If, as the saying goes, you can’t buy experience, then Rovers must find and nurture some from within after another senior man exited Ewood Park.

This felt significant, not only another member of the League One promotion team gone, but a player who helped unite the club at one of its lowest recent ebbs.

Elliott Bennett was an ambassador for the club off the pitch, and served the club with distinction on it too, and was a key component in a group of players who hauled the club back onto more stable footing.

His influence on the pitch hasn’t been as he would have liked in recent times, only nine appearances to his name last season, but his standing and input off it was clear and why Tony Mowbray wanted to keep him around for another year.

If that was in any doubt, the response from those inside the dressing room was even more profound than those in the stands who roared his every fist pump.

David Raya, Bennett, Charlie Mulgrew, Derrick Williams, Amari’i Bell, Richie Smallwood, Corry Evans, Craig Conway and Danny Graham have now all gone, the bedrock on which a promotion campaign was built.

Rovers are on a different journey now, and the contract extension for Bradley Johnson will likely have had an eye on the likelihood of Bennett’s departure, as well as that of Stewart Downing.

Johnson is currently the only player on the club’s books over the age of 30, Daniel Ayala having now reached that mark, and while age doesn’t mean experience, those two are seasoned Championship campaigners.

The same can be said of current captain Darragh Lenihan, and Rovers will look for the likes of Lewis Travis and Ryan Nyambe to take on a similar mantle, even if its not necessarily as natural to them.

This is where the absence of Bradley Dack will also be felt, a talisman off the pitch, a uniting figure off it.

With Harry Chapman unlikely to extend his stay, it will mean that including the five loan players returning to their parent clubs, that Rovers will have seen 12 players depart from last season’s squad, with only Harry Pickering to add.

There are significant gaps in the squad, but also to a dressing room which has evolved quite drastically in recent times.

Big personalities and characters have moved on, years of experience and service too, but that will leave room for others to flourish.

As for Bennett, it’s a move that has been a while in the making, but one that makes sense for him and his young family given his Shropshire roots.

He will likely become a key lieutenant of Steve Cotterill as he did Mowbray.

Bennett cared deeply for the club and the people within it. He was part of the very glue behind the scenes he described in his heartfelt parting message.

There was an honesty to his actions as there was his performances, sharing the values Mowbray holds dear.

All good things must come to an end, wrote the 32-year-old, and it feels the right time for that to happen, even the circumstances, with a social media send off rather than one in a stadium, aren’t how either party would have wanted it.

But his contribution extends beyond a difficult final year.

Both club and player go in their separate directions, but doing so knowing they made a real mark on the other.

From reading the words of those he shared a dressing room, he will undoubtedly be missed, but his impression on them will mean his influence will be felt beyond his exit.