Burnley defender Bobby Thomas has joined Bristol Rovers on a season-long loan, becoming Joey Barton's third deadline-day signing.
The 21-year-old centre-back fills an area of need for Barton with James Connolly and James Gibbons on the injury list, following fellow loan signings Sylvester Jasper and Josh Coburn, of Fulham and Middlesbrough respectively, through the doors on Thursday.
"Bobby is an impressive young centre-half who will benefit hugely from coming out of Burnley and playing League one football," Barton said. "We are grateful to Burnley for allowing us to take him on loan and we look forward to having him as part of our group."
Thomas has senior experience, playing 21 times on loan at Barrow in League Two in 2020/21, scoring once. He becomes Rovers' 10th summer signing, and Barton hinted he may not be the only centre-back to join the club on deadline day.
He said: "With James Connolly getting a bit of an injury and Lewis Gibson is coming back into the fold, but knowing we’ve got to be careful with the management of his load, we felt we needed competition in those areas and Bobby hopefully comes in and hits the ground running because he’s certainly made a good impression already.
"We’re still not done in that space. I think if I could do something else in that defensive space, I think I will and also if we can do something on the frontline or in the wide areas, I think we will.
"Seven hours to go and this is a long time in the window, but the last hour will be a long time. When you’re a little bit under the weather, you want to be in bed early, but tonight I think I’m going to be into the dying embers making sure we get as much value out of the market as we possibly can.
"Wael (Al-Qadi) has been superb. He’s supported us at every junction and we’re just waiting for the market to flush out and see what exciting things happen in the next five, six or seven hours."
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