Thursday 9 April 2015 14:08, UK
Blackburn boss Gary Bowyer expects there to be Premier League interest in a number of his players following their run to the FA Cup quarter-finals.
Sky Bet Championship side Rovers were eliminated from the competition on Wednesday night by Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool, who booked a semi-final date at Wembley at the second time of asking thanks to Philippe Coutinho's angled 70th-minute finish in an Ewood Park replay.
It ended a memorable FA Cup journey for Rovers that had included resounding home victories over Swansea and Stoke in previous rounds.
The manner in which they dispatched those two, coupled with the fact they frustrated Liverpool for the majority of the 180 minutes, is unlikely to have gone unnoticed by bigger clubs plotting their summer spending.
Bowyer is no stranger to staving off interest in his prized assets, having rejected advances for Jordan Rhodes and Rudy Gestede in the past two transfer windows, and the Rovers boss expects overtures for more of his men in a few months' time.
"What the players have done is they've put themselves on a platform and shown that they can play in the Premier League," he said.
"They've got to maintain that over the next six games and show the Premier League big boys. That's obviously the nature of the game that we're in, I'm not going to kid myself.
"It's the nature of business. If you look at all the clubs now, everybody sells. Liverpool sold (Luis) Suarez in the summer.
"You've seen over the two games against Liverpool and in previous games against Swansea and Stoke that we've got some very good young players. They're developing, they're growing and getting some real experience under their belts."
Blackburn's owners Venky's have previously adopted a strong stance on possible outgoings, telling Hull and Crystal Palace that Rhodes and Gestede would be remaining in east Lancashire.
However, that position may have to soften if Rovers are to bring their mounting debts down as they look to adhere to the Financial Fair Play regulations.
Their recent failure to do so caused the Football League to place them under a transfer embargo which Bowyer knows has left him restricted when injuries have hit.
"You always want to keep your players and we want to be in a position to add to it," he added.
"We've got to try and do as much as we can with this embargo. The embargo's just caught up with us because we haven't been able to bring enough bodies in."
Indeed, Bowyer's options are so stretched at the minute that he joked he is considering starting goalkeeper Simon Eastwood in attack against Reading this Saturday.
The stopper almost produced a moment for the FA Cup annals on Wednesday when, after coming up for a Tommy Spurr long throw, his swivel and shot deep into stoppage time almost beat Simon Mignolet in the Liverpool goal.
"We sent Easty up, more in hope than anything, we didn't know he had that football ability in him to turn and hit it on the spin," Bowyer admitted.
"He's put himself forward for centre forward on Saturday!"
