GARY Bowyer is hopeful of having two new signings in place by the time Blackburn Rovers get their preparations for the 2014-15 campaign under way next month.

Rovers boss Bowyer has been busy sounding out agents and clubs since the 2013-14 season came to a close in a bid to make the three or four additions he feels he needs.

And he is determined to have made a breakthrough before his players return to pre-season training on July 2.

Bowyer said: “It’s starting to hot up a little bit.

“After the season finishes people put out a couple of feelers but with the first day of pre-season coming upon us quickly, the agents and the clubs are starting to become a bit more active and hopefully something becomes of the endless phone calls we’ve had.

“Come the start of pre-season we certainly hope to have a couple more new faces in.

“Then we’ll take it from there in terms of who is available and what we can do.”

Rovers are set to sign versatile forward Luke Varney on a free transfer when his contract at Leeds expires at the end of the month.

They have also been linked with another forward in Middlesbrough’s Lukas Jutkiewicz.

Bowyer was interested in the former Everton frontman last season before he swooped for Rudy Gestede.

But it is unlikely he will rival Bolton Wanderers and Wolves for Jutkiewicz’s signature – certainly not at the £1m fee quoted.

Instead the Rovers boss is concentrating his efforts on signing a right back who can also play at centre back – as well as reducing the size of his squad.

Dickson Etuhu, Leon Best, DJ Campbell, David Goodwillie, Jordan Slew and Alex Marrow have been transfer listed while it is understood Rovers would be willing to listen to offers for Ruben Rochina as they attempt to fall in line with Financial Fair Play (FFP).

Bowyer says FFP and a combination of the World Cup and the vigorous background checks he does into potential new recruits are the main reasons why he has so far been quiet on the transfer front.

“We’re working hard to bring players in but don’t need to bring 12-13 in like we did last year,” said Bowyer, who again stressed he does not think it will be until the summer of 2016 that Rovers’ squad will ‘be back to where it should be’.

“That has made it a little bit easier but there’s a lot of work gone in to finding the right types and the right characters. We’re not going to go off from the formula that we thought was successful last season.

“Then you’ve got the World Cup, which means the Premier League boys are waiting to see who they are going to bring in and who they are going to allow out on loan.

“But we are working very hard and it’s not just a case of bringing somebody in to sit on the bench – we want to bring somebody in who will push the lads.”