Tony Mowbray admits Rovers are ‘miles away’ when it comes to their valuation of January transfer targets and that of their parent clubs.

Mowbray would prefer to do permanent deals this month, and says targets have been identified, but are so far out of their reach when it comes to asking prices.

Portsmouth winger Ronan Curtis one player Rovers have tracked, along with others in League One, but no deals have so far progressed beyond the enquiry stage.

There are have been no arrivals, or departures, at Rovers this month, and with money tight, Mowbray will need to box clever in the market to strengthen his squad before the January 31 deadline.

The manager would prefer to hand opportunities to the club’s own young players, rather than add more loan players to their squad, but says permanent deals are proving to be out of reach so far.

“Regarding the transfer window, what doesn’t change with the players we’ve tried to identify and like, when you ask in the first week or two, millions of pounds are being quoted,” Mowbray explained.

“Whether that becomes less as the window goes on, or we need to re-address our targets, what do you do?

“When you look at the Championship deals, a few more are now, but not many are buying players, there’s a lot of young Premier League players going for their first and second loans.

“Is that what we need? I’d prefer to push on one of our young players, Rankin-Costello or Buckley, unless there is a definitive player who’s going to really improve us.

“We haven’t got loads of money to think ‘we’ve lost a midfield player let’s go and spend £1m to get another one in’.

“It doesn’t quite work like that. You make calls, and clubs are sensing that ‘oh, Blackburn Rovers are calling, let’s test the water’. They are not easy deals.

“I don’t sit here thinking ‘we can’t do without Corry’ because there’s always an opportunity for other players and if we can find the right one who can help our group moving forward then we’ll try and recruit.

“We’re actively trying to recruit. We’ve talked about two or three players that we really like, we’ve asked about and hopefully the financial support would be there if we can get to a number we felt was okay.

“At this moment we’re miles away with trying to negotiate correct deals for the club.”

Meanwhile, Rovers haven’t enquired about an Ewood Park return for Sheffield Wednesday striker Jordan Rhodes this month.

Mowbray also stated that League One side Gillingham haven’t enquired about a possible move for Dominic Samuel who had a successful loan spell at the Priestfield in 2015/16.