Rudy Gestede and the recruitment team have delivered four new additions to the Frenchman’s squad and more will be on the way in the next five weeks.

A right-winger, attacking midfielder and further cover at centre-back are all understood to be on the shopping list. That is not an exhaustive list and there could be further business depending on departures.

Rovers are not particularly close to making another signing but Ismael is happy with the squad he has at this stage of pre-season.

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“We’re working very hard on that behind the scenes to make sure we can add the players that we want,” Ismael told The Lancashire Telegraph.

“I would like two players at least, that would be good. Three would be perfect. We are working very hard and we’re all aligned in the club but deals take time.

“We had to stay patient in this period and let’s see what we can get. But we are working very hard.”

Ismael was speaking after watching Rovers maintain their 100% start to pre-season against Elche. Despite having to weather some early pressure, they won 1-0 thanks to Makhtar Gueye’s second-half strike.

The Spanish side put Rovers under pressure in the early exchanges but despite that, they restricted Elche to few clear-cut chances. Ismael was delighted with their adaptation and also pleased to see Makhtar Gueye score his second of the warm-up campaign.

“Today was a really strong opponent, to be fair,” Ismael reflected.

“They are a possession-based team with clear principles. We saw for the first 15-20 minutes that they really forced us to defend.

“We wanted to press but it was not possible, the quality was too high. They didn’t waste the ball at all.

“It was important to stay calm, stick together and ride the storm. After the water break, we saw that we came back into the game with more confidence. We started to win the ball back and arrive in the final third more.

“We built up our strength throughout the game. The more we played, the better we became. That is a good sign for me, that the team is ready to fight and suffer.

“This is what you need in the Championship and they did it perfectly. In the end, we got our reward with the goal, exactly how we expected. They defend with aggressive centre-backs so we attracted them and isolated their defender with Pape (Gueye). It worked perfectly.”

“A game is a game, so for the strikers, it’s very important to score,” Ismael added.

“At the minute, they are both in really good shape. Yuki scored against Qatar, Pape scored today. It’s really good for their confidence.

“The game was a really big test for us after five weeks to see where we are. Again, with the weather, it was really good.”