Grant McCann glad to be back on familiar territory at Doncaster Rovers with sole aim of reaching higher ground

When he was mulling over whether to return to the club he took to within a penalty shoot-out of the League One play-off final in his only previous season, 2018-19, McCann's wife was quick to remind him how much he enjoyed his first spell there.

But McCann’s return is about more than just sentiment.

Doncaster, a club stagnating since the departure of McCann's predecessor Darren Moore need to stop a slide which threatens to drag them out of the Football League, and the 43-year-old needs a job which can buff up his CV.

Three other South Yorkshire clubs who have all had relative success this season – Sheffield United, Rotherham United and Barnsley – have done so by playing football in a way that reflects their fanbases and their values.

Even though their second coach of a chop-and-change season, Danny Schofield, was a Doncastrian, and the head of football operations James Coppinger a club legend, the disconnect between supporters and club became palpable and painful, toxic at times. The result was a miserable 18th place in League Two – Rovers' lowest finish for 20 years – at the end of a campaign which was supposed to be about bouncing back from relegation this time last year.

One throwaway line from our interview is the most important of the lot and perhaps explains why Rovers fans have let bygones be bygones and forgiven a man who hurt them four years ago by walking out to join Hull City.

"Hopefully I can show the fans what a real Doncaster team looks like," says McCann, adding later: "We just want to build a team the club and Doncaster can be proud of."

Even with Wrexham and Notts County’s huge attendances and the resources that come with them arguably strengthening the division next season, McCann is unashamed about promotion being his target.

"I've always gone into football clubs with people not expecting much and bookies writing us off and all sorts, so I'm looking forward to seeing where we come at the end of next April, early May,” he says.

He plans to do it through clarity, smiles, reconnecting with the fanbase and playing Yorkshire football. As far as the 43-year-old is concerned, they are all connected.

"Even through my playing career I was always in and around this area," says McCann. "I love the Yorkshire folk, they're completely down to earth, a bit like Belfast folk.

"I'm delighted to be back and looking forward to how it goes.

"I think it's really important we play a style of football that reflects our fans. They're hard-working people around here and they want to come and be entertained at the weekends. We want to get as many people in the stadium as possible supporting us and staying with us through the bad times if we do have a defeat or two in a row.

"Ultimately the fans have to know the players are giving them everything and if we can do that, hopefully we can have a real buy-in from everyone.

"To be successful, it's about creating a real togetherness and a real never-say-die attitude and I think that's something we have to build. It takes time, it will take pre-season and maybe a month or two into the season as well.

"We want to make sure we go out onto that pitch with a real fire and hunger in our bellies to go after teams, to be pressing, aggressive and on the front foot.

"It will take a lot of work but the players we're going to try and keep, we believe we can do it, and the ones we bring in too.

"I think it's important to first get the smile on the staff's faces, secondly the players and ultimately when they're performing the fans can like what they're seeing."

McCann knows how much more difficult success will be without them.

"I just want to reunite the club again,” he says. “It's been a difficult three or four years for the football club with Covid and the relegation and where they finished last season in the division – a lot of people will see that as a failure.

"All we can do is look forward. It's happened. We need to get to the bottom of how we can improve it."

Since McCann’s first spell there has been less a lack of identity – although Gary McSheffrey was accused of that – more just too much chopping and changing of them. After Moore left for Sheffield Wednesday in March 2021, Andy Buttler, Richie Wellens, McSheffrey and Schofield have all been given the job, then had it taken away.

McCann will almost certainly impose a 4-3-3 formation and a style which blends his work ethic with exciting, attacking football. It will not be quite as pure as the passing football Schofield tried to play but he found that difficult to achieve with League Two players anyway.

This Rovers team will know what is expected of them, and it ought to be football they are capable of.

"Everyone's got their own ways of seeing the game and me and Cliff (Byrne, his long-serving assistant) have ours," explains McCann. "We want our team to be on the front, really high in terms of their energy and their pressing and good on regains.

"The coaching that goes into that every day is relentless with the players, making sure they understand how we want to play. We want to keep the ball but we want to go forward, try to expose teams as quickly as possible and ultimately get the fans off their seats and liking what they're seeing.

"That's the way we like to approach games – no fear and go after teams. It may leave us a little bit open at times but hopefully with some of the defenders we're keeping and one or two we bring in, we can combat that."

Overdue stability will be key, as will squad depth, with McCann targeted "seven or eight" summer signings to achieve it.

"It's important to keep people fit," says McCann, wary of one of the big factors which hampered Schofield. "I don't think it's helped the players, speaking to them, that they had two different managers in the one season – it's nothing to do with the managers themselves – and different training regimes, days off and methods. It's maybe taken a toll on the group, I don't know.

"Now we can try and get a bit of continuity, consistency and structure in terms of how they work, how we work and the intensities we work at.

"We want to have a squad we can really rely on because it's tough, 46 games in one season is tough, particularly Leagues One and Two."

Being able to bring an assistant in was important – Schofield never had that luxury – and McCann would like a first-team coach alongside Byrne too. He plans to spend the coming weeks reviewing the coaching structure, which might include Coppinger's role as unlike his predecessors, McCann's job title is manager, not coach.

But he would not have taken the job had he not felt he had the resources to make a success of it – both in terms of the existing squad and the power to add after owner Terry Bramall promised recently to increase his financial backing after years of harsh austerity.

Others have made way, including first-choice goalkeeper Jonathan Mitchell, Kieran Agard, Ro-Shaun Williams, Ollie Younger and Aidan Barlow.

"It's always difficult to assess the players straight away because you don't see them on an everyday level," admits McCann. "I've watched a lot of games over the last three or four days and previous to that I saw a lot of the games live.

"You can see with your own eyes but you don't know what they're like as a person or how they train because you've never worked with them before. It's really about getting a little bit of feedback from the staff in place as well as my own personal decision on them.

"I met all the staff on Tuesday, they seem a really good bunch and a really hard-working bunch so I'm looking forward to seeing how they are and how the dynamics and the structure of the staff looks over the next few weeks.

"We'll be back in for pre-season in late June and we'll crack on with five-and-a-half or six weeks of pre-season.

"At most football clubs now people would have left to go on holiday five or six days ago, so the fact nearly 90 per cent of the team were there and nearly all the staff tells me they were waiting to see who the manager was and I like that.

"It was good to see everybody, good to get a little feel for the staff and the players and then we can have a look at the structure of the staff and what we need to bring in to help us have a promotion push next season."