FRANK Stapleton says Blackburn Rovers’ new owners should leave the football to the experts or start putting ‘big money’ where their mouths are.

The former Rovers and Manchester United striker has applauded the ambitions of the Rao family, the owners of the Indian poultry giants who bought the club on Friday, but warned it is all too easy to get carried away.

Rovers travel to their old nemesis United tomorrow with Venky’s chairman Anuradha Desai claiming she will ring Rovers boss Sam Allardyce to tell him to ‘play more entertaining football’ and that ‘winning isn’t everything’.

Stapleton though insists winning is everything in the Premier League and believes it would take tens of millions of pounds to drastically change Rovers’ way of playing.

He said: “I think any football manager will tell you it is about results, that is what costs you your job.

“Sometimes you have to forego certain things if you want to survive in the Premier League, and free-flowing football is inevitably one of those things.

“It is great the new owners are ambitious and want to entertain but they are going to have to invest heavily for that and I’m not sure they are going to put the money in that is needed to do that.

“Chelsea achieved it when Roman Abramovich bought them but look at the money it took to do it. I think we are talking about a more modest scale with Rovers.

“I don’t care what anyone says. The priority is to maintain results and getting a decent Premier League position. The style of football has to come after that.

“Besides, Blackburn Rovers do have flair players, like Bolton did under Sam. He makes sure they fit into his system but they do have players who entertain.”

Stapleton made 81 league appearances at Ewood Park between 1989 to 1991 towards the end of his career, having previously starred for Arsenal and Manchester United in the 1970s and 80s.

He was at Rovers just at the start of the glorious Walker regime, where ‘Uncle Jack’ dramatically turned around Rovers fortunes, and believes the club should be proud of everything they have achieved since.

The 54-year-old, who now works as a pundit, has urged caution towards any talk about a return to the glory days, insisting just to maintain top flight football is a success in itself.

He said: “Jack was the first real entrepreneur to invest in a football club. He went beyond what everyone was paying to bring the likes of Alan Shearer to the club. Prices have gone up massively these days “Those days of winning the Premier League, or even challenging for it, are now a long, long way off though. You need so much money to reach the top and it is probably out of Rovers reach.

“When I was there though we were still trying to get back into Division One, that would have been classed as a success. It is great the new owners have ambition but it has to be realistic.

“If Blackburn Rovers can continue to run as an established Premier League side, with maybe the odd cup run here and there, then that has to be classed as success. No one should get carried away.

“I am sure people will talk about Europe, and you never know, but would that be good for Rovers? Probably not. A European campaign can cause chaos to your league campaign because you just don’t have the size of the squad to cope with it.”

Ahead of tomorrow’s visit to an unbeaten United, Stapleton doesn’t expect Rovers’ minds to be taken off the ball by the changes at the top.

He believes though the current stability would be destroyed should the owners decide they wanted a managerial change – backing the man he worked with briefly at Bolton Wanderers.

“Sam has done a very good job at Blackburn Rovers,” said Stapleton. “He has made them very difficult to beat and I don’t think many teams would enjoy playing against them.

“The players won’t be bothered by what is going on at boardroom level because nothing really changes for them. That is as long as the owners keep faith with the manager.

“Obviously if they come and decide to get rid of Sam then you lose that stability and the players do become a bit more uncertain. Hopefully that won’t happen at Blackburn Rovers though.

“Can they beat Manchester United? It will be tight. I know everyone is saying United haven’t been playing at their best but they are still unbeaten. That has to be worrying for the rest of the league.”