Sobering Blackburn Rovers transfer admission made ahead of the summer window

Blackburn Rovers boss Tony Mowbray has hinted his side will be targeting free agents on just a few thousand pounds per week during the summer if they remain in the Championship, speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph.

Mowbray has been forced to work within a limited budget this season despite the £15m sale of Adam Armstrong to Southampton last summer, failing to get a single signing over the line before making five additions towards the end of the window, with four of them being loanees.

They did make four further additions in the winter with Ryan Hedges, Dilan Markanday, Ryan Giles and Deyovaisio Zeefuik all coming to Ewood Park – but these additions weren’t enough to prevent Rovers from sliding out of the play-off zone.

With the knowledge that they have a team capable of pushing for promotion though, some would expect the club’s owners to fully back Mowbray or a potential successor in the summer with the inexperienced squad likely to be even better next season with a full season of second-tier football under their belt.

And with Venky’s stating their clear intention to keep hold of their prized assets including Ben Brereton Diaz, they may be tempted to build on this with significant investment to give Rovers the push needed to get to the top flight.

However, Mowbray has hinted his side will need to make full use of the free-agent market in the coming months.

He said: “Recruitment is ongoing.

“At this moment, sitting here right now, the club doesn’t know what division it’s going to be in, so it’s really difficult to finalise things because if we did win the play-offs we wouldn’t be signing some of the players that we’re maybe looking at on free transfers and on a few grand a week.

“If we got into the Premier League we’d