After the Rovers retained list was announced, here’s how the left back options are shaping up.

 

In contrast to the same position on the other flank, left back is one area of the team that Rovers have had large scale change in recent seasons.

From Derrick Williams opting to switch to centre half after the League One promotion in which Sam Hart and Amari’i Bell were both signed, to deadline day loan deals for Greg Cunningham and Barry Douglas and now the hopeful long-term solution in Harry Pickering.

Hart was something of a punt, signed based upon his athletic attributes, but he left in 2020 after failing to make a league start. Cunningham’s time was cut short by injury, his loan lasting just six months, while Douglas failed to scale the heights many thought he would given his two previous promotions from this division.

And that brought us back to Bell, the 26-year-old having caught Mowbray’s eye when playing for Fleetwood Town in 2017, Rovers wrapping up a six-figure feel for the left back the following January.

Bell never shied away from the competition, first displacing Williams in the side, and then not being pushed out by the arrivals of either Cunningham or Douglas subsequently, and in 2020/21 he still started a third of the league fixtures.

His 35 starts in 2018/19 are the most of any left back since Williams, no-one reaching 30 in either of the last two campaigns, and the hope is that Pickering can help take that mantle forward.

So left back has been something of a problem position for Rovers, but after short-termism with the Cunningham and Douglas deals, the Pickering one is anything but.

At 22, having captained Crewe and played over 150 times for the League One club, the hope is that tied to a long-term deal, and having cost £650,000, that he will solve that headache, one that has seen Mowbray have to turn to Rankin-Costello, Elliott Bennett and Stewart Downing as cover in recent years.

Yet it will still be a position that Rovers will have to fill, which led to the thought that maybe the club would look to offer Bell something as competition for Pickering who is yet to play above League One.

It will be interesting to see how Rovers approach finding that second option, not least with finances ideally reserved for more pressing matters within other areas of the team.

While never easy to sign someone as simply a stop-gap option, Rovers have been caught out in this position before, so will be wary of leaving themselves short once again.

Josh Ruffels, of Oxford United, looks a standout option of the free agents looking to be available this summer, with Conor Ogilvie also mentioned in dispatches in the national press previously.

Within the Under-23s they have Lenni Rae Cirino, the teenager impressing in his 11 appearances for Billy Barr’s side, rightly earning a professional deal with the club.

He will look to establish himself as a regular in the side moving forward, while Rovers released Lewis Thompson, the Northern Ireland Under-21 having previously occupied that role for some time.

Like Jack Doyle before him, both showed signs of promise and looked like they could make the first-team step up, only to leave without making a league appearance for the club.

Cirino will hopefully manage that feat, but it is too early to think of him being ready for first-team football.

So while Rovers will hope Pickering can solve a long-term headache, it’s a position that remains a short-term priority.