THE transfer window has now closed and I think Tony Mowbray and Rovers have had a good summer of business, writes Simon Garner.

I believe he has brought in who he wanted, kept who he wanted and only allowed players who he wanted to go leave, so I think he will be pleased.

Tony now has the squad he wants so that does put a bit more pressure on him to go out and start putting a run of wins together.

He thinks this is a squad good enough to get promotion and hopefully it will be.

A number of players he has brought in have worked with him before, and usually when that happens those players fit in with the rest of the squad pretty quickly.

The way the game is nowadays, with it being so fast and frantic, and there being so many games to play, you do need bigger squads.

You try and have cover for every position and that’s not always easy in the lower leagues because you don’t have the same sort of budget as those in the Premier League or Championship.

You then have to bring in players who are versatile because you might not perhaps have 22 players in your squad, you might have 16 to 18, so some have to be able to play in two or three positions.

If you can get away with using 15 or 16 regular first-team players then you have done well, and will likely be pushing for promotion.

You just have to pray you don’t get many injuries.

I think the pressure on managers in the lower league is starting to creep down from the Premier League.

You are already seeing some under pressure, Justin Edinburgh has already been sacked by Northampton, and clubs want instant results and success and that is very hard to do nowadays.

As for the transfer window, it has to close before the season starts.

There is always a lot of speculation on deadline day but the big deals are usually done before then and I think it’s also important to get the business done in advance of the season starting.

 This summer, a lot of players handed in transfer requests but didn’t get a move.

I remember Andy Crawford, the former Rovers striker, wanting to go. His dad was trying to get him a move, but back then we didn’t have a transfer window.

He didn’t get the move he wanted and he was stuck playing in the reserves, he didn’t get back in the first-team if I remember rightly.

You have to be careful because you don’t want players in your squad who don’t want to be there because it can upset the dressing room.

Teams now have such big squads they can send players like (Southampton defender) Virgil van Dijk to go and train with the kids and keep them away from the first-team squad.