Tony Mowbray believes loan moves with a view to permanent deals in the summer could be the way for Rovers to go in January.

Mowbray admits there is ‘nothing concrete’ in terms of possible incomings this month but has stated his desire to strengthen his squad.

That is despite the boss admitting that sitting 15th in the Championship with 26 games played shows his side isn’t in need of ‘major surgery’ this month.

Money is available for permanent deals should the right players become available but Mowbray expects any deals could be a while in the making.

“In an ideal world for a club like ours at the moment, loans with a view to buying are good deals for us,” the boss said ahead of the FA Cup third round tie at Newcastle tomorrow.

“We can have a look before committing X amount of pounds if that can be done.

“If not, and we have done our homework on a player, studied him, then I think we can try and buy some players.

“But in January, I don’t see this team, one that managed to get three points against West Bromwich Albion the other day, as one that needs major surgery.

“We need to add players to help the current group we’ve got. I don’t see a need to bring in two strikers, two midfielders and two centre halves and move on the ones we’ve got because they are showing how hard they work.

“Our last four games have been against the top four teams in the division and while we only won one of them, they were all really tight games.”

On the state of play in terms of January business, Mowbray added: “Nothing concrete on incomings. We’re having conversations. We have irons in the fire and are asking the questions of other clubs, ‘is this a deal that can be done?’

“As what’s happening when people ask us, they are saying ‘if we can bring this player in then this player can go out’.

“So we’re waiting on things to happen and then the ball will start rolling on deals and it opens up some money for teams and creates a snowball effect. It will start moving I’m sure.”

Rovers bounced back from defeats against Norwich, Leeds and Sheffield United over the festive period with a New Year’s Day victory over West Brom.

With more than half the season gone, Mowbray believes his side have shown a capacity to compete at Championship level on their first season back in the second tier.

He added: “We’re not that far away and all we need to do is add bits of quality along the way and see where it takes us.

“As I’ve said before, people don’t come in and hit the ground running straight away and play in the team for the rest of the season.

“You do have to bed people in, you do have to acclimatise, they have to find somewhere to live, develop relationships with different personnel and find out the demands of the team and what we do in certain situations.

“There’s lots of things to consider and January is a difficult month to bed people in but it can be done and we’re looking hard for players that would improve the overall quality of the team.”

League One and League Two clubs have expressed interest in a number of Rovers youngsters, including Lewis Travis, Joe Nuttall and Andrew Fisher.

And Mowbray added: “At the moment I’m fighting few off for some of our young players with Travis being a prime example.

“From last week to this week he’s played two games and done particularly well and the landscape has changed.

“Our club comes first, our team comes first so we will see how that evolves.”