Tony Mowbray says he is "really excited" about the upcoming season back at Blackburn Rovers and revealed he rejected "four or five offers" before he returned to Ewood Park in June.
Mowbray, 62, has returned to the club where he had been manager from February 2017 to May 2022, with their opening Championship game at Wolves on Friday.
In February 2024 he was diagnosed with bowel cancer and quit as Birmingham City boss as he underwent treatment.
He has been given the all-clear, and his only job in football since has been a four-month spell at West Brom at the start of 2025.
"It's great to be back at such an amazing football club," said Mowbray, speaking to BBC Sport at the EFL launch day in Manchester.
"I had an illness for a few years, and it has been a tough recovery. Even when I had recovered, I found myself walking on the beach with my dog thinking 'I'm missing football a lot'.
"It's what I've always done. I've watched games and thought, 'Why is the manager doing that or playing like this?' It's what I am and who I am.
"During my illness I had four or five offers from teams, but those were not right for me, so I turned down quite a few offers. This job came when I was starting to think whether a job was going to come along that was right for me."
'The team needs more goals, more magic'Tony Mowbray (second left) guided Blackburn to promotion from League One to the Championship in 2017-18 [Getty Images]Mowbray first became Blackburn manager in February 2017, with the team 23rd in the Championship, and he could not keep them up as they suffered relegation.
But he guided Rovers to promotion from League One the following season, followed by three mid-table Championship finishes before they came eighth in 2021-22, missing out on the play-offs by two places and six points.
He left in the summer of 2022 and returns to a Blackburn side that only just stayed up, scoring 42 goals in 46 league matches in 2025-26.
They came 20th but would have finished in the bottom three and been relegated if West Brom and Leicester had not been deducted two and six points, respectively, for breaching financial rules.
"It is a big job," admitted Mowbray. "We have lost some players from last season, and the team is not as strong in numbers.
"The team needs more goals, a bit more magic – players that can get behind the opposition and score.
"It's about improving the individual and collectively making the group tighter and turning the small margins your way. Blackburn had a lot of draws, so we have to turn them into victories. I genuinely feel I can instil confidence into footballers."
Using promoted Hull as an inspirationBlackburn beat Hull City 3-0 away from home in August 2025 [Getty Images]While not expecting Rovers to be pushing for promotion, Mowbray uses the example of Hull City, promoted through the play-offs one year after they almost went down, as his inspiration.
"I'm looking forward to trying to improve the team and make the fans believe that we can look upwards, rather than over their shoulders," said Mowbray.
"There's no magic formula that says I can turn Blackburn from finishing 20th to finishing fifth, but it has been done with Hull. They stayed up on goal difference and have just been promoted and got to the Premier League, so it can be done."
Mowbray feels his battle with cancer has led to him attacking life.
"My last two scans have been all clear; I still go through that process of scans six-monthly, then every year," he added. "I can't go through life waiting for the next three or six months hoping everything is OK; I live every day and get on with it.
"Football has always been a driving force in my life – it's what I love.
"The call came from a club that trusts me, and I can trust them to let me get on with the job.
"This club feels right for me, and I hope the supporters come to the games, see a team trying to win every match, scoring more goals and giving them more enjoyment."
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