Doncaster Rovers begin shortlisting candidates for manager job after receiving more than 100 applications

The deadline for applications passed on Monday with Rovers receiving 120 CVs.

Baldwin has spent the last few days whittling down the number and on Friday intends to present 16 to the Rovers board who will cut down the number further to half a dozen who will be interviewed next week.

“We scored each candidate against six objectives and to get through to the 18 you needed to score highly in four of the six,” Baldwin said.

“That included everything you’d expect such as attracting players, developing players, football philosophy, ability to give us a top six finish, etc.

“It’s my job during this week to get that list down to a manageable number ahead of Friday when the board are meeting to decide who should go through to the first interview stage.

“At this stage it looks like I will be recommending 16 managers to the board and then I expect them to whittle that down to five or six on Friday, with interviews to take place next week.

“All have scored highly in five or six of the objectives.

Baldwin admits he has been pleased with the quality of candidates that have applied for the role and said the whole gamut of experience levels has been covered.

He said: “The calibre of candidates is excellent.”

“We’ve got candidates who are very well known and have a huge reputation in the game already.

“And we’ve got up-and-coming candidates as well.

“Again, we’ve got the experienced managers and we’ve got people like when we appointed Grant McCann.

“We’ve got the full spectrum for the board to consider and I’m very, very happy.

“The number of applicants indicates hopefully the reputation that Doncaster Rovers have and the number of people who want to come and manage it.”

As part of the whittling down process, Baldwin has been carrying out research into the candidates by speaking to those who have worked with them in the past.

“We are very process driven but we want to bring it to life and give it some personality,” he said.

“I’m spending this week talking to people in football, whether it be players who have played for these managers, other managers and coaches that have worked with them in the past.

“We’ve spoken to players from League Two teams and equally we have spoken to managers who are as well known as they could possibly be in this country to take references.

“It’s easy to just look at words on a paper but we want to bring it to life and understand what the motivations are, that they want to delight the fans and play attractive football but also that they’ve got a philosophy that means we will win.

“We’re trying to get underneath the statistics and that will all go as part of the presentation to the board.

“We will interview five or six very strong candidates, all of which could be future managers of Doncaster Rovers.

“We’re in a fortunate position because the best one of the six will obviously be an excellent candidate.”

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