Bowyer: Rhodes and Gestede will not come cheap

Gary Bowyer is not surprised Jordan Rhodes and Rudy Gestede are attracting interest, but has warned that the sought-after Blackburn Rovers strike duo will not be sold on the cheap.

Scotland international Rhodes has been linked with the likes of Crystal Palace, Middlesbrough and Derby County after scoring another 21 goals in the Championship last season.

Norwich are reportedly keen to lure Benin frontman Gestede to Carrow Road after an impressive first full season at Ewood Park in which he found the back of the net 22 times in all competitions.

Blackburn are still hampered by a transfer embargo and have already lost Josh King and Tom Cairney to Bournemouth and Fulham respectively.

Rovers manager Bowyer is eager to keep his prolific strike pairing and stressed that potential suitors will have to stump up considerable fees to prize them away from the Lancashire club.

He told Perform: "A lot of the speculation is media-driven, but it is well documented there is interest in the two strikers. At the moment there is nothing on the table. 

"Of course I would love to keep them both. You know you are going to have interest from the big clubs. The fact there is interest and we have already lost key players is a demonstration of the work we have done to develop young, hungry players at the club.

"The downside of that is the players will attract interest and the front two are no different. Unless we receive an offer which is too good to refuse, the owners have shown they will not sell if they don't think the deal is right, regardless of whether we are under a transfer embargo."

Bowyer also expressed his opinion that the transfer window should be closed before the start of the season so there is no uncertainty over players' futures during the first few weeks of the campaign.

"My personal view is that it is ridiculous to have the window still open at the start of the season." he said.

"The powers that be really need to look into that, because it is not fair on anyone. It's not fair on the players, the staff and for the fans. They could have the name of a player on the back of their shirt or buy season tickets expecting to be watching a certain player and he could be gone in three weeks.

"It would be common sense to close the window earlier, surely."