IT SAYS something about the spirit and family feel fashioned by Blackburn Rovers in the first decade of the century that former club doctor Phil Batty recalls his Ewood Park stay with more fondness than being part of Manchester United’s treble-winning team in 1999, sitting in the dugout when Sergio Aguero scored a sensational late Premier League title winner, or being involved with England’s rugby union side.

Batty didn’t mind the constant travelling, the unsociable hours and the Saturday trips to Grimsby and Tranmere.

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It was worth it for the enjoyment that came with working in East Lancashire.

Batty, who is now a medical director at a successful sports injury company in London, is fondly remembered by Rovers fans and it is an affiliation he shares.

“My time at Rovers was very, very special,” he said. “I count myself incredibly lucky to have worked at that club at that time.

“It was challenging, don’t get me wrong, but I really enjoyed it.”

He moved to Rovers from Manchester United, where he had spent three years working in the medical team and bowed out as the club secured an historic treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup in 1999.

Batty joined a side in the second tier of English football but quickly fell in love with his new surroundings.

It was a Rovers side full of characters — from David Dunn to Robbie Savage — and Batty remembers the spirit with affection.

“Man United won the treble the day after myself and Dave Fevre came to Blackburn,” he recalls. “It was my first opportunity to be a number one club doctor.

“I was the number two doctor at Man United and Brian Kidd was the manager at Rovers and I had worked with him previously.

“They were good lads, characters. David Dunn was a young lad that was on the periphery of the first team. Matt Jansen was there, Roque Santa Cruz, Dwight Yorke. There were a lot of characters around.

“Robbie describes himself as a ‘hypercondriac’ [sic]. That’s his quote not mine. It was good fun and a good laugh.

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“You would struggle to find anything so tight. We all had the same thing in mind and the same agenda. There was hardly any politics, it was just, ‘let’s do well for this club’.”

And Rovers did do well.

They returned to the top flight in 2001, won the Worthington Cup in 2002 and punched above their weight with a number of top-10 finishes in the Premier League.

When reminiscing it’s often easy to look back at life with a sense of nostalgic misrepresentation, remembering things as being better than they actually were.

But listening to Batty, it soon becomes apparent that particular Rovers era was truly something special. The club was enjoying something of a renaissance after the dip following the 1995 Premiership victory.

And for Batty, a native of Cumbria who still has his family home in Sedbergh, it really was as good as he remembered it.

“I joined just after they had been relegated in 1999 and we got promotion two years later,” he said.

“Jack Walker died not long under after I had started. That changed the finances significantly but we won the League Cup and qualified for Europe all those times.

“I worked under some great managers. There were a few moments when Tony Parkes was there and I worked under Graeme Souness, Mark Hughes, Paul Ince and Sam Allardyce.

“It was an incredible club and an incredible management team led by John Williams.”

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But all good things come to an end.

The landscape began to change with the arrival of new owners Venky’s in 2010 and Batty found himself disillusioned.

“We were slipping down the league and I always understood that the club needed to be sold. I was aware of that,” he adds.

“I had been approached by other clubs and I had turned it all down because it was such a great club to work for.

“When it was sold the new owners said they would leave the same management structure in place, but it became very clear when Sam Allardyce got sacked that it wasn’t going to be the same as it had been.

“Then the management team of John Williams, Tom Finn and Martin Goodman were all subsequently managed out.

“I wanted to remember Rovers with affection. I was worried that I was going to become slightly bitter so I thought the best thing was to go.

“I got asked to apply for a job at Manchester City, got that job and took it. I thought, ‘this will be the best for both parties. I have had a great time, thanks very much’.”

From a tight-knit family club, Batty suddenly found himself thrust into one of the largest and richest environments in the football world when he returned to Manchester in 2010.

City had been taken over by Sheikh Mansour and were spending big in a bid for Premier League glory.

It was a different world for Batty, who worked under the man who would ultimately deliver the title to Eastlands in Roberto Mancini.

“I enjoyed my time at City but it was a challenging time,” Batty admits.

“There are different resources and different pressures and dealing with players from different countries, dealing with different ages and dealing with different coaches.

“We mutually agreed to part ways into the second season.”

But Batty was there when Aguero struck that famous winner in against Queens Park Rangers in 2011, watching from the sidelines as his current club got one over one of his former colleagues in QPR boss and ex-Rovers man Mark Hughes, who was in the opposition dugout that day.

Batty’s Etihad exit took him to rugby union and the chance to work as club doctor with the England team but his stay there was short-lived as he took an opportunity to work for Isokinetic based in London.

“I had the best part of two years with England but 12 months out from the World Cup I got a very exciting opportunity that I needed to make a decision on,” Batty recalls of his decision to trade in oval balls for office work.

“In the end I left to join Isokinetic.”

The sports injury treatment group has eight branches around the world and treats patients, both private and professional.

“It’s an Italian company that has got eight clinics with the international HQ in London,” says Batty.

“It is a private sports and exercise medicine club. It’s available for elite athletes and the general public.

“Ten per cent of our clients are professional athletes from a variety of sports.”

So does he miss the dressing room bond that comes with a job in football?

“I have always done something different,” Batty says. “I have been completely working full time in sport when you are just dealing with men aged 18-35. It’s nice to work with a breadth of people.

“It’s also nice to have weekends off!”