Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray says he is relaxed about the future of top scorer Bradley Dack, with fresh talks on the midfielder's future scheduled for next week.

Dack's current contract at Ewood Park is set to expire at the end of next season, with Blackburn keen to secure their talisman's future at the club with a new deal that will make him one of Rovers' highest earners.

Speaking about Dack's future at the club ahead of his side's 2-1 win at Stoke City - during which Dack scored his tenth goal in all competitions this season - Mowbray told the Lancashire Telegraph: “I have a meeting with Bradley’s agent next week and we’ll see how they work out.

“But my relationship is with Bradley, not his agent, but you have to work with agents.

“Ultimately my relationship is with Bradley and we have an understanding together of where we want his career to go, how we see his career developing. We have a level of trust that he feels as a club we will do the right thing for Bradley and the right time is there."

Mowbray is under no illusions as to the ambitions Dack holds for his career, with the Rovers boss continuing: “Ultimately he will want and go and play in the Premier League and as we move forward whether that is going to the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers, or if that’s not the case, he will look and seek to go there in a different way.”

Discussions between the two parties about a new deal for Dack already appear to have begun, with Mowbray going onto reveal: “Bradley has a contract. We have talked a long time to Bradley about contracts, he’s always been open to those discussions.

“As I’ve said to him, no-one is here with handcuffs on him telling him to sign a new deal and ‘you have to be here’, or ‘sign a new deal and if the right number comes in we’re going to sell you and you can go to the Premier League and if it’s right for you, and it’s right for the club, then we’ll do that and we’ll reinvest and find another player to do the job."

But despite Dack having his designs ultimately fixed on the Premier League, Mowbray does not believe that the 25-year-old is in any way unhappy in his current surroundings, as he concluded: “Bradley at the moment loves being here, you can see by the way he trains every day. You can hear his voice around the training ground, he’s infectious, not just with the players but the staff.

“He’s in the right place in his career and he’s showing that on the pitch, scoring goals, working very hard for the team and we’ll see where it goes.” 

Following that win over Stoke on Saturday - their third in as many games - Blackburn are now 11th in the Championship standings, four points adrift of the play-off places.

The Verdict

These are interesting comments from Mowbray.

With Dack having scored four times in those three wins Rovers have enjoyed this week, it seems his importance to the side is as clear now as it has ever been.

The fact therefore that Rovers are set for more talks about his future is at least encouraging for those who follow the club, and it feels as though it would be a significant statement of intent if they were to secure him to a new deal, given the past rumours around Dack's future.

With Dack in top form right now and seemingly enjoying his time at the club, you do feel as though that role as such a key man for Rovers is something that could be a key factor in these negotiations, given he may not find himself in that sort of a position were he to move to another club.