While his approach to games and signings can sometimes generate a sense of frustration from within the stands, there can be no doubt that if you were to ask the vast majority of Blackburn Rovers fans, they would tell you they are more than happy to have Tony Mowbray as the club's manager.

Coming in at a time when the club were spiralling towards League One and morale seemed rock bottom both on and off the pitch. Mowbray may have been unable to prevent Rovers drop into the third tier of English football, but he did guide them back to The Championship at the first attempt.

That has now been followed by a season consolidating the club's position back in the division, leading to talk of a push for a return to the Premier League in the coming season.

While it may be that on the pitch success that has kept him at Ewood Park, it is what Mowbray has done off the pitch that has made him so popular around the club.

Since arriving at Rovers, Mowbray has instilled a sense of pride in the club that had been sorely lacking, building bridges with the club's fans by demonstrating a degree of loyalty and commitment not seen at the club for some time, and for the first time since it was bought by the Venkys in 2011, there is a sense that everyone at the club is pulling in the same direction.

Mowbray has played a huge part in that, and his latest move shows just why that is.

Out of action since November 2017 and out of contract at the end of the current campaign, many had expected Ben Gladwin's departure from the club to be confirmed when Rovers announced their released and retained list this week, so the news that the midfielder was in talks over new deal was initially met with a good degree of confusion from a number of the club's supporters.

Then Mowbray stepped forward and revealed to The Lancashire Telegraph that Gladwin had been given the option to stay at the club in order to get himself fit and prove he has a future at the club, with the Rovers boss feeling it would be unfair to leave him out in the cold without the opportunity to prove himself.

With Gladwin possessing next to no Championship experience and having struggled to impress during his brief game time at Rovers, it is an admirable thing for Mowbray to do, particularly when he has to focus on a first team many are expecting him to lead up closer to the top tier next season at the very least.

But with what Mowbray has done in terms of the aforementioned attitudes he has brought to Ewood Park since his arrival, those around the club, will surely not be surprised.