Gavin Baldwin addresses critics of player turnover at Doncaster Rovers

But the chief executive says, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this will not be the summer where significant strides are made in achieving that aim.

Rovers had 12 players under contract beyond June 30 of this year, leaving boss Darren Moore with a large recruitment drive on his hands ahead of the 2020/21 campaign.

That is a situation Baldwin has previously stated the club want to avoid on a regular basis.

But he says the financial impact and uncertainty surrounding the pandemic means the club can only look to the immediate future if they are to operate with due care.

“We’re quite clear that we want to reduce the number of contracts we want dropping off at the end of every season,” Baldwin told the Free Press.

“However, we’ve been very honest so far in that this year we have to protect the club by looking at one year contracts and loans.

“Whereas before the pandemic, we would have been looking at a mix of one, two and three year deals and then loans, for this year we’ve had to have a key drive on keeping the club alive.

“We’ve got a stable business model now but two months ago the future looked really tough for all clubs.

“To hand out three year and two year contracts would have been brave and would have been playing with the future of this football club.

“I’m not going to pretend the contracts this year are going to be what they would have been pre-Covid.

“But I’m going to be blunt, they are appropriate to make sure that Doncaster Rovers is a business and is here for the fans going forward.”

Though one year deals look set to be the most likely option for permanent signings this summer, Baldwin says the club will look to give themselves as much chance of keeping strong performers beyond the end of the season.

“There are options in contracts,” he said. “It might be an option for the club, it might be an option for the player.

“We can protect the club by saying if a player on a one-year deal plays so many games, then we are able to extend the deal by another year.”

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