Grant McCann is delighted to be reuniting with two of his trusted generals from his previous spell at Rovers as he makes his return to the club.
The 43-year-old name-checked Tommy Rowe and Tom Anderson as two players he is excited to renew acquaintances with, having worked with the pair in the 2018/19 campaign.
And he says both are the sort of characters he sees as being pivotal in constructing a squad that will compete next season.
“There's obviously a few familiar faces here,” McCann said. “And when I talk about characters, there’s two to spring off the the end of my tongue in Tommy Rowe and Tom Anderson, who I’ve worked with before. Tremendous characters.
“Jon Taylor too, another boy who have worked with the Peterborough, good character.
“I’m looking forward to meeting the rest of them, getting to know them and how they work and how they go about their day-to-day business.
“Tom and Rowey were leaders when I was here the first time and their experiences of what they've seen over the last three or four years is just going to make them even better.
“I’m looking forward to getting an insight from them and what they feel the group needs, because I think sometimes it's important to speak to those type of characters and you do get an honest response sometimes.”
McCann will meet his players for the first time as a group in the coming week, when he will also make decisions on those who have reached the end of their current contracts.
He said: “Those conversations will happen with the players.
“It's nice that we can keep the players that we feel can help us next year and mould some players around the characteristics, the pace and aggression you need in this division around that and hopefully we can we can have a good season.”
The new Rovers boss has run the rule over the squad in recent days and feels he has a good handle on what is needed to strengthen the group heading into next season.
“I've seen quite a lot over the over the last few days of the team, individually and collectively,” he said.
“It’s been a difficult season and it's never nice to see anybody lose their job, but unfortunately it's the nature of football and hence why I'm sit here today.
“There's been quite a lot of analysis going on from myself to make sure that we get it right. I.e who we feel can stay and help us and the ones who you know we don’t. That’s just the nuts and bolts of it really.
“So there will be conversations over the next few days with myself, Gavin [Baldwin] and David [Blunt] to show them exactly what we need going forward and then we can take that into next week when we meet the players.”