Steve Waggott says the Ben Brereton deal is a ‘big commitment’ from the club but the attacker is a player the recruitment department have belief in.

Brereton is currently on loan from Nottingham Forest, with the deal set to become permanent in January for a fee in the region of £7m.

The deal will be the first sign of major spending from the club since the arrival of Jordan Rhodes for £8m in 2012, with Brereton one of a number of high-profile deals pursued this summer following promotion from League One.

Waggott says that was down to the level of funding made available from the owners following discussions in India.

On the Brereton deal, Waggott said: “It was a big commitment from the club. He was a player that Tony (Mowbray), Mark Venus, and the recruitment department, which we are investing heavily in as we should do to turn that department upside down and give major funding to, identified Ben as one of the best young talents out there.

“It was a matter of whether we could get him in among other clubs who wanted him.

“With the tweaking of the window, it had to be a loan deal, but we are looking in January to make that permanent.”

Brereton has so played five games for Rovers, starting just one, and is yet to get off the mark.

Waggott said the budget was decided following talks in Pune in June, though with a flexibility on whether it was spent across transfer fees or wages.

Rovers spent in the region of £1.75m on Adam Armstrong, as well as six figure deals for Joe Rothwell and Jacob Davenport.

Waggott, along with Mowbray, will head to India next month for the next round of talks before the window re-opens in January.

He added: “There was a set amount of funding that the owners agreed on which was a very good gesture.

“I just asked whether we could flex it between transfer money and wages accordingly, but not breach it.

“If someone came along that meant we had to diminish wages to get that player, or vice versa, could we flex it and they said yes.”

Rovers saw bids for QPR midfielder Luke Freeman and Charlton Athletic defender Patrick Bauer knocked back, while they were also in the hunt for Bersant Celina who joined Swansea City from Manchester City for £4m.

Other seven figure deals were also looked at, with activity happening later than expected following the World Cup.

Waggott explained: “We looked at a few higher level deals, for our level and previous budgets, they were big numbers for us.

“We looked at who we thought maybe available, who we might be able to tease out of a club, but there was a lot of different activity behind the scenes.

“We were waiting to see, the World Cup pushed things back, in terms of activity.”