Bowyer expresses sympathy for Owen Coyle

Coyle left the club by mutual consent on Tuesday and was replaced by Tony Mowbray, who took the reigns at Ewood Park yesterday.

He takes over a Rovers side currently 23rd in the Championship table, three points from safety with 15 games remaining this season.

Former Wigan, Bolton and Burnley boss Coyle, 50, left after eight months in charge at Ewood Park, having won just 11 of 37 games.

Bowyer, who spent almost 12 years at Blackburn including a two-and-a-half year stint as manager before being sacked in 2015, said the problem at the club goes far deeper than the manager.

He said: “At the time they said I took the club as far as I could. Unfortunately, you take a look at where the club are at the moment and they’ve not taken it further.

“Who’s that down to? Is that always the manager? I think the fact we stayed in the job as long as we did was down to the hard work and the model we were trying to implement there.

“Is the manager accountable for an embargo? I don’t think so. So you can only do the best with the resources you have got.

“I think Owen Coyle only spent £250,000. I think in the last four years the club has only spent £3.5 million. Well in a competitive market that it is, you can’t even buy one player for that figure in that league anymore.

“So I do have sympathy for the people that are trying to manage in that league without the resources to try and compete with the Aston Villa’s and Newcastle’s.

“It’s alright doing change-change-change but out of those changes, how much success are you going to have?

“You’re talking about culture. You’re talking about grabbing hold of a player who might be 24, 25, 26 years of age and you’ve got to try and influence him, motivate him, learn about him and build a relationship with him and get instant success at the same time.

“It took me a lot longer with my wife to make her make me a cup of tea."