The summer transfer window proved to be an intriguing one for Blackburn Rovers.

While Ben Brereton-Diaz remained at Ewood Park despite a raft of speculation around his future, key players from last season such as Jan Paul van Hecke, Darragh Lenihan, Ryan Nyambe, Reda Khadra and Joe Rothwell all moved on following the end of their contracts and loan spells.

Meanwhile, there were also several incomings at Ewood Park, with Callum Brittain, Sam Szmodics and Dom Hyam joining on permanent deals, while George Hirst and Clinton Mola arrived on loan with the option to buy from Leicester and Stuttgart respectively.

Elsewhere, Tyler Morton completed a season-long loan move from Liverpool, as six new players were added to Jon Dahl Tomasson's squad.

However, things could have been rather different for Blackburn this summer, with a number of other players linked with moves to Lancashire, that ultimately did not come off.

Here, we've taken a look at three such players who were rumoured to be attracting interest from Rovers, but never made it to the club before the window closed.

Anel Ahmedhodzic

Following the departures of Lenihan and van Hecke, Blackburn found themselves in desperate need of some central defenders this summer, and one of those to be linked was Ahmedhodzic.

The Bosnian international is a familiar face to new Rovers head coach Tomasson, having previously played under him at Malmo, and a reunion is something they did try to make happen, with it reported that the Lancashire club looked to sign the 23-year-old in a £3million deal.

In the end though, Ahmedhodzic would instead elect to join Blackburn's Championship rivals Sheffield United, and the centre back has hit the ground running for the Blades, scoring three goals and providing one assist in seven league games. That has helped his new side to top spot in the current Championship table, suggesting it could have been a major coup for Blackburn had they managed to complete this signing.

Ben Davies

Another centre back that Blackburn looked to bring to the club over the summer, was Liverpool's Ben Davies.

It was reported that Rovers were one of several Championship sides who attempted to sign the former Preston man on loan, with the Ewood Park club apparently offering to pay the biggest percentage of his wages, though that would not be enough, with the 27-year-old instead moving north of the border to replace Ajax-bound Calvin Bassey at Rangers.

Since then, Davies has made three appearances for the Scottish giants, but hasn't featured since mid-August due to injury, the sort of issue that Blackburn could have well done without, given their own selection issues in that position.

Siriki Dembele

Just as was the case back in January, the latter stages of the summer transfer window saw Blackburn linked with a move for Siriki Dembele.

That January interest had ultimately seen Dembele elect to join Bournemouth, but with the attacker struggling to establish himself at The Vitality Stadium, it was claimed that Rovers were in advanced talks to sign the 25-year-old, although no deal emerged.

As a result, Rovers may have missed out on a potentially useful extra spark in attack, and given Dembele was said to be attracting interest from Turkey earlier in the summer, it remains to be seen if Blackburn will be able to revisit in January, given the Turkish transfer window is still open until Thursday.