The club have announced details of who are the trialists who have joined Dale on their pre-season tour to Spain. Read on for full details of each and every one of them.
The stand out name is a certain Alan Goodall, who has been training with Dale since the start of pre-season. Obviously, Goodall is well known to Dale supporters having spent three seasons at the club, chalking up over 130 appearances for the club during that time. He was almost a permanent fixture at left back having joined Dale from Bangor City, with the tough task of taking over from Michael Simpkins.
Since leaving Dale, Goodall has had a miserable time after a spell at Luton didn't work out at all for him, and he found himself surplus to requirements after a subsequent move to Chesterfield.
Another well known name on the list of trialists is former Bury left back David Buchanan. Given the success of local lads Joey Thompson and Craig Dawson, Buchanan clearly fancies continuing adding himself to that list, and having seen the success enjoyed by his predecessor at Gigg Lane, he clearly sees Spotland as the route to success.
Buchanan has found himself in limbo after contract negotiations with Bury saw his offer withdrawn after apparently failing to get in contact with the club by the deadline put in place by the Shakers. The Rochdale born defender has made over two hundred appearances for Bury since joining the club from school, and has won international recognition with Northern Ireland U-21 appearances.
If we're talking big names, then you don't get bigger than the grannies' favourite Daniel O'Donnell. As well as being likely to produce thousands of puns over the season should we eventually sign him, O'Donnell joins us on trial having been let go by Crewe Alexandra at the end of the last season. The 6'1 central defender signed for the Railwaymen from Liverpool for £100,000 in 2007 after a successful loan spell.
He's played in around half of Crewe's games during that time, but was released at the end of 2009-10 after what was deemed to be a poor season on his part. He played in both games against Dale this last season.
The fourth trialist is former Hereford midfielder Matt Done. The 22 year old started his career at Wrexham before joining Hereford in the Summer of 2008 after Wrexham's relegation from the Football League. The left winger attracted interest from higher divisions during his time, but found himself surplus to requirements at the end of the past season. Like O'Donnell, Done has played in both games against Dale this season. His final appearance for the Bulls was against Dale in April.
The last of the trialists is 21 year old Huddersfield born striker Lucas Akins, who has spent the last couple of seasons playing North of the Border. Described on Wiki as someone who chose football over Ballet (which perhaps says more about Wiki than it does about Akins), he has been contracted to SPL side Hamilton where he has made a further loan spell at Partick Thistle. Akins scored just one goal in twenty appearances in Scottish football.
It may be worth remembering that none of last Summer's trialists actually signed for Dale.