'Get out of this league' - Doncaster Rovers boss Grant McCann hammers home Championship aim
Grant McCann says the whole driver of Doncaster Rovers' pre-season will be to ensure the team are ready to tussle it out at the top end of League One next season.
Rovers finished 14th last time out in their first campaign back in the third tier. It was a season full of ups and downs but after a sticky spell in winter, the team recovered to end strongly. McCann has on numerous occasions mentioned the fact that he is desperate to lead the club back to the Championship and after a rollercoaster first year back in League One, he believes there's nothing to stop them from having a sustained tilt at promotion in 2026-27.
Speaking last month during a post-season debrief with the local media, the Northern Irishman was asked how realistic it is for Rovers to challenge for promotion. "I think it's very realistic," said the 46-year-old. "We had a staff meeting where we were speaking about things that we could do better from our point of view and one of the things that one of the staff spoke about was maybe the unrealistic aim of promotion this year.
"Did that weigh heavy on certain individuals and on some of the staff? And did that maybe have a knock-on effect to what we did on the pitch?
"But I was very clear with the staff and I'll be very clear again when the players come back - I'm desperate to get to the Championship.
"I'll do everything I can to get this football club back into the Championship, and we've been through everything statistically: set-plays, days in, days off. What was the training numbers like? Why did we have the blip? Why did it last so long?
"There was a lot of in-depth conversations with the staff, even including what their individual motivations are. Because mine is to get promoted and to get out of this league, to get into the Championship and to go again.
"So that will be the whole driver of pre-season, making sure that we bring players in that are capable and Championship-ready to perform. Really, that's my aim - to get players ready to get us into the top six, to get out of this league. We know it's going to be tough.
"There's some big clubs coming down, there's some good clubs coming up and everything in-between. But I think this has been a good season, particularly the back end of the season. I think we've shown what we can do.
"From January onwards, we produced top-six form so why can't we do it the whole season?"