Tony Mowbray says he would have had no hesitation in signing a new deal with Rovers had one been offered.

Instead, Mowbray will walk away from the club after five years, his final match in charge being the 2-1 win over Birmingham City as Rovers finished the season in eighth place.

Mowbray reiterated that he will now leave the club, even were an offer to be forthcoming, but that wouldn’t have been the case had discussions come at the start of the year.

His contract runs until June 30, but with the club set to clarify his position with the season finished, his departure is set to be imminent.

Asked if he would have stayed were an offer to have been made at the turn of the year, Mowbray said without hesitation: “Undoubtedly, definitely.

“It’s a club I feel is growing, is going in the right direction, lots of good young players.

“I’m a football guy and the way my brain works, that if it wasn’t offered around the last transfer window, Christmas, I found it strange for a long time.

“We’ve been doing recruitment this week but the madness of recruitment is that I’m not the manager, so why should I be picking the players because the new manager might want totally different players.

“I’ll keep going until that’s enough.”

Mowbray met with chief executive Steve Waggott last week, but re-iterated after the game that it would be his final match in charge.

Rovers finished the season with back-to-back away wins, to finish eighth with 69 points, but six shy of the play-offs.

The Birmingham win was only a fourth in 18 matches as they slipped out of the top six, with Mowbray admitting it had been a missed opportunity given they were second in the league as recently as February 8.

Yet he felt how the season played out shouldn’t have been a deciding factor in his future.

He added: “With total respect to the executives at the football club, I felt as though they were just waiting to see what was going to happen.

“It felt to me, that if we don’t (get in the play-offs) does that mean I’m a bad manager, and I’m not good enough so you’re not giving me a new contract?

“If we did get in the play-offs, would I then be getting a contract?

“That’s not the way you manage, you have to like the person, believe in the person, trust in them to lead your club, or you don’t.

“The fact nothing was done, the answer was there right infront of me and that’s why the decision has been made, I wish them well and we move on.”

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