Rovers expected to add Warner and Short to backroom staff

BRISTOL Rovers are close to adding two new coaches to Joey Barton’s backroom staff with the arrival of former Liverpool goalkeeper Tony Warner and Burnley strength and conditioning coach Tom Short, the Bristol Post understands.

Rovers have been without a goalkeeper coach since the departure of David Coles in May and Warner is set to join the Gas for pre-season, with the squad - minus first-choice Anssi Jaakkola due to his time spent away with Finland at Euro 2020 - at Bisham Abbey.

Jed Ward is the only first-team goalkeeper who has reported back for pre-season, although the club are also running the rule over a number of triallists in that position and who could feature in Friday’s first pre-season game against Melksham Town.

Training Ground Guru first reported Rovers’ interest in Warner, with the 47-year-old having been most recently at League One Accrington Stanley, and confirmation of his role is expected soon.

Short is poised to join from Premier League Burnley with Barton having worked alongside him during his time as a player at Turf Moor between 2015 and 2016.

Short has been with the Clarets for eight years with Burnley’s consistent Premier League status a result of their collective fitness levels, which always stand out in the top flight. His arrival in north Bristol can be seen as a considerable coup for the club. Barton, pictured, has frequently cited fitness as the foundation to Burnley’s promotion winning campaign in 201516, as while they may not have been the most talented side, they often outworked and ultimately dominated teams in the final 15 minutes of matches.

Head of medical services Miles Warren and head of sport science Alun Andrews were among those to depart the club last month, as Barton launched an overhaul of that aspect of the club, citing fitness levels as one of the underlying reasons why the Gas under-performed so catastrophically last term.

He wants the Gas to be the fittest team in League Two next season and has promised a challenging pre-season campaign to instil those standards early in the campaign.

“We’re going to need to be the best team in the division in the sense, we might not have the best players, but we’re going to be the best team and in the upper echelons of the fitness bracket, if not the best”, Barton told the Bristol Post at the start of May. “The good teams I played in we tended to be the fittest in the division. Certainly at Burnley, we won a lot of games on fitness. Of course, you need quality, you need good players, but you’ve got to be fit. Fitness is your business as a footballer.”