021, with contract talks resuming during lockdown.
Clarke-Harris would be made
Rovers’ highest-paid player and the centrepiece of Ben Garner’s newlook Gas, with the manager hoping to provide significant creativity for the striker who, often under Coughlan, had to make goals for himself.
There is delay and uncertainty around Clarke-Harris’ future, though, because understandably there is further interest out there, most notably from Ipswich Town who the Bristol Post understands have begun undertaking background checks on the striker, speaking to former coaches and team-mates.
Whether or not Ipswich, who finished 11th in the curtailed League One season - just seven points above Rovers - quite realise ClarkeHarris’ ambition of being a Championship striker is unclear, but with James Norwood potentially on the move, they could soon be urgently in need of a central goalscoring frontman.
There will also be significant pressure on the Tractor Boys to secure promotion following their underachievement in 2019-20 and signing one of the division’s best strikers is a good way of bolstering your chances.
There is also believed to a second promotion-seeking League One club interested in Clarke-Harris but, as it stands, there have been no bids nor any contact with Rovers over their No 9’s availability or his price-tag.
The Gas are determined to keep their prized asset for the 2020-21 season, and potentially even beyond, with ambition growing within the Mem due to the foundations which have been put in place and the impressive squad that Garner is building.
Gillingham’s Max Ehmer, Jack Baldwin of Sunderland and Chelsea academy product Josh Grant are expected to arrive in north Bristol, Scottish winger Sam Nicholson is another leading target and progress has been made on others.
Plus, the core of the 2019-20 squad remains in Jaakkola, Kilgour, Josh Hare - who dovetailed well with Clarke-Harris before his ACL injury - Tom Davies, Alex Rodman, Luke Leahy, Ed Upson, Hargreaves, Mark Little and the signings made in January.
Contrary to stereotype, Garner will not be building a squad primarily around youth but wants hungry, coachable players he can develop and there is a feeling that Clarke-Harris hasn’t reached his ceiling.
Other than the work Lee Johnson did with him at Oldham - the best spell of his career prior to Rovers he hasn’t experienced a hands-on head coach who wants to work on specific technical aspects which will enhance his game plus the suspicision that despite his success, he’s only been operating at around 80 per cent full fitness.