'Very good question': What Blackburn Rovers boss said about Sunderland's Danny Batth

Blackburn Rovers boss Jon Dahl Tomasson says he is facing a 'very unclear' situation amid reports that the club's move for Danny Batth is at an end.

Blackburn have been interested in Batth for much of the summer as they look to add some experience to their youthful squad, and Sunderland would have been open to a deal had the terms been right. Batth is in the last year of his contract on Wearside.

However, Blackburn had been unable to progress the deal amid the wider reality that the club have had to cut their general budget this summer.

Journalist Alan Nixon then reported on Thursday that amid the uncertainty, Batth has now opted to stay on Wearside and battle for a place in Tony Mowbray's starting XI.

"It is a very good question, first of all," Tomasson said, asked directly by BBC Radio Lancashire whether the pursuit for Batth was over.

"I think Gregg [Broughton, director of football] and the recruitment team have worked extremely hard in the summer, presenting a lot of players to me. I said yes to a lot of those players as well, but I don't know why, we haven't been able to get those deals over the line with the financial part.

"I know Steve [Waggott, CEO] has said it's a challenging period for the club and I understand it. But it was also great to see him speak about new players, the amount of new players [we might bring in] and also that of course, we would bring in experience. Everyone knows in football you need that and especially in the Championship, which is one of the toughest leagues in the world.

"When there's a week left, you would rather have all the players in the building that you need," he added.

"I like working with these players every day, they're great players who work really hard, but we all know that it's a tough league, an extremely competitive league.

"I believe that we can compete with more or less everybody and we can play some great football, but we can do that the whole season if we get a couple of injuries. We're already stretched in a couple of positions. We all know that."

It remains to be seen whether Blackburn will revist the Batth deal in the final stages of the window.