TONY Mowbray deserves the opportunity to lead Blackburn Rovers back to the Championship, according to the club’s record goalscorer Simon Garner.

Venky’s released a statement the day after the club were relegated to League One in which they pledged their ‘full support’ to the head coach.

The Ewood boss is planning to fly out to meet the club’s Indian owners to look for the assurances he needs before committing his future to next season, and Garner hopes to see the owners back up their early promise to Mowbray ahead of the club’s first season in the third tier for 37 years.

“He will want assurances and from what he has done, I think he’s done a decent job and the results have been good,” Garner said.

“It’s down to what he’s promised by the owners and I think he’s going to need a lot of promises from the owners. They have to give him the assurances that he will get the funds to spend.

“They can’t give him millions of pounds to spend because of the finances at the football club, but they have got to back him.”

Garner needs stability behind the scenes if they are to challenge for immediate promotion back to the Championship.

He added: “Tony Mowbray has managed in League One, he knows the division, and knows what the squad will need to look like to get out.

“Sometimes Championship players struggle in League One, and I think they have got to look at bringing in players that are used to battling it out in that division.

“Rovers will be a big name in that division and teams will want to beat them.

“There’s a lot of players he will want to keep but if they get offers from Championship clubs then you can’t blame them if they wanted to leave.”

Garner was one of many former Rovers stars to take to social media in the aftermath of the club’s relegation to criticise the Rao family.

He believes the club’s owners have to take responsibility for the club’s fall down the leagues.

“My take is what it has been for the last few years – they are the wrong people for the football club, they don’t understand the football club,” Garner added.

“You have to buy in to what the club means to the fans, you have to keep hold of your loyal fans that they have had that for a long, long time.

“You need someone working at the football club who understands these things.

“Venky’s have never done that from the outset since they came in, they don’t understand the history.

“I have said for two or three years now that they need to employ someone who understands what Blackburn Rovers is about.”

He added: “When they came in to the football club there was talking of buying this player and that player, winning the Premier League and getting in to the Champions League.

“The fans knew that was never going to happen.

“They messed up from the start.  They said too much was going to happen. 

“Since things have been going wrong there’s been no communication.”