ANDERS Andersson could be on the verge of turning his loan move from Blackburn Rovers to title-chasing Danish club Aalborg into a permanent deal.

But Rovers have yet to solve their own search for midfield reinforcements despite looking at several targets - one of whom is believed to be Charlton's Mark Kinsella.

Persuading Charlton or any other club, such as West Ham with Steve Lomas, to sell players at this stage is proving a major hurdle.

But, while Rovers keep trying to buy, Aalborg coach Hans Backe revealed today that he feels there is a very good chance of his club taking Andersson, providing he continues to produce the goods.

Andersson joined Aalborg on extended loan from Ewood in October, with an option for the Danes to buy him at the end of the season for £250,000.

And the coach's comments will be well received at Ewood after the Lancashire Evening Telegraph revealed that another Swedish loan man, Martin Dahlin, is expected to return unsold from Hamburg in the summer.

When we contacted Backe at Aalborg, who restart after their mid-winter break this weekend as one of four clubs battling for the championship, he was optimistic about the Ewood midfielder's prospects of earning a permanent move.

"Absolutely, it looks good," he said. "But he has to impress when the league starts again. The board would like to see him do well."

Backe, also a Swede, explained that foreign players had to prove they were better than home-grown talent to persuade Danish clubs to splash out.

The Aalborg coach knew Andersson from the player's time in the Swedish under-21 team and is pleased with the way he has settled down after joining them just before the break.

"He's doing well," he said. "He had a little bit of a problem in October but started the last five games. He's in the team and his games have been very good."

Andersson is one of four foreign players at Aalborg and the blend has worked well so far.

They are competing for the title with three clubs from the Danish capital - Brondby, FC Copenhagen and AB Copenhagen.

So Andersson is battling for a possible Champions' League place next season, while his former Ewood team-mates are scrapping to stay out of the Football League!

Rovers currently have three players out on extended loan in a bid to find them new clubs, Andersson, Dahlin and Sebastien Perez, the latter having returned to Bastia where he is also being monitored by Marseille.

Meanwhile, Danish international striker Per Pedersen is now back with Odense - the club that sold him to Rovers - and preparing for his return to action with his former club after the winter break. Rovers paid Odense, then a top-flight club in Denmark, £2.5 million for Pedersen in February 1997.

Later that year, he went on extended loan to Borussia Moenchengladbach in Germany before returning to Ewood last summer. Roy Hodgson sold Pedersen to Strasbourg for £750,000 in August but he was unable to make an impression and Odense moved in to snap him up for around £350,000!

The Danes, currently top of the Second Division and heading for promotion back to the the top flight, are understandably delighted with what has been a tremendous piece of business for them.

And they expect Pedersen to make his debut second time around on Wednesday week when they have their biggest game of the season, a Danish Cup quarter-final tie against title-chasing Brondby.

Rovers have decided not to join several other Premiership clubs in applying to play in this summer's InterToto Cup competition.

But it remains a future possibility after the subject was discussed at length.

Chief executive John Williams explained: "As a board, we discussed it with the manager and we decided it was not in our best interests to apply this year. The Premier League had asked all clubs to make their intentions known."

Bordeaux, recently, and Bologna, this season, have gone on from the InterToto to do extremely well in the UEFA Cup and the competition - which used to attract scorn from English clubs - can now provide a lucrative route into the senior European tournaments.

"There are some very good track records and we were well aware of that," added Williams. "But we did not feel it was right for us this year."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.