Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray has invited 'ridiculous' offers for former Newcastle United striker Adam Armstrong this summer.

The lowdown

The 24-year-old finished the season with two hat-tricks in three games to post a tally of 28 league goals for the campaign. That left him second in the Championship scoring charts, just three adrift of another former Newcastle player in Ivan Toney.

Armstrong made the permanent switch to Ewood Park in 2018, having racked up 21 appearances in black and white without getting on the scoresheet.

However, Newcastle inserted a 40% sell-on clause into their agreement with Rovers, and Armstrong is now valued at £14.4m by Transfermarkt, even though he is about to enter the final year of his contract.

Intriguingly, it has also been reported that the Magpies are considering an attempt to bring him back to St James' Park.

The latest

After Blackburn's 5-2 victory over Birmingham City on Saturday, Mowbray sent a message to Armstrong's suitors.

"They're not doing their job if they're not looking at Adam Armstrong," he told the Lancashire Telegraph.

"That's out of my control. For Adam's sake, let's hope the phone rings and someone offers us a ridiculous amount of money, we shake him by the hand and we say go bang in loads of goals in the Premier League.

"We'll use some of that money in the team and can find another striker who can bang loads of goals in."

The verdict

According to The Athletic, Newcastle have discussed the possibility of signing Tammy Abraham this summer but have been put off to Chelsea's £40m price tag.

If that's an indication that they're after a striker, Armstrong would be a far cheaper, but still prolific, option.

You could argue that it's a win-win situation anyway. If they don't pursue the move, they could still net somewhere around £5.76m (40% of £14.4m) from a sale to another Premier League club due to the aforementioned sell-on clause.

In hindsight, it was a clever piece of business they struck with Blackburn three years ago.

In other news, this Newcastle youngster has reportedly been offered to Premier League rivals.