MANAGING director Derek Shaw insists Blackburn Rovers will not jeopardise a potential promotion bid by cashing in on their best players to ease the club’s financial burden.

Rovers lost £36.5m last season and are facing a huge challenge to avoid the Financial Fair Play (FFP) punishments that that come into play next season.

But with Gary Bowyer’s side just four points behind the play-off places, owners Venky’s have told Shaw they are not looking to sell the likes of Jordan Rhodes in the January transfer window.

“There has been no discussion about selling our best players – absolutely no discussions at all,” said Shaw.

“The owners want this club to get back to the Premier League so those discussions haven’t taken place.

“And if they were to take place they would be through correspondence with the manager.

“Like any club the transfer window is coming and we don’t know what’s going to happen.

“There may be clubs out there who fancy some of our players. But we are not attempting to sell our first-team players – and that is on the instruction of the owners.”

Shaw does concede, however, that Rovers need to continue to reduce their wage bill in order to stand any chance of complying with FFP.

Rules state that Championship clubs which make more than an £8m loss for the current 2013/14 campaign will be hit with a transfer embargo from January 1, 2015 onwards.

Clubs that break the rules but are promoted to the Premier League will be required to pay a ‘Fair Play Tax’ penalty, which scales from one per cent on the first £100,000 overspent to 100 per cent on anything above £10m.

Rovers’ accounts for last season, released at the weekend, not only revealed that the club had lost £36.5m but also had a 136.1% wages-to-turnover ratio.

High-earning but under-performing players like Danny Murphy left Ewood Park in the summer.

But there remains a number of players on Rovers’ books who are on good money but who do not feature in boss Bowyer’s plans.

Shaw said: “We are doing our utmost to turn the corner and support the manager and his team so that they can challenge for promotion and at the same time cut the wage bill. That’s the big number.

“Every shirt we sell and every sponsorship we get is great. But the big number is the wage bill.”

Bowyer’s squad this season has been ravaged by injury and suspension and he is looking to strengthen.

“There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes,” said Shaw.

“Gary is using his contacts and his scouting networks to see what things we might need.

“Then we’ll see what we can do when the transfer window opens.”