Rovers have made decisions on their out of contract players who know whether their futures lie at Ewood Park, Tony Mowbray has revealed.

The manager says contract extensions have been discussed with the players the club would like to keep on, with Ryan Nyambe, Joe Rankin-Costello and Joe Rothwell all in Mowbray’s mind for next season.

The club has options on all three players, as well as Harry Chapman, but the future seems less certain for the more senior players whose deals are due to expire this season.

With five loan players set to return to their parent clubs, Mowbray says the task now is to build a new squad given the expected turnover of players this summer.

“They all know,” Mowbray said of those out of contract.

“We have made the decisions on players, we just need to try and fill some holes, some gaps in the squad, who we fill them with we’ll have to wait and see.”

Mowbray says as well as the players he’s set to be working with, he also knows the finances that will be available, unless there are permanent exits of under contract players.

It remains likely that 22 goal top scorer Adam Armstrong will leave, should the necessary offer arrive for the 24-year-old who is moving into the final 12 months of his deal, which would be expected to impact on the budget available.

Elliott Bennett, Amari’i Bell, Bradley Johnson, Stewart Downing, Corry Evans and Lewis Holtby are all out of contract in the summer, as is Charlie Mulgrew, currently out on loan at Fleetwood Town.

Rovers then have options on Nyambe, Rankin-Costello, Rothwell and Chapman which are all expected to be triggered if the club cannot secure longer-term extensions on the quartet.

And Mowbray told the Lancashire Telegraph: “We know which players we’ve got left, we know what contracts we’re trying to get agreed, ultimately I think we know, unless there’s a sale, what budget we’d have to try and reinforce.

“Then as I’ve always said, you’re only as good as your recruitment as you move forward.

“The job is to always try and improve, to make the playing staff. It’s all about opportunities in transfer windows.

“Which players are available? Some players we’ve played against pretty recently, their agents have come to me and said ‘would you fancy them because he’d quite like the idea of working with you at Blackburn?’ but then you hear the salaries of these players and they aren’t coming here. That’s the way it is.”

Rovers will also welcome left back Harry Pickering into the fold having been loaned back to Crewe Alexandra for the second half of the season after agreeing a permanent move to Ewood Park in the January window.

As well as Chapman, Rovers will also welcome back Hayden Carter and Tyler Magloire from their respective loan spell at Burton Albion and Motherwell, with the central defenders both hoping to push for more regular involvement in Mowbray’s squad.