Blackburn Rovers boss opens up on budget uncertainty as Sunderland hope to retain Jon McLaughlin

Sunderland are hoping to retain the services of their No1 keeper following a successful two-year spell on Wearside and have offered a new deal but they face strong competition from Championship side Rovers.

Speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph, Rovers boss Mowbray admitted uncertainties over finances and budgets can make it difficult to plan when it comes to contract talks and extended deals for his current players.

“If I don’t know how much money I’m spending I can’t be throwing it at people,” he said.

“Who’s to say there’s not going to be salary caps brought in, or the budget isn’t going to be cut considerably because the businesses in India aren’t functioning as well as they might have been.

“I sit here at this moment, I can’t offer people anything while we don’t have budgets and don’t know how much we have to spend because that’s how you have to work.

“Let’s get to the end of the season, everyone together as we’ve always done, and see where this season takes us.”

Alim Ozturk, Jack Baldwin, Duncan Watmore, Joel Lynch and Ethan Robson have all left Sunderland this week after the club announced the five players would not be offered new terms.

Sunderland are hopeful of retaining the services of McLaughlin, Chris Maguire and Tom Flanagan with contracts on the table.