Tony Mowbray has suggested that Blackburn Rovers could be forced into the loan market again this summer with transfer funds set to be limited.
The Lancashire side have had five players on loan at Ewood Park this term with Barry Douglas, Harvey Elliott, Tom Trybull, Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Jarrad Branthwaite all supplementing the permanent members of the playing squad.
While each of the quintet have certainly contributed this term, Mowbray has admitted that his preference would always be to sign players on a permanent basis but suggested that this wasn't possible due to the finances available at the club.
Quoted by the Lancashire Telegraph, Mowbray said: “The bottom line is that they’re going back to their parent clubs, they might have created a value in themselves, or their parent clubs they’re more ready to play for them, but for us I think they’ve all contributed.
“It’s not an avenue that I would prefer to go down, my preference would always be to buy my own players and develop them to hopefully to help the club progress and develop them so they can be assets for the club.
“The difficult thing is that once they go back those holes are in your squad because time doesn’t stop and this club will be back at the end of June, the games will start pretty quickly and who’s going to be that second left back, that centre half to compete alongside (Darragh) Lenihan and (Daniel) Ayala, (Scott) Wharton won’t be fit by then I won’t think, Hayden Carter and Tyler Magloire will be back. Are we going to keep them around or are we going to send them back out again?
“Has anyone developed in the Under-23s to step-up, have you got enough money to buy and bring these players in, all of those things, they are things the club are discussing at the minute, but they all work around budgets.”
The verdict
Loan signings are just part and parcel of life in the Championship.
With funds limited it's incredibly difficult to sign players on a permanent basis and that's why clubs like Blackburn Rovers look to the Premier League for talented youngsters to supplement their squads.
It's likely to be a similar tale this summer and so it'll be interesting to see if Tony Mowbray can use those relationships with the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City again to attract some of their most promising starlets.