Rovers have lost eight players since the end of last season but Tony Mowbray doesn’t feel a lack of numbers will force him into the transfer market.

Instead it’s a bid to add more quality to the squad that Mowbray is targeting, and he won’t simply be restricted to filling the void of those departures with new experienced facing.

Experienced faces in the form of Danny Graham, Stewart Downing and Richie Smallwood have moved on, and while Rovers have added a new goalkeeper to replace Christian Walton, there is a still a Tosin Adarabioyo sized hole in the defence which is yet to be plugged.

A back-up goalkeeper to replace Jayson Leutwiler also needs to be filled, but Mowbray doesn’t feel Rovers are starting the season light on numbers, despite Thomas Kaminski being the only new arrival through the door.

But the feeling around Brockhall is a positive one, according to the manager, on the eve of the new season.

“I would like to add some quality and experience to certain parts of the team to create some competition. I don’t feel vulnerable, we’ve only really got Dack and Gallagher, as senior players who would have impacted the team, out injured. I feel okay,” Mowbray said.

“We all want to put our best team out every week, but at the moment we can’t do that.

“The evidence from Leicester gave me the confidence that this team are together, they’re fighting together, taking on board the principles of play and they understanding how we’re trying to develop the team and the direction we’re trying to take it.

“I feel the training ground is a really good place, a positive place, at the moment.

“Losing some faces has helped some others grow, some personalities that we’re so big last year are much more vocal this year, and as always happen when you lose someone of a big personality that allows someone else to grow.

“I’m hoping, and I feel, that’s what’s happening.”

Downing, at 36, and Graham, recently turned 35, were the two most experienced faces in the squad last season, with the former England international recruited alongside Bradley Johnson in 2019 to add some more Championship knowhow. That won’t necessarily be replicated this season, however, although Mowbray says bringing in players in the mid-age bracket can be difficult.

“We just like good players. We probably aren’t going to be signing players of certain ages. In an ideal world you’d sign players between 24 and 28 and grow and develop them and mould them in to what you want them to be with a potential re-sale value after showing people how good you are,” he added.

“Sometimes that doesn’t fall in to your lap, but if they’re going to be good enough to play in the Premier League they’re generally priced out of market place.

“So you either go pretty young to get a talent that you can mould in to this kind of player as the years go on, or you get someone who has been there at that level and is coming towards the end, and there’s the concoction.

“It’s hard to get someone of 25 or 26 who’s good enough to go and play in the Premier League because they cost too much money.

“We are working hard really hard behind the scenes, the staff they sit for hours in the video rooms watching presentations, every touch a player has over 90 minutes and then another player and assessing whether they can do the job for us.

“There’s been some long nights watching footballers and then you go and try and see if you can do the deal and As we’ve found we’ve got quite a way down that path and then the plug gets pulled for whatever reason. It’s a frustrating job to get the players you want, unless you’ve got hundreds of millions and you pay whatever the price is.”

Five of the eight players who left this summer were part of the side promoted from League One two years ago, while another, Charlie Mulgrew, looks set to depart.

Mowbray feels that is only natural within the cycle of football and believes that will pave the way for the club to bring through new first-team regulars.

“We’re in an okay position, I think we could, if we wished, sell footballers now but the job in my mind is to keep building this team and make sure we have players that other teams covet, but they’re helping us win football matches every week,” he added.

“The main aim and the main goal is to get to the Premier League. I like this team, I’ve been saying that for a few years now, but this summer was a big recycle from the ‘old brigade’, players who’ve done well for this club for so long, the new guys have to step up and keep this journey going and we have to keep going forward and I have great belief that’s what will happen this year.”