TONY Mowbray admits the club’s retained list will be something of a balancing act as he looks to put together a squad capable of launching an immediate push for promotion back to the Championship.

Mowbray has planned talks with the club’s seven out of contract players, while the five loanees have now returned to their parent clubs.

The Rovers head coach knows the club will need to cut costs ahead of their League One campaign, having operated with the ninth biggest budget in the Championship last season. But he wants to make sure Rovers retain a quality feel to their squad.

“Players run out of contract and managers always think they can find a better player around the corner for less money,” Mowbray said.

“Sometimes they do, sometimes you can get two or three players for one salary and they are all talented.

“What I do know is you can’t dilute it too much and let all your quality go thinking you are going to bring in lots of top quality players, because some don’t work out.

“Some don’t like the change, some are missing home if they travel too far, some don’t adapt to the league, you have to be careful that you don’t lose quality players that you know can be talented players in the league below and that’s something that I need to fight for and discuss with the owners and executives at the club.

“It’s a point I need to make, that we need to be strong in League One so that we can bounce back at the first attempt.”

Rovers’ points tally of 22 from their 15 games under Mowbray was the ninth best in the Championship during that period, but it wasn’t enough to see them avoid the drop.

Two of the starting line-up at Brentford on the final day, Jason Lowe and Danny Guthrie, are out of contract this summer, along with Hope Akpan, Wes Brown, Gordon Greer, Adam Henley and Connor Mahoney, who the club have been in talks since the start of the calendar year.

Mowbray has recent history of managing in League One during his 18-month stay at Coventry City, a post he left in September.

And he’s hoping to be given a budget that will put Rovers among the top spenders in the third tier next year.

He added: “You have to remember that there’s still a slight legacy from the Premier League time at this football club where, although they have come down slightly, this is still a pretty well salaried football club.

“The reality of League One is we can’t carry the salary levels of some of the players that we have got at this football club.

“There will be movement, what is important is that we still keep a healthy League One budget to give ourselves a good chance of coming back straight away.

“As I found at Coventry City, with a really low budget you are always struggling against better players and hoping that your organisation can carry you through.

“I would like to hope that we would have be one of the bigger, better budgets in League One, with better players, and hopefully allied to organisation, inspiration you have a team that will be challenging at the top end of the league looking to get out of it.”