Tony Mowbray says succession lines must be in place as focus falls on Rovers’ recruitment.

Rovers failed to replace Adam Armstrong following his £15m switch to Southampton but the goalscoring void has been filled by 16-goal frontman Ben Brereton. With interest expected in the Chile international in January Mowbray says Rovers must look to uncover the next goalscoring option so to not regress.

Brereton and Armstrong were signed in 2018 with a look to the future as Danny Graham headed into the final years of his Ewood stay. Mowbray says the cycle never stops, not least with a number of key players out of contract next summer.

Recruitment is now being headed up by John Park following his arrival in July, with Mowbray believing his knowledge, experience and contacts will count for a lot.

He said: “Someone has to fill the void as Brereton has done from Armstrong and Graham before him. That’s the way that football clubs have to grow and develop.

“As I’ve talked about, they don’t stay forever. Ben Brereton will come and go at some stage but there has to be the next guy who steps into the void and scores more goals than Brereton.

“You either have him in the building or the recruitment department, as I’ve stressed from the moment I came into this football club, the main things that’s going to get you where you want is the recruitment department.

“You can’t win good games without good players. Good footballers win you games.

“You have to get recruitment right. You won’t get every one right but you have to get most of them right and I think the recruitment has been okay.

“Stuart Harvey did incredibly well for this football club and has moved on, John Park has picked it up and has huge experience and knowledge and at this moment I think it’s in safe hands.”

Rovers have had at least one player reach double figures in their four seasons since promotion from League One. Brereton is up to 16 after 20 games, the same tally Armstrong had at the same stage last season en route to finishing with 29 to earn his move to the Premier League.

Rovers have a 12-month option in the current contract of Brereton through to 2023 but they are keen to extend that further.

He returned to Rovers sooner than expected during the November international break due to suspension, but could miss games in January and February because of his commitments with Chile.

Games against Argentina (January 27) and Bolivia (February 1) come outside of the scheduled international breaks but would take precedence of Brereton’s club commitments.

“There are going to be issues along the way, he has international scenarios coming up in January that aren’t in an international break but his country will have an opportunity to qualify for Qatar,” Mowbray said of Brereton’s international situation.

“I’m assuming we’re going to lose Brereton for those games and that’s something that needs to be discussed.

“To score the number of goals he hopes to score he has to play the games, he can’t score for Blackburn Rovers if he’s in Chile.”

“Let’s see how that unfolds.

“He’s strong, robust and believes he can score every time he goes on the pitch and we’ll keep trying to give him the ammunition to keep doing what he does.”