Sun. May 4th, 2025
Occasional Digest - a story for you

Ed Hadwin, BBC Radio Bristol commentator

Inigo Calderon’s short tenure as Rovers’ head coach has been a difficult one for him. He was so excited to get the chance of his first senior job in football management he spent Christmas away from his family in Spain to prepare.

And while there were definitely some games where he – and the team – showed some real promise (back-to-back wins over Huddersfield and Bolton in a run of five home wins in seven games) their awful finish to the season sealed his fate.

He certainly made mistakes during that time, with some of his substitutions leaving fans scratching their heads. But potentially the biggest issues he’s faced weren’t of his making.

Rovers’ owner, Hussain AlSaeed, told us this season’s playing budget is the largest in the club’s history, and while plenty of the players recruited in the summer are undoubtedly talented, the blend of a lot of youngsters and a handful of very senior players wasn’t right.

Then in January, with all his senior strikers having had significant injury issues, they didn’t sign an experienced player as cover.

And with just five goals scored in their past 10 games, that decision probably cost Calderon his job and Rovers their place in League One.

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