TONY Mowbray says Rovers are already drawing up transfer plans for next season, despite not yet knowing which division they will be playing in.

The Rovers boss has introduced a new scouting system at the club which he hopes will be a benefit to them moving forward.

Chief Executive Steve Waggott told the Lancashire Telegraph last week that a budget has been set with Rovers hoping to be playing Championship football in 2018/19 as they look to clinch promotion.

Mowbray said: “Recruitment is happening now, very intensely at this football club, and we have to look at both divisions of course.

“We’re working hard behind the scenes to try and look at where we would go in the Championship, where we would recruit from, what kind of players we would recruit, how the team would change.

“If we were still in League One then we would have to recruit again even better players than we have got now as if it was to be another campaign in this division we’d have to make it one that became a very, very positive one for us because of the quality of players we’d have.”

Rovers have four players on loan who are likely to be targets for permanent transfers in the summer should they achieve promotion.

That includes winger Harry Chapman who hasn’t played since sustaining a hamstring tear in October. He then suffered a recurrence of the injury on his comeback for Rovers Under-23s last month.

Mowbray admits it is better for all parties that the Middlesbrough winger works hard on getting himself fit for pre-season, rather than straining to make the final weeks of Rovers’ campaign.

Of a potential Ewood return for the 20-year-old, Mowbray said: “You have to remember he’s not our player, he’s a Middlesbrough player.

“Harry knows my thoughts on him and we will have those discussions in the summer.

“If Middlesbrough see him as a first-team player that they are developing then we have to respect that and let them move on with the plan for the player.

“If not, and there’s an opportunity, we can have those discussions.

“His long-term future and making sure his hamstring is strengthened and getting himself ready for pre-season and ready to play football matches is more important for Harry Chapman at this moment.”

There was a large turnover of players at Ewood last summer following relegation, but this time around Rovers have all but four senior players under contract for next season.

The summer transfer window closes in the first week of August under new rules from the Football Association which take effect next season.