RICHIE Smallwood has become Blackburn Rovers’ second signing of the summer after agreeing an initial two-year deal.

Smallwood follows Peter Whittingham to Ewood Park and joins after turning down a contract offer from Rotherham United.

The 26-year-old is reunited with Tony Mowbray after the pair worked together at Middlesbrough where Smallwood started his career.

Smallwood has signed an initial two-year deal at Rovers with the option for a third.

Like Whittingham, he turned down interest from three Championship teams to sign for Rovers and will hope to repeat the promotion he achieved with the Millers in August 2014.

He played 133 times and became fans favourite at the ASSEAL New York Stadium, but was loaned out to Scunthorpe United in the first part of last season after falling out of favour under Alan Stubbs.

But after Stubbs was sacked, and Paul Warne brought in, Smallwood returned to the New York Stadium in January and became a regular in the second half of the campaign – playing the full 90 minutes in the 1-1 draw with Rovers in February.

Mowbray cited central midfield as a critical area to improve following the departures of Jason Lowe, Danny Guthrie and Hope Akpan after relegation from the Championship last season.

And two central midfielders in Whittingham and Smallwood are the club’s first two signings of the summer, with Mowbray looking to step up his recruitment ahead of the players returning to pre-season training later this month.