Doncaster Rovers boss on contract offers, outgoings and goalkeeper hunt

Rovers have secured a loan deal for a young forward from a Premier League club and Wellens says there is only a small amount of money left in his playing budget at this present time.

The Rovers boss hoped to be in a position to potentially offer deals to trialists should they impress sufficiently but believes trading will be required in order to free up funds.

“We’ve got a little bit of the budget left but it is a little bit so we do need a couple out,” he told the Free Press.

Ed Williams is one player that has been told to find a new club and Wellens admits the midfielder did little to change his mind during Saturday’s friendly against Bradford City.

With more than half a dozen contracted senior players missing due to being forced into isolation after contact with a positive case of Covid-19, Wellens used 11 trialists at Valley Parade and handed an opportunity to Williams.

But he was not impressed by the performances on show from those who need to convince him they have a future at the club.

Wellens said: “I spoke to Ed Williams before the game. Football is the most fickle sport in the world. I said to him that he’s been in a certain position but go and show me something to change my mind.

“I was a little bit disappointed in Ed’s performance. We’ve told him he can find another club but nothing is ever written in stone. People have been written off before but come back to change minds and I’m not averse to that.

“But you have to show me something on the pitch or on the training ground.

“It was not a great day for our trialists and some of the lads we’re trying to move on as well.”

One player who looks to be heading out of the door on loan is young centre half Ben Blythe.

The 19-year-old played for Spennymoor Town on a trial basis on Saturday and scored in the 9-0 win over Bishop Auckland for Tommy Miller’s side.

Wellens expects that a loan deal for the defender will be agreed.

“I believe he scored a goal and got an assist,” he said.

“We might send Ben there because I think it will be great experience for him.

“Not only will we get a young lad who we think highly of some exposure but it will give us a guide of where we think he’s at, depending on how many games he plays and how they see him.

“Ben will hopefully have done well and we can agree something with Spennymoor.”

Wellens continues to explore options for bringing in a goalkeeper on loan.

“There’s not really been any progress,” he said.

“We do need a goalkeeper because we want to give Louis some League One competition. We don’t want to bring someone in for the sake of it, we want to bring someone in to test Louis.

“We’ll probably have to wait until the latter part of next week for that.”

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