The last five years for Blackburn Rovers have been ones of stability and then progression, having started the period in League One following relegation from the Championship.

Tony Mowbray was in charge of Rovers for the duration, getting them back to the second tier at the first possible attempt by finishing in second position, and for the next three seasons the Lancashire outfit consolidated themselves as a mid-table Championship team.

It was only the most recent 2021-22 season where Blackburn looked like they could make it back to the top flight of English football for the first time since 2012 and for a period in January they occupied a spot in the automatic promotion places.

Unfortunately for Rovers supporters though, their challenge crumbled and a run of just two wins in 14 matches from the start of February consigned them to another year in the Championship.

In the last five years though, some very talented players have played for Rovers - but what is their best team of players in that time period? Let's take a look.

Rovers got two very good seasons out of young Spaniard David Raya, which culminated in a move to Brentford, but the man who arrived in 2020 to become Rovers' new first-choice stopper has been even better.

Kaminski signed from Genk two years ago and in his debut campaign at Ewood Park he won the club's Player of the Year award, which was testament to his performances.

He was similarly in fine form again this past season, conceding just 50 goals in 44 games and keeping 13 clean sheets in the Championship, so he perhaps edges Raya out but it's a close call.

Blackburn have only really had one first-choice right-back in the last five years and that is academy graduate Nyambe.

He may be set to leave the club this summer, with contract talks not amounting to anything as of now, but the Namibia international has given years of solid service to Rovers.

In the last five seasons, Nyambe has played 158 times in league competition and whilst he may not have contributed much in the way of goals and assists, he has always been a danger when storming down the right flank.

The first centre-back spot goes to another academy graduate who came through the ranks at Blackburn in Lenihan, who has grown from a boy to a leader in his time at the club.

Lenihan has racked up 233 league appearances for Rovers in his time at the club and his influence has grown year-on-year, becoming a full Ireland international in the process.

He is another player though that looks destined for the exit this summer with his contract set to expire, and if he secures a move to a low-end Premier League club then it's definitely a deserved one.

There were a few contenders for the other centre-back spot next to Lenihan, with Scotland international Charlie Mulgrew coming into the frame with his knack for scoring goals from set-pieces, scoring 24 times between the start of the 2017-18 season and the end of the 2018-19 campaign.

But for his performances this past season, Brighton & Hove Albion loanee Van Hecke is a deserved inclusion in this team, winning the Player of the Season for his solid, no-nonsense play.

It's unlikely that the Dutchman will return to Ewood Park next season, but he gave the fans one very good season of games.

When it comes to left-backs, Blackburn haven't exactly been blessed with great options, but they will be hoping that Harry Pickering is the long-term answer despite having an up and down first season.

For three-and-a-half seasons though, Bell was solid enough in both League One and the Championship for Blackburn, without being superb or showing he was good enough to help the club push for promotion in the second tier.

He's since gone on to Luton Town and formed part of a team that got into the play-offs, so perhaps he just failed to show his best for Rovers - the best he showed though was still solid enough to get him into this team.

The midfield trio here is a talented one and it begins with Rothwell, who arrived in the summer of 2018 from Oxford United.

Rothwell has developed year-on-year for Blackburn and whilst he's never been much of a goalscorer, creating chances and goals for his teammates has been his forte and this past season he had his best in terms of assists, with 10 of them in the Championship from 41 outings.

Rovers could have cashed in on Rothwell in January when a bid from Bournemouth came in, but he departs Ewood Park this summer on a free with the best wishes from fans that he will go on to better things.

Having slipped through the net at Liverpool, Travis was picked up by Blackburn's academy in 2014, making him the third graduate to appear in this team.

Travis made his debut for Rovers in the 2017-18 season and has featured regularly ever since the campaign after, besides when he suffered a bad injury in 2020-21 which kept him sidelined for a considerable period.

The tough-tackling midfielder has played 133 times in the Championship for Rovers and at the age of 24, he's another player who looks destined for bigger things in the next few years.

Completing the midfield trifecta is Dack, who arrived when Rovers were in League One in 2017 and a £750,000 fee was spent on his services - it ended up being money well spent.

The attacking midfielder scored 18 times to help Blackburn out of the third tier at the first time of asking, and coped with the step up to the Championship in the following season by netting 15 times.

Sadly since the latter stages of 2019, Dack has mostly been plagued with two separate knee injuries, but he returned to fitness at the back end of the season just gone and he will be looking to make more memories with Rovers starting in 2022-23.

Rovers have been blessed with some high-quality, prolific scorers over the years, and that's been no different in the last five seasons.

And Armstrong is perhaps the best investment they've made in a while when they paid Newcastle a seven-figure fee following his initial loan spell at Ewood Park in 2018 to bring him in on a full-time basis.

Overall, Armstrong scored 58 times in the league for Rovers, and his final season tally of 29 goals in 43 appearances in all competitions saw him secure a £15 million move to Southampton last summer, going down as one of the most exciting attackers that Ewood Park has seen.

Rovers needed someone to fill Armstrong's scoring boots upon his departure - little did the fans know that Tony Mowbray already had his replacement on the books.

After he joined the club in 2018 from Nottingham Forest, Brereton never really looked like he was going to ever be a prolific scorer despite his promising early few years in his career.

A summer stint with the Chile national team though seems to have changed everything, as the forward went on a hot streak in the first half of the 2021-22 season.

Brereton ended the season with 22 league goals, and there's an expectation that he will move on to the Premier League this summer - if he does, then he will go down as a cult hero at Ewood Park for last season's performances.

Despite suffering relegation in his first season as a permanent Blackburn player, Graham stuck around at Ewood Park and managed three consecutive seasons scoring in double figures in the league.

Along with Dack, Graham was one of the main catalysts for Rovers' promotion in 2018, scoring 14 times, and he bettered that in the Championship the season after with 15 goals.

That scoring petered out in 2019-20, but Graham was a really solid striker for Rovers and a regular goalscoring threat that deserves his spot in the forward trio.