Post by Cantankerous Gas on Jul 13, 2016 10:12:56 GMT
Assistant boss Marcus Stewart is confident a goal scorer can emerge from within should Matty Taylor decide that his future lies away from Bristol Rovers.
Out-of-contract Taylor's situation remains unresolved with time running out before Rovers withdraw the "fair and competitive" offer they have tabled in a bid to persuade him to resign.
Should the striker, who is currently preparing for the new season with the help of personal trainer, decide to leave the Memorial Stadium he would leave big shoes to fill after scoring 28 times last season.
Manager Darrell Clarke has already signed Luke James on loan from Peterborough United and will still move to add to his pool of strikers should the "right" and "affordable" player become available.
The manager is also considering the possibility of bringing 13-goal Billy Bodin in off the wing to play a more central role if Taylor decides to depart, and Stewart said: "We have good strikers here and I think that within the group we have a goal scorer.
"Ellis (Harrison) and Billy (Bodin) are both another year older and Jermaine (Easter) offers us a great deal of experience. He has scored goals at all levels and then we have Luke James and Jamie Lucas are two young lads with bags of potential so potentially there are goals within our ranks.
"The days when we used to bring strikers in from outside are gone and we'd like to maybe get back to the time when Rovers brought strikers through. You get a lot of satisfaction in nurturing one of your own lads through the system or picking someone up from non-league and then working hard to improve them.
"Creating good strikers has been part of the history of this club and I hope we have started doing that again by the improvement that Matty (Taylor) has made since he has been at the club."
Out-of-contract Taylor's situation remains unresolved with time running out before Rovers withdraw the "fair and competitive" offer they have tabled in a bid to persuade him to resign.
Should the striker, who is currently preparing for the new season with the help of personal trainer, decide to leave the Memorial Stadium he would leave big shoes to fill after scoring 28 times last season.
Manager Darrell Clarke has already signed Luke James on loan from Peterborough United and will still move to add to his pool of strikers should the "right" and "affordable" player become available.
The manager is also considering the possibility of bringing 13-goal Billy Bodin in off the wing to play a more central role if Taylor decides to depart, and Stewart said: "We have good strikers here and I think that within the group we have a goal scorer.
"Ellis (Harrison) and Billy (Bodin) are both another year older and Jermaine (Easter) offers us a great deal of experience. He has scored goals at all levels and then we have Luke James and Jamie Lucas are two young lads with bags of potential so potentially there are goals within our ranks.
"The days when we used to bring strikers in from outside are gone and we'd like to maybe get back to the time when Rovers brought strikers through. You get a lot of satisfaction in nurturing one of your own lads through the system or picking someone up from non-league and then working hard to improve them.
"Creating good strikers has been part of the history of this club and I hope we have started doing that again by the improvement that Matty (Taylor) has made since he has been at the club."
