Blackburn Rovers Director of Football Gregg Broughton has revealed that they had been in discussions with Nottingham Forest and Lewis O'Brien's agent for six weeks regarding a potential deal for the 24-year-old, speaking to the Championship side's media team.

It was previously unclear whether the midfielder would be made available for a loan move away from the City Ground considering he only joined in the summer and has made a respectable 13 Premier League appearances this term, even starting their first four league matches of this term.

Finding himself either on the bench or out of the matchday squad altogether though in recent times, speculation started to swirl about his future with West Bromwich Albion's interest in him being reported during the early stages of last month.

 

 

Other sides including Middlesbrough and Sheffield United joined the race for him later on in January - but it was Blackburn who looked set to win the 24-year-old's signature.

Unfortunately though, they were unable to get a deal over the line for him with the EFL ending up blocking this agreement following Rovers' failure to meet the 11pm deadline.

This will be particularly frustrating for the Lancashire outfit due to the fact they were pursuing him well before the transfer window opened.

Speaking about their pursuit, Broughton said to Blackburn's media team (via Lancs Live): "Going into transfer deadline day we had a couple of live targets, we knew that Lewis (OB) would become available.

"We had been speaking to Nottingham Forest and his agent for probably six weeks coming into it.

"The message was consistent: Lewis can come out but not until we have brought somebody in."

The Verdict:

Fair play to Blackburn because they seemed to do their homework on targets and you can't doubt that Broughton wasn't monitoring different players before the January transfer window opened.

Doing reasonably well during his first window at Ewood Park, it's just a shame that things didn't manage to work out for the best last month with their failure to bring in the Forest man potentially costly to them if they fail to win their appeal.

O'Brien is certainly a player that could have been a game-changer for Blackburn, because he played an integral part in guiding Huddersfield Town to the play-offs last term and could have made a similar impact in Lancashire.

His arrival would have boosted the supporters' morale too because he's a high-calibre player who could have easily been a great long-term addition for Rovers if they had won promotion at the end of the season.

They will now need to make the most of the existing players they have - but some people wouldn't be surprised if their failure to get this loan deal over the line ends up costing them a top-six finish.