Transfer interest inevitable in Blackburn Rovers' Ben Brereton

As Rovers fans awoke to news of another Brereton goal, this time on international duty, there was cause for celebration, but also some trepidation too.

While every time he finds the back of the net his price-tag should be rising, the other side of the egg timer is the length of his contract running down.

Rovers have the security that a 12-month option in the deal Brereton signed when joining from Nottingham Forest in 2018 will ensure he is contracted until 2023. That’s the positive and ensure he won't be able to leave on a free, or for a compensation fee, next summer.

The negative is that his standing in the game, his form infront of goal and his commercial earnings are only going to make negotiations, which have been far from straightforward thus far, even more difficult.

Tony Mowbray said Adam Armstrong’s contractual status, the striker having left for Southampton 12 months out from the expiry of his Rovers deal, cost Rovers in the region of at least £10m.

Eventually sold for an initial £15m, Rovers would likely have held out for £25m, after his 29 goals last season, had he been tied down to longer than 2022.

The concern for Rovers is that history could well repeat itself with Brereton. Interest in January feels inevitable given his 10 goals in 11 Championship games, while his accomplishments on the international stage make European interest a possibility, with Sevilla having been touted as one possible destination.

The Brereton story is incredible one, at the centre of it is a young man taking everything in his stride and doing so with a smile on his face, no ounce of ego, just riding the crest of a wave and loving every minute.

While Chile fans follow his every Rovers move, alarm clocks will have been set in East Lancashire to catch his latest international outing, the attacker netting the opener in a crucial World Cup qualifier win over Paraguay.

Chile face an uphill task in their quest to reach the 2022 World Cup, but you’d be hard pushed to rule anything out given the Brereton narrative.

The relationship between the Rovers and La Roja fans threatened to turn a little sour last month when replies of #FreeBen littered the replies to the club's social media posts following the decision not to allow the attacker to join up with La Roja.

Chile forced FIFA’s hand by submitting a complaint which would have subjected Brereton to a five-day ban, ruling him out of games with Luton Town and Hull City last month, only for a resolution to be reached on the eve of the game.

The FIFA action was dropped, and since then, the most unlikely of relationships between Chilean supporters and Rovers has been as strong as never, not least after the previous resolution of Brereton returning after the first two qualifiers was altered so that he would stay for all three.

Throughout it all, Brereton has remained the country’s new hero. South Carolina-born Robbie Robinson was heralded as the potential next Brereton, the MLS attacker named in the September squad after Brereton’s absence, but things didn’t run so smoothly, later withdrawing without making the matchday squad.

That only emphasised the feeling that Brereton’s unique case has encapsulated a nation, taking ‘the English Chilean’, or ‘Ben 10’ to their hearts.

Mowbray has continued to back Brereton to the hilt, not least during the testing times that were his first two seasons at the club where starts, and goals in particular, were hard to come by, weighed down by the £6m price tag.

It was never likely to be a quick win for Rovers given the size of that investment, but the manager always maintained there was a potential in Brereton that could take him to the very top.

He finds himself in a position where he is now starting to deliver upon that, a mixture of confidence and maturity has taken his game to a new level. Rovers will be hoping he can do the very same for them, and ensure this story ends on a happy note for them too.