JACK Walker is ready to back manager Brian Kidd's plans to strengthen the Ewood squad, as Blackburn Rovers look for an immediate return to the Premiership.

Mr Walker, "devastated" by relegation, revealed today that he had already held a series of meetings with his manager and chief executive John Williams in preparation for Rovers' First Division campaign.

And he stressed that no efforts would be spared in the bid for promotion at the first attempt.

The Ewood owner expects their top-level discussions to be completed next week.

After that, it should be full steam ahead for Kidd to try and carry out the reshaping of his squad in readiness for an assault on the promotion that Mr Walker believes is essential for the well-being of the club.

His own commitment to the cause remains total - to use his word - and it has been undiminished by Rovers' Premiership exit.

"I was absolutely devastated about relegation," he said.

"But you don't go down the road like I have done and then throw your cap out of the door.

"We are going out there to come straight back up - for many reasons.

"It's going to be costly.

"Even one season (out of the Premiership) could cost us as much as £15 million.

"We have a meeting arranged to finalise our plans but I can tell you now that the business plan is to make sure we strengthen the squad and go all out to win promotion. "I know it's not going to be easy.

"And I cannot wave a magic wand. But you can't do more than give all you can to something."

Apart from the financial factor, taking the drop clearly hurt Mr Walker deeply and personally.

But he felt everything went against the club.

"I never thought we would go down but every time I saw a team sheet there was a different player out through injury," he said.

"It was just one after another.

"If you go through the squad you can see the problems we had.

"At one time we had 10 internationals injured, so many key people missing.

"You just don't anticipate these things happening and, at the same time, everything went right for Southampton.

"It was very hard to swallow but the odds were completely against us."

One encouraging feature was the astonishingly supportive reaction of the fans after relegation was confirmed against Manchester United.

"I thought it was absolutely incredible," he said.

"The fans gave us their full backing and that was one of the best shows of support we have ever had. I don't think we could do any more than we have with the season tickets. "If we hadn't gone down, prices would probably have had to be increased. Now we need their support more than ever."

Mr Walker also emphasised that he had not had any second thoughts about changing managers last year.

"I had absolutely no doubts it had to be done," he stressed.

"And if you averaged out the points we got under Kiddo over a full season we wouldn't have had a problem."

Rovers had just nine points from 15 games when Kidd took over. The task they then faced can be seen from the previous season when the three relegated clubs, Barnsley, Bolton and Crystal Palace, had 13, 16 and 19 points respectively from their first 15 matches.

Celtic are the latest club to be linked with a move for Rovers goalkeeper Tim Flowers.

However, there has been no approach to Ewood from the deposed Scottish champions.

Rovers are also yet to receive an approach for striker Chris Sutton.

Rovers Disabled Supporters Club hold their annual general meeting at the Millennium Suite, Ewood Park on Tuesday June 15 at 7.30pm.

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