Rovers' new Academy Manager Phil Cannon believes he has come to a club which is perfectly suited to attracting and developing football stars of the future.
Phil, who joined last week, brings a wealth of experience to the role, having worked his way to the top of the youth set-up at Swindon and having enjoyed a successful seven-year spell as Head of Recruitment at Everton.
The 52-year-old is now looking forward to a new and exciting challenge here at Rovers, with the overall goal of getting as much homegrown talent into Sam Allardyce's senior squad as possible.
"If that first team was full of local boys, it would be fantastic," said Phil, whose own footballing career was cut short by a broken arm and two broken legs.
"Because they are playing for 'their' team, I think the locals can identify more with them and I think the local boys do try a little bit harder.
"That would be utopia and we'll try our hardest to make that happen. For a club like Blackburn, the Academy has got to work. It's as simple as that.
"You'll be judged on the players that come through. Obviously, if you get the raw material to work with first off and identify the right raw material, I think that's crucial."
Having been at Swindon to see Theo Walcott get snapped up by Southampton and then at Everton at the time of Wayne Rooney's move to Manchester United, Phil is well aware of the competition for young British talent.
However, he believes that Rovers possess a number of unique selling points which make them an attractive proposition.
"Good players are going to move on to better clubs and hopefully we might be able to attract a few from the lower clubs to Blackburn," he added.
"That's what it's all about. When you've got great facilities, you need great players to go with it.
"Everyone's looking for the best players out there - especially round the North West. If you look at the clubs that are around this area - Premier League and Football League - there must be 30 in our catchment area, but you need to get your market share.
"I think with the facilities that we've got here, and the opportunities that can be available in the first team here, with the big clubs paying a lot of money for foreigners, then the youngsters might struggle at other clubs to get into the first team and we can use that as a tool to attract them here.
"We haven't got the millions to pay for players, so I think that's how we can attract them here, because they'll get an opportunity.
"If you look at the manager's coaching squad, Neil McDonald (ex-youth at Preston), Steve Kean (Academy manager at Fulham and ex-youth at Reading) and Iain Brunskill (Liverpool Academy), you've got three developers of players there and that's a great selling point for any youngster coming in.
"The manager himself also has a background in Academy and youth football and wants to see good young players plying their trade here."
