BLACKBURN Rovers boss Paul Lambert is aiming to meet Venky’s by the end of the month to put plans in place for next season.

And midfielder Elliott Bennett has insisted Lambert can turn the Ewood Park outfit into promotion candidates in 2016-17 if given the backing.

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Rovers play their eighth of 11 matches in the space of 36 days tonight when they entertain Birmingham City.

And Lambert has confirmed that when the mammoth run of fixtures ends with a trip to Brentford on Saturday week he intends to sit down with the club’s owners.

Rovers exited their Financial Fair Play embargo in December after Venky’s wrote off £3m in loans owed to them.

Lambert now wants funds to continue to strengthen in his squad in what he has long viewed as being a crucial summer for the club.

“That’s hopefully the aim,” said the Scot when asked if the final international break of the season will give him chance to have talks with Venky’s.

“The aim is to let us know what people want here.

“I know what I want for myself and I know what I want for the staff, for the players, and for the supporters.

“But we need the owners as well, which they’ve been great that way. Hopefully people can see it could be really exciting.

“I don’t want to be mid-table or down the bottom end. We don’t want to settle for second best.

“The ultimate goal is the Premier League. That’s where everybody wants to get to. That’s why I’ve always said this summer is massive for this football club.”

Lambert led Norwich City to back to back promotions and then to a 12th-place finish in the top flight.

And January transfer window signing Bennett, who joined the Canaries ahead of their first season back in the top flight, said: “Everything is in place at this football to do well.

“The training facilities, the ground, the fans, the infrastructure around the club is fantastic, and I really do believe if the manager gets the backing that he wants he could turn us into promotion candidates.

“I think the performances against Derby County, Middlesbrough twice, and Burnley, in the past month show that we’re not that far off.

“And if the manager gets the backing he wants we could have a real good go at it.

“I’ve seen it first-hand at Norwich. The club backed him at Norwich when we were in the Premier League. We were odds-on favourite that season for relegation but we ended up finishing 12th.

“He’s a winner, he’s a born winner. He was a winner as a player and more often than not he’s been a winner as a manager as well.”

Lambert has made seven signings since taking over the Rovers reins in November with all but two of them being on short-term deals until the end of the season.

And he said: “I wouldn’t say we need a complete overhaul because we’ve got some really good players.

“But Danny Graham, Jordi Gomez, Tony Watt and Matt Grimes; these lads are on loan so effectively they are not our players. So if they go back then you are effectively back to square one. We need to help them plus the ones who are already here.

“We’ve got some really good players to get us out of this league but to do that we’re going to have to take a big grip on the club and drag it up.”