Doncaster Rovers v Burton Albion: James Coppinger and Gary McSheffrey planning for the future as relegation looms

Manager Gary McSheffrey believes he has a core of players capable of taking the club back into the third tier, but the key now is the structure. A lot of that will be Coppinger’s responsibility.

His official title is head of football operations but more important is what he actually does to reinvigorate a club that has gone backwards for 18 months stretching back into his playing days.

Coppinger’s job is to allow McSheffrey to concentrate on first-team matters whilst he “implements a clear identity on the team as well as a culture by which players and staff operate.” He must also “ensure cohesion between the various footballing departments.”

“You need to get everything right structure-wise, your recruitment process, your identity and your player-profiling rather than just getting numbers in – they need to fit the way you want to play,” stresses McSheffrey. “But ultimately on a Saturday and a Tuesday it comes down to the personnel performing.”

And McSheffrey thinks the club has some good personnel –including in the manager’s office.

“I know the type of player that needs to come, I know the way I want to play with the squad I’d like and I think we’ve got a good core group of players already signed for next season that will be good in League Two,” he says.

“I’d like to be judged this time next year but when I reflect (on this season) I’ll be able to take some positives personally. I know that probably sounds a bit false at the minute.”

If there is a concern about Coppinger, a club legend who scored 78 goals in 695 Rovers appearances, it is that at 41 he is only two years older than a manager in his first six months at senior level. His 50-year-old assistant Frank Sinclair has limited managerial experience at non-league level.

“It’s something I’ve been working towards since I turned 35 or 36,” is Coppinger’s counter-argument after being part-mentor, part-coach in his first season as an ex-footballer. “I feel this sort of role best suits my skills.

“People see James Coppinger the footballer but I’ve been working in business for the last five years doing things to help propel me into this position. I’ve been able to identify why certain cultures at this club were successful or weren’t successful.”

There will be an impatience for success in a difficult division when Doncaster’s League Two place is confirmed by dropping points at home to Burton Albion today, Gillingham picking any up at Portsmouth, or Fleetwood Town winning at home to Wimbledon, yet midfielder Adam Clayton is thinking and talking in Championship terms.

“I made the choice to come and the aim was to get the club back in the Championship,” said the former Leeds United, Huddersfield Town and Middlesbrough midfielder who joined in January. “That’s still the long-term aim.

“The atmosphere and culture is good and improving every day.

“We’ve got a young manager who I think is getting better every day – more control, more confidence. He’s finding out what’s good, what’s bad and I think in the last few weeks you’ve seen the real manager he’s going to be. The team’s played really well.

“If we can add four or five good players, I can’t see anything but a successful season as long as we know we’ve got to go into it working at 100 per cent.”

They are confident words and grand plans but actions will be all that count come July 30.