After the Rovers retained list was announced, here’s how the right back options are shaping up for next season.

 

Right back, the least recruited position during Tony Mowbray’s tenure at Ewood Park.

Paul Caddis, a free transfer signing after an initial spell on trial in 2017, is the sole business that Rovers have done during Mowbray’s time in charge.

Even before then, Rovers, Todd Kane’s loan move in January 2013, extended into the following season as well, apart, the club have relied heavily on Academy graduates in that position. And that doesn’t look set to change next season.

Even by the time Adam Henley was released in 2017, Ryan Nyambe was making moves to establish himself as first choice in that position, and while he hasn’t always enjoyed the guarantee of a starting spot since, the Namibia international is the most natural option in that position in the squad.

Nyambe, now 23, made 33 starts in 2020/21, three more than the previous season, with the club taking up the one-year option in his deal.

However, by next summer, unless Rovers can agree an extended deal with him, they risk losing Nyambe on a free transfer, something the club are keen to avoid as they continue discussions over a new contract.

Contract talks are understood to be more advanced with another Academy graduate, and right back option, Joe Rankin-Costello.

Mowbray has opted for the 21-year-old over Nyambe, believing his extra attacking instincts, having come through the ranks as a wide player, can benefit the team more, as demonstrated in wins over Wycombe, Derby and Coventry.

Yet one-v-one, there are few better in the division than Nyambe, and for all his quality and undoubted promise, there does feel something a little makeshift about playing Rankin-Costello instead of him, not least when his eye for goal could see him better utilised further forward.

Rovers haven’t closed the door on Elliott Bennett staying behind this summer, and extending his stay into a seventh season, but equally, no form contract offer is on the table for a player who is highly respected around the club.

His versatility, as well as leadership, have been praised, yet still with several years left of his career, Bennett could opt to search for pastures new.

That is unlikely to affect Rovers’ plans at right back, and behind Nyambe and Rankin-Costello there is another Academy prospect winning lots of admirers.

Dan Pike, aged 19, is set to sign a long-term deal with the club having made the matchday squad on three occasions last season, and started 19 of the Under-23s’ Premier League 2 fixtures.

A tough tackling and combative player, Pike has trained with the first-team for much of the season, and Rovers will weigh up the benefits of keeping him around the first-team scene, and continuing to play on the right side of the Billy Barr’s Under-23s defence, or develop his experience with time out on loan.

Rovers did consider a move for a right back last summer, as cover and competition for Nyambe, but opted against that, with Rankin-Costello taking over that role, and at times ousting his fellow Academy graduate. And it seems that will be a battle ongoing across the season, the only possible addition in that position likely to be whether something is agreed with Bennett.

However, i’s likely to be three Academy products completing Mowbray’s list of possibilities.