Doncaster Rovers set for recruitment meeting as Richie Wellens talks trialists, departures and loans

Wellens will discuss plans with talent identification manager Graham Younger and chief executive Gavin Baldwin before meeting with chairman David Blunt to check on finances.

The Rovers boss is hopeful that loan moves for Ed Williams and AJ Greaves will be completed, which will allow for money to be freed up for incomings.

But after bad news on injuries to Jordy Hiwula and Fejiri Okenabirhie, Wellens insists no one else will be leaving the club, other than potential loan moves for the youngest members of his squad.

Wellens is looking to offer contracts to some of the trialists who have trained with the club in order to bolster the numbers in his squad.

And he also expects to bring in two of the three remaining loan signings this week, including one goalkeeper.

“Myself, Graham and Gavin will meet on Tuesday and we’ll go to the chairman with what we think we can do,” Wellens told the Free Press.

“Gavin has been fantastic and everyone has been very supportive at the club. Whatever decision is made, I’ll go with it.

“I think we’ve got a really good 12 players but we need just a bit of an underbelly.

“There will be no-one else leaving.

“I know what I want to do but in the next few days finances will dictate that. Probably by Thursday we will be 100 per cent either doing things or won’t.

“But this week we will be getting a couple of the free loans in. Our squad is so thin that we need to use our quota of loans.

“I think every single club at our level will use their five loans up and we’ll be no different.

“We’re waiting for very cheap loans or something in the contracts that is triggered if the player does certain things or the club does.

“Ideally we need it to be free or very cheap.”

Wellens was looking to give an indication in the last couple of days to trialists of whether he will be offering a contract to them if he gets the go-ahead this week.

But he would also be clear there would be no guarantees a deal would be forthcoming this week - though he is hopeful loan moves out will raise funds.

“It’s coming to the time where [trialists] need to be registered for Saturday so it’s coming to a head,” he said.

“We’ve potentially got a loan move for AJ Greaves, we’ve potentially got a loan move for Ed Williams so it’ll free up a little bit of money.

“We’ve got a meeting on Tuesday where we’ll discuss a lot of things.

“Because of the injuries to Okenabirhie and Hiwula, we might need a bit extra money because we didn’t foresee them being injured.

“I would have been happy with the squad if we’d got two more permanent players in and we’d have got three or four out on loan.

“I’d have been happy with the squad with the three loans coming in but you cannot foresee what has happened with Hiwula and Okenabirhie.”

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