Ansi gone.

Bristol Live - 'Really grateful' - Bristol Rovers coach announces departure after five years of service..by Daniel Hargraves.

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Anssi Jaakkola has confirmed that he will be departing Bristol Rovers on social media after five years of service of both a player and a coach.

The former Finland international goalkeeper joined Rovers from Reading in 2019 and made 60 appearances for the club before retiring last summer and becoming a goalkeeper coach with the Gas, initially as part of Joey B*****'s staff.

Jaakkola remained at the club despite B*****'s dismissal in October eventually being followed by the departures for Andy Mangan, Danny Ventre and Glenn Whelan and has worked under Matt Taylor since December. The 37-year-old has been working closely with three 20-year-old goalkeepers in Jed Ward, Matt Cox and Matt Hall with the former two both now England youth team representatives.

On X, the goalkeeping coach said: "My time at Bristol Rovers has come to an end. Really grateful to have been part of this amazing football club for the past 5 years first as a player and now as a coach.

"Want to thank all the ex team mates, coaches, staff members and the fans for the support over the years."

Although he did start the season coaching former teammate James Belshaw, Jaakkola has been mainly responsible for guiding young goalkeepers in his first campaign as a coach. Both Cox and Hall joined over the course of the summer while Ward initially begun the campaign out on loan at Wealdstone but the latter was given the opportunity to take the first-choice shirt in January having been recalled from loan in November.

The Finn certainly deserves some credit for the academy product's excellent second half of the campaign which saw him earn Rovers' Young Player of the Season award while Cox will return to parent club Brentford a more experienced player for his time at the Gas and Hall remains a prospect despite not yet making an appearance for the club.

As a player, Jaakkola was the club's first-choice shot stopper in the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons but injuries prevented him from completing full campaigns while the former goalkeeper made just four League Two appearances in the promotion season and played all six EFL Trophy matches last term with no games in the league.