Blackburn Rovers want to stay ‘top of the league’ as they step up their efforts to be the leading lights in producing home grown Premier League stars of the future.

Rovers unveiled new head of youth development David Lowe at their Brockhall Academy yesterday and then declared ‘we are already on the hunt for the next Phil Jones’.

Lowe, who made almost 600 appearances for Wigan, Ipswich and Leicester, is considered one of the top young coaches and has been brought to Rovers to help establish the club’s academy as the country’s best.

Head of academy Phil Cannon insists, with a handful of their young guns already established in the first team, Rovers are already top of the Premier League tree — but believes Lowe’s arrival can only strengthen their position.

Rovers have just seen former academy starlet Jones become the country’s most expensive teenager with a £16.5million move to Manchester United, but the focus is already one providing the next generation.

He said: “It is a great appointment. Blackburn Rovers have got themselves a very good coach and a very good coach educator. He will be a great acquisition.

“Every club I have been at we have lost good players but our job is to replace them and to produce the next Phil Jones. That is what we are judged on.

“Every day is a race and it is up to us to give our youngsters the best chance to finish first every day. We can take this place to an even bigger level. I don’t think it needs masses amounts of money but a bit of investment on facilities and more players.

“What we have produced has gone, we are judged on getting players into the first team and the day that stops is the day things will change.

“We want to be consistently top of the league and that is why we have brought David in because we want to keep going forward and keep improving.”

Former England under 21 star Lowe will work with every age group having earnt a formidable coaching reputation during spells at the PFA, Wigan and Tranmere.

He will also play a leading role in coach education as Rovers bid to make sure their coaches are the best they possible can be.

Cannon, who himself has helped produce Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott, said: “Having someone to coach the coaches is important these days. We bring in the best boys and put them with the best coaches but how do the coaches learn? David will drive our blueprint of development through with every age group.

“David will be a great tool for the other coaches to learn from. He is passionate about coaching. He can do all ages right through to the first team. He will make the whole club better.

“We want this to be the club to come for the kids. We want to tell the parents you will get a chance here if you come here and they are seeing that with the results.

“The future for the club is fast tracking the young players into the first team. Our intake this year is all lads from the north west, apart from one who is from Sheffield. We will use the foreign route as a top up, not the other way round as it is important we give the local lads a chance.”