Gregg Broughton has insisted Blackburn Rovers never considered buying a left-back in the summer transfer window due to their faith in Jake Batty.

The Blackburn Rovers youngster signed a professional contract with the club last year despite serious interest from Newcastle United and Leeds United. 

Batty made his debut in the Carabao Cup against Hartlepool United and featured in this year's competition in round one too. The 18-year-old has been training with Jon Dahl Tomasson's first-team throughout 2023.

With Tayo Edun leaving to join Charlton Athletic, Broughton and the recruitment team felt confident Batty was ready to compete as back-up to Harry Pickering. The Rovers Director of Football insisted that he couldn't justify signing another left-back and potentially blocking Batty's pathway into the first team.

"Jake is ready to go in and be around the team now," Broughton told The Lancashire Telegraph in an interview last month. "What you can't allow is the academy to develop players, an England youth international that we had enormous bids from a big-sending Premier League club to sign on a permanent contract, and then say 'he's not ready to be number two at a Championship football club'.

"Jake's ceiling is very high. Will he make mistakes, of course, he will. Jake is ready to be that player in our squad right now, we have great belief in him. If you brought in another left-back ahead of him, you may as well let him go.

"To be honest, you may as well stop spending all the money on the academy. If you can't give players of that calibre and that quality and opportunity to break into the first team then the academy is a waste of time.

"When the owners gave me the chance to come into the club, it's a mistake I felt as an Academy Manager that clubs were making where I'd worked previously. At Norwich, we won the FA Youth Cup, six of those players in the Premier League. At the ages of 18, 19, none of them could get in the Norwich team and they all had to leave the club to kick on their career.

"I said I would never allow that to happen at a club where I'm in the role that I am in now. When we looked at it earlier in the window with Jon and the budget we had, we felt we were covered with Jake breaking through, Callum (Brittain) can play there. We have no concerns with that."

Batty is expected to feature for Rovers' Under-21s when they face Nice in their first Premier League International Cup fixture of the season. Kick-off is at 7pm at Ewood Park and you can follow live coverage with The Lancashire Telegraph.