Rudy Gestede has opened up about Rovers' head coach search and what impact the financial aspect had on the process.
There had been reports in the national media that the salary proved a stumbling block with some potential candidates as the club searched for John Eustace’s replacement.
Gestede revealed that the club had looked at options with Premier League experience but they were not feasible.
Valerien Ismael was ultimately named the new head coach at Ewood Park and Gestede insisted he was the right fit for a number of reasons on and off the pitch.
“It’s like when you want to sign players. If I want to go for Haaland, there's a salary restriction at the club,” he told The Lancashire Telegraph.
“We tried to reach some Premier League experienced head coach type, but they had just been at the Premier League clubs so had some big pay offs for the remaining year.
“Obviously, asking them to drop the salary to come to join us, there's a financial restriction so that's why we had to go on different candidates.
“I would not say that we are a cheap club because that's not the case. It's just we have to find the right candidates on the pitch, but also the financial part of it.
“It's like any type of industry. When you want to appoint someone, you've got the budget for the person and you spend the money within your budget. That's what we did.”
Ismael has experience of the Championship following previous spells at Barnsley, West Brom and Watford.
“When we had the information that John was going to Derby, we had to take a bit of time to make sure that the next one was going to be the right one,” Gestede added.
“That's why David Lowe was in charge of the squad for a few games. We had a lot of candidates for the job.
Lowe took interim charge before Ismael's appointment was confirmed (Image: CameraSport - Rich Linley) “We also tried to reach some candidates that we thought was the right fit for the club or at least as the philosophy could be aligned with the club.
“Then from the long list, you go to a shorter list. You start to do a video call with the people and to understand if they've got the feeling of the club, if they've got the feeling of the person.
“Once you've got this discussion, you go on the shorter list and now you go face to face. You meet them a few times to make sure it's the right person asking the right question, long discussion.
“That's what it is for Valerien. Then when you check the list that we expected as a head coach, he ticked the boxes going forward.”
Ismael has had a tough start to life in East Lancashire, with one point from his opening five matches in the hot seat, but Gestede is confident the head coach is a good fit for the club’s long-term goals.
“That's why we gave him a long-term contract because we want to build with the next head coach,” he explained.
“We want to make sure we've got an alignment from the club philosophy to his own philosophy. He's got track record to winning games in Championship, developing young players.
“He played as a football player to the top level so he's got an understanding of the high standard to be in high-performance environments. Everything around him was what we were looking for.”
The head of football operations also addressed Eustace’s exit to take charge at Derby County, who are battling against the drop.
“I've been surprised, to be honest with you. I've been told that Derby came for an approach to John Eustace asking if they can discuss and John came to us telling that he wanted to discuss with Derby,” he said.
“On my side, it was a surprise. John decided to leave for his own reasons - closer to his house, he's been a legend at the club. I think he's going to feel comfortable and probably a big crowd, it's a big club with a big fan base.
“That's his own decision, he's got his own rationality behind this. When someone asks you to leave or to discuss with the club, there is not much you can do to retain him so we had to accept the situation and move on.
“It's football. I've been in clubs where when I was on the pitch, I think for two-and-a-half-years I had 12 head coaches or something like that.
“Everything can happen in football so that's why if you want stability, you need to make sure we all align in decisions.”
