Come the January transfer window, one Blackburn Rovers player who will inevitably be the subject of much speculation, is Ben Brereton-Diaz.

After a prolific campaign for the Ewood Park club in the Championship last season, Rovers were able to hold onto the services of the Chilean international over the summer, despite links with numerous top-flight clubs.

With the 23-year-old maintaining his fine form this season, he is once again attracting plenty of attention, with it understood that West Ham and Manchester United are among those watching the striker.

That leaves Blackburn with a big decision to make over whether to sell or keep Brereton-Diaz once the market reopens, and we've weighed up the pros and cons to those two options, right here.

Sell

The obvious pro to selling Brereton-Diaz this summer for Blackburn, is ensuring that they do get a some return on their investment in him.

As things stand, the striker is out of contract at Ewood Park at the end of this season, meaning January is their very last chance to receive a fee for him.

Given the club held out for a sizeable fee during the summer, that would likely mean they would receive some decent funds here, that be invested in his replacement, and potentially the rest of the squad too.

However, with just a month to do business in this window, it would be a risk for Rovers to try and make then change now, when time pressure could force them to rush and make the wrong decision.

Indeed, given Brereton-Diaz has nine league goals this season, five more than any other Blackburn player, his importance to the club's hopes for promotion, are clear for all to see.

Meanwhile, it could also be argued that having stood firm on the stance over the striker in the summer, changing that midway through the season by selling, could send out the wrong message that the club will back down in certain transfer scenarios, which they will surely want to avoid.

Keep

As has already been mentioned, Brereton-Diaz is key to Blackburn's promotion chances this season, so keeping him should boost their chances of a return to the Premier League.

Were they to do that, then the financial windfall they would enjoy from stepping back up to the top-flight would be much greater than the fee they would receive from the one-off sale of the 23-year-old.

That in turn, could set the club up to strengthen in an even more significant way, than they would be able to do simply with the money from the sale of Brereton-Diaz, while also showing they will stick to their stances in a transfer window.

However, if Blackburn were to keep the Chilean international beyond the end of January, it would of course mean that they would be out of chances to sell him in the future, barring a new contract.

As referenced earlier, that new deal looks unlikely to happen as things stand, meaning Blackburn would potentially be in the position of losing another valuable key player in the summer, for nothing.

Subsequently, not only would it mean that the club would miss out on funds to replace the striker, but also to invest in other areas of the squad, which could make things difficult for Rovers in the future, as they look to give Jon Dahl Tomasson's squad the depth it needs.