Tony Mowbray says Rovers are under no pressure to sell Ben Brereton after confirming the one-year option in the contract of the 17-goal frontman.

Mowbray hopes the January window is about signing players, not losing them, with Rovers sitting in the top six approaching the halfway stage.

Contracts of Ryan Nyambe, Darragh Lenihan and Joe Rothwell are up in the summer, but Mowbray confirmed Rovers do have a year option in Brereton’s deal to ensure he’s under contract until 2023.

Talks continue with the quartet though Brereton’s reputation is only rising after netting his 17th of the season.

While Rovers sold Adam Armstrong to Southampton for £15m in the summer there are no plans to lose their current top scorer in the upcoming window.

“We don’t want to lose any players, we want to add to it, we need to keep growing this football club,” Mowbray said.

“How far we can take it is another question. We have to add to what we’ve got, not take away.

“I’m almost afraid to sit and say we have to show some ambition because it’s wrong to question the owners’ ambition, but as a football manager who feels as though there’s some really talented young guys here, if we lose Brereton through injury, or Lenihan, or Travis, can we keep winning football matches for the club?

“It’s not about me it’s about the team trying to grow and give Blackburn Rovers half a chance of getting back to the Premier League.

“We went down to League One, we sort of stabilised, half threatened for a bit, but for me it’s a bit of ambition, as they showed when we bought Brereton and Armstrong and Gallagher, I think the fruits of those are there to see.

“If there’s some ambition and money to spend to bring more players in and some you can polish up to help the team that would be great, if not then we have to understand it.

“If Brereton goes, the first question in my mind is how much of the money are we getting? Or are we not seeing any of it?”

Speculation has been rife over Brereton’s future with Sevilla having been strongly linked with a January move for the Chile international.

While the club are yet to secure an extended deal for the attacker, Mowbray confirmed what the Lancashire Telegraph had previously reported that Brereton isn’t out of contract.

He said: “He’s not walking away for nothing in the summer.

“All of those things are really pertinent. How much do you pay Ben Brereton to keep him happy and stay at this club and keep the journey going? Or when does he cut off and say he’s not signing so you decide what you want to do?

“We’ve not reached that stage with him because he’s a brilliant kid, no ego, works really hard for the lads.

“I’d like to think we can give Ben a new contract because I believe the best way to leave the club would be if someone offers an amount of money that would just be stupid to turn down and we could buy three £5m players on the back of it and then give yourselves a real chance and expectation to get promotion.”

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