PAUL Lambert has hailed the removal of Blackburn Rovers’ Financial Fair Play embargo as a ‘massive step forward’ in rebuilding the club.

But the Rovers boss has stressed to supporters that he will not be spending ‘millions and millions’ come the New Year.

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Lambert said: “It’s about putting the first building block in place. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

“That’s how some people will want it but very rarely do you get it.

“But for the way this football club has been, it’s a massive, massive step forward.”

For the past year Rovers have been unable to pay fees for permanent and loan signings after failing Financial Fair Play.

And any signings the club has made during that time have had their wages capped at a maximum £10,000 per week.

Rovers also have had to run with a squad containing no more than 24 established players.

However come January 1 they will be able to operate in the market without restriction.

But Lambert, who took over from Gary Bowyer last month, said: “I think it’s important to get over to the fans that we won’t be able to spend massive amounts.

“Just because we’re out of the embargo doesn’t mean we can go and spend millions and millions.

“We’re going to have to do it with a steady hand because one thing’s for sure, we don’t want to be in this position again. That is why Gary Bowyer deserves a lot of credit for stabilising it.

“Everybody can now look to the future and say, ‘okay, where do we start now? Where does Blackburn Rovers begin to rebuild?’ And today is the day to start that.”

Cost savings and summer player sales, which brought in more than £10m, put Rovers in a position to have their embargo lifted.

It would have been lifted earlier had the club accepted £10m-plus bids for Jordan Rhodes.

However Venky’s refused to countenance cashing in on their star striker.

Instead Rovers’ owners have agreed to a loan conversion that will see them write off millions of pounds in order for the club to come out of the embargo.

And Lambert said: “I think everybody behind the scenes, the board, the staff and especially the owners, deserve a lot of credit.

“When you’re an owner of a football club and you’re putting millions into a club, people don’t see that, they just think it’s a normal thing.

“Rightly or wrongly they’ve been criticised but I think now’s the time to say, ‘hang on a minute, they deserve credit for this’.

“That bad feeling, it doesn’t do anyone any good. It doesn’t help the supporters, it doesn’t help the players, it doesn’t help the owners, and it doesn’t help the football club in general.”

When Rovers’ annual accounts are released they are expected to show a loss under £20m.

That would be significantly less than the £42.1m loss Rovers posted last year.

However cost savings will have to continue as the club attempts to reduce losses further.

A Rovers statement read: “Blackburn Rovers confirm that following discussions with the Football League the club is now compliant with the rules and regulations on Financial Fair Play.

“During the past 12 months, the board of directors and staff have worked hard to ensure that the necessary requirements have been put in place to satisfy the Football League.

“This has been achieved through a number of measures being undertaken, most notably, the owners agreeing and implementing a loan conversion agreement, effective cost efficiency savings and player sales, which were limited to reflect the needs of the team and football management.

“The owners and board of directors feel it prudent to proceed with restraint, in order to give the club the best possible environment to continue to be compliant in subsequent years, however all efforts will continue to be made to provide the manager, Paul Lambert, and football staff to work effectively and efficiently.”