THE appointment of Paul Senior instilled faint hope in me, writes Simon Smith.

The relative success of the Gary Bowyer era owed much to his faith in the scouting of Ray Clarke.

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Tom Cairney, Corry Evans, Rudy Gestede, Tommy Spurr, Shane Duffy, Craig Conway and Connor Mahoney all came to the club for peanuts in this spell.

Since Tommy Johnston took over he has been perhaps hampered by a lack of finance and prospective targets noticing the continuing cloud over the club, helpfully pointed out in the tabloids by Ben Marshall last weekend.

Hopefully Senior’s scouting experience and the fact he is Venky’s new blue-eyed boy may mean he can prise half-a-million or so from them for signings.

Although talk of more French imports diluted that hope somewhat and ignited memories of Sacha Petshi and Fode Koita who came, struggled to adapt to the English Championship (or Rovers’ style of play) and were offloaded quietly and cleanly.

At this point in the season Rovers cannot be ‘bedding in’ defenders for longer than is necessary.

A xenophobe I am not, but in our predicament it is hungry players already au fait with the English game that Rovers require.

The return of Gary Bowyer to Ewood this month will doubtless compound Owen Coyle’s humiliation from the pre-season friendly as fans again salute the opposition manager for his work here whilst ignoring the current boss.

I was one of the ‘happy clappers’ who staunchly defended Bowyer, although when it appeared Rovers were ready to embrace the next stage of development I agreed that he was working at his limit and if we were to push on for the play-offs, post-FFP embargo, then a more motivational manager was needed.

Now look where we are.

Venky’s have put money into the club but it has ended up in the hands not of other clubs, oiling the lower league economy, but out of the game in the hands of players, agents and advisers.

That £500,000 can only be acquired by Senior and Coyle convincing them that they will make a profit on the players bought.

However, since Bowyer left the players brought in have not grown in value and it will be a hard sell.