Rovers have the safety of one-year options in the contracts of several players whose deals are set to expire.

Tony Mowbray says he is relaxed about the situation, revealing Rovers plan to trigger many of those 12 month options which will keep those players under contract until 2022.

They include the likes of Ryan Nyambe, Joe Rankin-Costello and Joe Rothwell, though Rovers ideally would like to agree longer extensions to secure their futures, while they have agreed new deals with Bradley Dack, John Buckley and Tyrhys Dolan within the calendar year.

Rovers have five loan players set to return to their parent clubs, while there are the futures of 11 out of contract players to sort.

However, Mowbray said: “There’s nowhere near 11 out of contract because there’s lots of players with year options that we’ll just kick in.

“My focus is to win some matches over the next four weeks and see what the summer brings.”

Rovers have used one-year options in the contracts of many players in recent times, which in the club’s favour, allows them to extend the contract by a further 12 months.

Nyambe and Rankin-Costello are both under the age of 24, so even without the option, so long as they were offered a deal, any club looking to sign them would need to agree a compensation package with Rovers, or see that set by a tribunal.

The club will alleviate that by triggering the options in those contracts, and are expected to do the same with Rothwell, as well as trying to agree longer-term deals with the trio.

“Generally, if a footballer has a year left, or his deal is coming to an end, we will pick up the year’s option to protect the value in that footballer,” Mowbray explained.

“Then are they in the team? Are they doing well? What sort of new contract might you offer them? Are they happy with that? All these discussions go on, that’s what football is.

“When we give players contracts with a year’s option in them generally it’s to protect the football club and protect the value in the player.

“We have to make calls on them.”

Senior players Elliott Bennett, Amari’i Bell, Bradley Johnson, Lewis Holtby, Stewart Downing and Corry Evans see their contracts expire this summer.

Charlie Mulgrew and Harry Chapman, both out on loan are in the same position, though Rovers do have an option on the Shrewsbury Town loanee who has scored six goals in an impressive spell for Steve Cotterill’s side.

Stalwarts of the League One promotion-winning campaign have moved on in recent times, with Danny Graham and Richie Smallwood leaving last summer and Craig Conway in 2019.

Jayson Leutwiler, Sam Hart and Dominic Samuel were the other players to leave at the end of their contracts last summer.

And Mowbray added: “Some players you offer contracts to want more money or they want a longer period so they hold out and the time runs down, then it becomes whether the club or player blinks first.

“There are some examples at this club in the pretty recent history who didn’t like the numbers they were offered, decided to go onto the open market and went and played in League One for a lot less than they were earning here.

“That’s the risk certain footballers will take.”

Top scorer Adam Armstrong will be into the final year of his deal this summer, casting doubts over his future amid  Premier League interest.