ROVERS boss Tony Mowbray is actively looking to strengthen all areas of his squad and revealed he hopes to add some Championship experience to his ranks before the season starts.

Mowbray has brought in young midfield pair Jacob Davenport and Joe Rothwell so far this season. The pair are aged just 19 and 23 respectively but the Ewood chief said he wasn’t solely looking to bring in young players.

“We want good footballers at the end of the day,” he told the Lancashire Telegraph. “As long as they are not 32 or 33 with no real value other than this season coming then everybody is there for us to sign.

“I would hope that the balance will be that we would sign some footballers in their mid 20s, 26 or 27, who have played a lot of games in the league and know what it takes to be at the top end of the league.”

Asked if he was looking at adding across all areas of the pitch the Rovers boss said: “I think so, I think that is the right thing to do. We have just gone up a league so we should try and improve the squad and if there is an opportunity to do then we will do it.”

Rovers play their opening pre-season game of the summer at Hibs on Sunday, where Davenport and Rothwell are expected to make their debuts, but Mowbray admitted recruitment is a patient process adding that deals will be only be done if they are right for the long-term future of the club.

He added: “Sometimes it is difficult to manage the money, so if you got some money to spend for instance then it is very difficult because suddenly the salary expectation is greater when you spend money.

“It is a difficult balance for us. It is not easy, it might be easy away from it to sit there and say why haven’t they done this or why haven’t they done that? But it doesn’t quite work like that.

“We might agree a fee with somebody and then find out the player wants £40,000 a week and we don’t do that and we are not going to do that so we have to find the right of balance in the type of qualities we can get.

“And when we get to the Premier League one day then we will be able to pay huge salaries to match the transfer fees that you pay.

“At the moment we are trying to find the right type to help this group on the grass and in the dressing room with the personalities and build it bit by bit and make sure we are really competitive and working really hard and see where the season takes us.”

The current squad is well stocked in midfielders with Davenport and Rothwell competing with last season’s starting central pair Richie Smallwood and Corry Evans while Bradley Dack, Peter Whittingham, Ben Gladwin and Lewis Travis are also options in the middle of the park.

But Mowbray said he does not feel he has too many midfielders, rather that he wants that level of competition across other areas of the pitch.

“It is not too many,” he added. “It is competition, the players know that at most you only pick three central midfield players.

“The players have to fight for their places, they have to train and work hard and show me that they warrant their place in the team.

“Hopefully you will be asking me that about wide attackers, centre forwards, centre halves and full backs hopefully over the next few weeks because that is what we are trying to do, to create competition in our squad.”