Gregg Broughton insists the long-term aim at Rovers has not changed despite a challenging campaign.

The side sit 17th in the Championship table, three points above the relegation zone, heading into the final block of games.

“The vision of the club, to become a sustainable Premier League club, has not changed,” Broughton told Training Ground Guru.

“How are we going to do that? We want to integrate young players into a squad and have a particular style of football with a head coach who buys into that.

“All of that generates a player trading model, which is not just to sit here and say, ‘Doesn’t our balance sheet look great because our squad value has increased’.

“You are doing that in order to generate value and be able to invest back into the transfer market to make yourself more competitive at the top end of the league.

“That is the model we are trying to bring here to the club. We are 18 months into that project now and you are seeing some signs of it.

“I appreciate the supporters will be looking and saying, ‘We are sitting 17th in the league right now, how can we do that?’ But we really believe that will allow us to be competitive at the top end of the Championship and beyond that.”

The director of football was also quizzed about Rovers’ wage budget and where it ranks among the rest of the division.

“I think we are 17th to 18th,” he explained. “The club has consistently overachieved over the last five to six years, not in terms of the stature of the club because obviously it is a huge club with a very proud history.

“But for clubs who don’t have the parachute money, it becomes increasingly hard and you have seen some clubs have a really good player trading model which has allowed them to push above.

“But very few clubs have the dual-responsibility of trying to integrate players from the Academy and also being competitive with a smaller budget. That is what we are trying to achieve, that is how we see our route back to the Premier League.

“Every year, there are at least one or two clubs who sit in the top six and don’t have (parachute money). Currently, you have got Ipswich in third place and last year Luton got promoted.

“But neither of those are doing that with a Category One Academy and trying to integrate 30 per cent of players from the Academy.

“You have got to get that balance right because we want young players and a small squad, but most importantly we want to win games of football and we believe that our model will allow us to do that.”