IF anyone needed reminding of the financial disparity that exists between the clubs coming down from the Premier League and the clubs already in the Championship then it has arrived on the eve of the season.

Firstly Newcastle United took their summer spending past the £40m mark with the captures of Ciaran Clark and Mo Diame before Aston Villa sealed a £14m move for Ross McCormack, a record for the division.

And just for good measure Norwich City, who arrive at Ewood Park for tomorrow’s opener, also blew rival clubs out of the water to sign Alex Pritchard.

In contrast Blackburn Rovers, whose own parachute payments were frittered away long before Owen Coyle became the fifth manager appointed by Venky’s since the club were relegated, have yet to pay a single penny in transfer fees this summer.

Coyle admits that provides a difficult challenge but it is not one he appears fazed by or fears. Indeed, while stopping short of saying Rovers can push for promotion, he believes, with the help of further of additions, he can build a team that can go toe-to-toe with sides who have significantly greater firepower in the market.

“Any manager will tell you they wish they had an endless pot of money that they can go and cherry-pick the best parts for their jigsaw,” said the 50-year-old when asked whether he is envious of the sums splashed out by Norwich, Villa and Newcastle.

“But when you’ve not got it, there’s no point looking at anybody else. We have to control what we can, and that’s everything at Blackburn Rovers. We’ve got to make sure we are the best at everything we do.

“Does it make it more difficult in terms of the teams you face? Of course it does. But that’s the challenge we face. It’s not one that fazes us and it’s not one we’re fearsome of.

“We’re very respectful of our opponents and Norwich, on Saturday, are a wonderful team led by a very nice man in Alex Neil, who is a good friend of mine, and of course Alan Irvine, my former assistant manager, is there as well. But that won’t stop us for the duration of that game doing everything we can to try and win the game for Blackburn Rovers.

“They have fantastic players. Cameron Jerome, Wes Hoolahan, who starred at the Euros, Steven Naismith, Jonny Howson. If you go through what they have spent in assembling their team it comes to big, big sums of money. But it’s not big, big sums of money that decides games. It’s players that decides games, and we feel we’ve got players who can go and win that game on Saturday. We’re going into it truly believing that if we are at our maximum we can win the game.

“We’ll make sure we’re ready to stand toe-to-toe with some fantastic teams and some very good players in the league.”

Coyle achieved promotion to the Premier League with Rovers’ rivals Burnley on a fraction of the budget of some of the sides they were competing with in 2008-09.

The former Republic of Ireland international admits the new television deal means it is significantly different landscape than it was seven years ago and he also points to the fact that clubs like Wolves have also come into money.

But he added: “We all know the Championship has shown over many years, and I’ve proved it myself in the past, that you can achieve success within limited budgets.

“I don’t want to get too caught up in that because at the end of the day, what you’ve got is what you’ve got. It’s making the best of that and maximising that. But I do believe we’ve got a good core of group of players who love the club and want to be here and do everything for the supporters.

“That’s why when they’re out on the pitch I will ask them to work their socks off and give themselves a platform to allow the quality players we have got to effect the game. To do that you’re going to have make sure you’re doing all the dirty works it takes against the very good players.

“It won’t stop us believing we can make an impact in the league. To do that we’ve got to be at our very best but the Championship has shown some wonderful things can happen.

“I think it’s important you don’t pick up injuries and such and you can have that consistency and continuity of selection. And if you get on those runs and have momentum, then great things can happen.

“We’re excited to get up and running, we believe we can go and win games in this league, and the aim is to go and win as many as we can.”

*This article appears in our 16-page pre-season football supplement free inside today’s Lancashire Telegraph