Doncaster Rovers: Ferguson's frustration at lack of game time for loanees

Darren Ferguson admits he is disappointed with the amount of game time players have received while out on loan from Doncaster Rovers.
Liam MandevilleLiam Mandeville
Liam Mandeville

Liam Mandeville, Mitchell Lund and Cedric Evina are currently on loan spells at Colchester United, Morecambe and Crawley Town respectively.

Lund has managed just three starts and two substitute appearances at Morecame this season while Evina has been in and out of the Crawley team since the turn of the year.

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“I feel that the ones that have gone out on loan haven’t had enough time,” he told The Star.

“Lund has not played anywhere near what I’d expect at Morecambe.

“Evina has been injured at Crawley.

“Certainly the ones that have been out haven’t had nearly as much time as I thought they would.”

Ferguson says Rovers will learn from this season and be insistent that clauses are inserted into any season-long deals that would allow them to assess the progress of players in January and potentially end the deal.

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“Certainly in the future if we were going to have a season-long loan we’d have a break in it,” he said.

“With Lund we didn’t.

“It lets you assess it after four or five months.

“With Mandeville, it wasn’t the case with him going out in January. It was about going out and getting games.

“There was quite a few clubs in for Mandeville and we left the choice up to him.

“Once he spoke to Colchester, he chose them.

“You just have to get on with it and hope he gets plenty of time in the last few games of the season.”

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Mandeville has managed just one start and four substitute appearances since joining Colchester in January.

Ferguson says he has been disappointed with his lack of game time for the striker but insists feedback from the U’s has been positive.

“It is disappointing,” he said.

“I actually spoke to Colchester and Liam himself.

“He had expected to be playing but didn’t. He’d been coming on in games.

“Colchester seemed quite happy with the impact he was having in games.

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“It’s not for me to tell any manager what to do and who to pick. It’s not my job.

“We’ve just loaned Liam out to get game time.

“Certainly we’ll see how the next few games go but he’s on loan until the end of the season.

“If he doesn’t get more game time then I’ll have to have a conversation with him to find out why.”