John Curtis says Rovers have maintained Premier League facilities as well as a family feel to the club.

And ex-Rover Curtis says Tony Mowbray taking the club’s motto of Arte et Labore to heart is something that will resonate with the fanbase.

The defender spent three years at Ewood Park, helping them win promotion back to the top flight from the Championship in 2000/01 and then lifting the Worthington Cup the following season.

Rovers achieved their first promotion since that one under Graeme Souness 17 years ago when making a quick return to the Championship after a first season in League One for 37 years.

Mowbray has often quoted the club’s motto, which celebrates both skill and hard work, of qualities he looks for when building a team.

It has helped the fans strike a chord with the current group of players, just as they did in the 2000/01 season, with the youthful exuberance of Damien Duff, David Dunn and Matt Jansen supplemented by the steel of Garry Flitcroft and Craig Short.

“The club’s motto is all about working hard and skill and that was all there. It typifies the place,” said Curtis who made 78 appearances for Rovers.

“That was all there, epitomised in that particular squad. It’s a proper club Blackburn, I love the place.

“It has that Premier League feel and a Premier League set-up but it has still maintained that family atmosphere.

“Everything was set up like a Premier League, and still is.

“It is such a friendly place, even though I’m from the Midlands I’m a northerner really and Blackburn epitomises that northern hospitality, generous, kindness, work ethic.”

And while Mowbray is trying to build a team which in the mould of the club’s motto, Curtis agrees that those characteristics were key in helping Rovers back to the Premier League two years after they were relegated.

“That’s what it had – it had everything,” he added.

“It had hardworking lads and it had that flair and skill.

“We were pretty dominant, we were only behind a very good Fulham team, so it was brilliant to be involved in that squad.”

Curtis hung up his boots in 2010 at the age of 31 following a spell with Northampton Town, his eighth club after leaving Ewood Park in the summer of 2003.

He has since swapped football for soccer in his post-playing days, now working in the USA promoting the game to the next generation of youngsters.

“I work in America. I help to run soccer league in the north east,” he added.

“I help to run the New York club soccer league, the Connecticut club soccer league, I run training programmes for the league and the New England Premiership as well.

“From Maine to southern New Jersey is my kind of territory and that’s where I work across that area trying to give kids in the States a taste of a professional touch that’s sorely lacking over here