BLACKBURN Rovers boss Gary Bowyer has admitted the club’s embargo for failing Financial Fair Play is ‘unlikely’ to be lifted at the end of the season.

That means Bowyer, for the second transfer window running, is set to be restricted to loan signings and free transfers.

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Under FFP rules the maximum loss Championship clubs can make for the current campaign is £6m.

And Bowyer doubts that Rovers, who made a £42.1m loss for last season, will be able to comply with that figure despite their money-spinning run to the FA Cup quarter-finals.

He said: “You have to work to two different philosophies (paying fees for players, and making loans and free transfers) but I know which philosophy we’re working toward more because at this moment in time we’re unlikely to be out of this embargo.

“We’ve done well in the cup run in terms of the extra finances it has generated but it’s just chipped away at it, it’s barely made a scratch.

“We’ve got ongoing conversations with the board and the owners and we’re trying to finalise a date very soon (to see the owners) because the fixture list hasn’t allowed us to sit down with everybody and thrash out a way of coming out of the embargo.

“But we’re prepared for the worst case scenario (still having the embargo) and going down that line.”

Embargoed clubs are prevented from paying fees for new signings and can have a maximum of 24 established players – those aged 21 or above on June 30 who have made at least five first-team starts for their current club – in their squads.

And Bowyer said: “You ask anybody who is under this embargo now, it is massively restricting what you can do, and you only have to look at the clubs who are up there fighting for promotion and look at what they did in the summer and how they were able to back it up in the window.

“Bournemouth went and bought (Callum) Wilson and backed it up by signing Kenwyne Jones.

“It’s good business, it’s a plan, it’s a structure in place, and we’re now working very, very hard to put that in place here but it takes time.”

With Rovers’ play-off hopes over for another season a way to get their embargo lifted could be selling its stars.

But the club’s owners Venky’s have so far rejected all bids for strikers Jordan Rhodes and Rudy Gestede.

When asked whether if it is time to cash in on Rovers’ prized assets, Bowyer said: “As with all the clubs in this league and in the Premiership, if you’ve got good players, the top boys are always going to come in for them. That can always come whether you’re under an embargo or not.

“And I think some of our players this year have been outstanding performers individually and are bound to generate interest.

“But we’ll just have to see where we are in the summer should somebody bid.

“The owners have stressed before that unless their asking price is met they’re not going to sell anybody on the cheap.”

Tomorrow’s visitors to Ewood Park, Nottingham Forest, are also under an FFP embargo.

Bowyer spent five years at the City Ground as a player and Forest, who are one point and one position below ninth-placed Rovers, are the club where his father Ian twice won the European Cup.

“It just shows you the size and the challenge of this league that we’re talking about two clubs like ours who are ninth and 10th at the moment with some big clubs underneath us,” said Bowyer.