Tony Mowbray says ‘big decisions’ lie ahead as Rovers struggle to secure the futures of their star names.

While the manager is relaxed about his own future, with eight months left on his deal, he knows the club must make calls on their out-of-contract players with January approaching.

Next year marks a decade out of the Premier League for Rovers, with three mid-table finishes following their promotion back to the Championship in 2018, with regular inconsistent periods of form along the way.

Only one permanent signing was made in the summer, though Mowbray said the current financial climate meant that was no criticism of owners Venky’s, but did mean they would have to punch above their weight to challenge.

He said: “They invest at least £20m a year, putting their money into the football club. Is there ambition to get to the Premier League? By words, of course there always is an ambition to get to the Premier League.

“To do it, we have to punch way above our weight in this league I would suggest. When you have Premier League clubs getting relegated, maintaining their squads and their salary levels, the quality of the players coming down make this a tough league.

“Is there an ambition, yes - but it’s really tough to achieve that.”

A contract impasse appears to have been reached with Ryan Nyambe and Joe Rothwell, while captain Darragh Lenihan is another whose deal expires next summer.

Negotiations have been ongoing for some time with top scorer Ben Brereton, with other players’ contracts also being discussed as Rovers look to secure the signatures of first-team regulars.

The squad has become much younger since the departure of several experienced heads in the summer, and for what the future holds, Mowbray said: “It depends on the investment in the club. If you’ve got investment you can buy men, who get paid pretty well. When you’re 26, 27 or 28 and you’re a football player at the Championship level, you expect to be paid a man’s wage.

“We’ve got a lot of young boys who get paid what they get paid. We have a few players who are in that transition period where they expect to be paid men’s wages now and the club is finding it difficult to get to those levels.

“We have to see what happens with these young players who are all out of contract. Are we selling them? Are we keeping them? Are we giving them the money that their agents want? The club is in a real situation where there are big decisions to be made and the fans will see what happens, whether the age goes up or goes down.

“As I sit here today, I’m not sure about Nyambe, Lenihan, Rothwell and there are three or four others that we’re talking to about their contract situations. Let’s wait and see.”

The average age within the squad has become much younger within the last transfer window, and on the club's future direction, Mowbray said: “If the policy moving forward becomes let’s polish them up to sell them and reinvest to see where it takes you then that’s fine.

“If it isn’t, let’s pay them more money and raise the standards of everything and be a club with an expectation because our budget is right up there in this league and we should be punching at the top but that’s not the case at this moment, I would suggest.”