Tony Mowbray hopes Rovers’ crop of exciting young players can ‘grow together’ and become a force at the top end of the table.

Rovers finished 15th last season on their return to the division after winning promotion from League One.

Mowbray will have eyes challenging towards the top six next season and will target new signings this summer able to make that happen.

That could focus on adding more experience to the crop of young players who are current regulars in the side, as well as those waiting in the wings for their opportunities.

Mowbray handed debuts to Dan Butterworth, Tyler Magloire and John Buckley last season, while the likes of Jacob Davenport, Harry Chapman, Ben Brereton and Joe Rothwell are set to play a bigger role moving forward.

“I hope that over the next few seasons, this team can grow together and turn into a real force within this division,” the Rovers boss said.

“Alongside the players in the first-team, we have the likes of young Dan Butterworth, John Buckley and Tyler Magloire who have all had their parts to play this season.

“They’ll also be knocking on the door and in and around the first-team picture over the coming seasons which makes the future really exciting.

“Bradley Dack, Darragh Lenihan, among others, are also rather young, in their early to mid-20s.”

Rovers are yet to make any new signings since the end of the season, but will hope to make in-roads before returning to pre-season training on Monday, June 24.

The squad will head out to Austria two days later for a week-long fitness camp before the pre-season fixtures get underway at Barrow on Saturday, July 6.

Mowbray will be particularly to keen to add to his defensive ranks, with Rovers having shipped 69 goals in their 46 Championship games which ended any possible hopes of a play-off push in 2019.

“Overall, we’ve got quite a young and athletic side who we’ll keep working with and trying to improve upon with lots of training and experience, as well as hopefully, some new faces,” Mowbray said.

“They are an amazing group of people as well as players and they should enjoy the summer and come back and be ready to go again next year in order to improve on this campaign.”

Mowbray, alongside his recruitment team, have spent time scouring the European market in recent months in a bid to add to the squad.

The club have investment heavily in their scouting department in recent months which they hope to benefit from in upcoming window.

But urging patience on any new recruits, the boss added: “There are no guarantees that the new signings coming in will be ‘wow’ from day one, particularly if they are foreign players.

“They might find it difficult acclimatising, finding a house, finding a school for their kids, a job for their wife, it might take a few months (to settle).”