Tony Mowbray travelled to Switzerland last week to meet the Rovers owners and discuss the next stage of the club’s development.

The owners made funds available for transfer targets in January, with Mowbray resisting the temptation to do so before the window closed, staying loyal to the players who helped the club to promotion.

But the boss says investment on and off the field will be key to building an expectation of promotion in the coming years.

Mowbray, who has travelled to India to meet with the owners in each of his two summers in charge of the club, says communication lines with the owners are strong, and that he tried to map out the blueprint for success.

 “I can do that anytime. Communication is good with the owners. They are ambitious and want us to do well. I have been in football for a long time and in fairness to them, they haven’t been around English football for long,” Mowbray said.

“I’m just trying to paint the picture of what it takes. I just can’t click my fingers and turn a team who was relegated two years ago in to one that’s going to storm back through two divisions and end up middle of the Premier League in a three year period.

“It takes some investment, planning and organising, infrastructure in the football club. Football is not just a one man band and my turning thing around, I have staff, we need more people to help and to make this club stronger and with an ambition and drive that we expect.

“I want to be the manager of a football club where the fans expect to get promoted because we’ve signed this player and this player, and the team looks stronger on paper than other teams. So when we go to Aston Villa our fans expect to win because we have got a good team.

“At this moment this is practically the same team that got promoted from League One. I know I have been very protective of this team because of the individuals and the character, but I also know we have to help them along the way and we have to bring in players who can make the team better.

“If some of the players in the team currently fall by the wayside because player A is better than them, footballers accept that. I was a player and know that if someone comes in and is better in training and you see that every day, there’s no problem when the manager puts him in the team.”