Blackburn responded to last season’s surprise play-off push by selling and releasing all the players that got them there, now as another hectic Championship winter sets in squad depth is – shockingly - proving an issue. Ian Herbert (@ianherbert95.bsky.social) is our oppo fan…
How did the rest of the summer transfer window go after our last conversation?
Imagine a Formula 1 team deciding that to cut costs they will now shop for spares at Halfords & will recruit a driver randomly from 17-year-olds just emerging from the local driving test centre with a smile on their faces, well that’s Rovers.
We’ve ripped the heart out of a side that was for a few minutes at least, in the play-off positions on the final day of last season and snuffed out any optimism and hope amongst the vast majority of the fanbase.
Selling the centre back that played every minute last season with a couple of hours to go in the window summed up the general "everything must go” nature of the summer window.
The fact that there are still some Venky’s apologists around Ewood who remained satisfied with events and grateful to the owners is absolutely extraordinary and may go some way to explaining why nobody ever loses money by underestimating the stupidity of the general public.
Ins >>> Andri Gudjohnsen, 23, CF, Gent, £2m >>> Ryoya Morishita, 28, AM< Legia Warsaw, £2m >>> Sidnei Tavares, 23, CM, Moreinse, £1.5m >>> Lewis Miller, 24, RB, Hibs, £800k >>> Axel Henriksson, 23, AM, GAIS (Sweden), £800k >>> Dion De Neve, 24, LM, Kortrijk, £500k >>> Ryan Alebiosu, 23, RB, Kortrijk, £500k >>> Sean McLoughlin, 28, CB, Hull, £500k >>> Taylor Gardner-Hickman, 23, RB, Birmingham, Loan >>> Moussa Baradji, 24, CM, Yverdon Sport, Loan
Outs >>> Dom Hyam, 29, CB, Wrexham, £3m >>> John Buckley, 25, CM, Al-Kholood, £1m >>> Joe Rankin-Costello, 25, RB, Charlton, £800k >>> Callum Brittain, 27, RB, Boro, Undisclosed >>> Lewis Travis, 27, DM, Derby, Undisclosed >>> Harry Leonard, 21, CF, Peterborough, Undisclosed >>> Tyrhys Dolan, 23, RW, Espanyol, Free >>> Andreas Weimann, 33, AM, Derby, Free >>> Dilan Markanday, 23, RW, Chesterfield, Free >>> Danny Batth, 34, CB, Derby, Free >>> Jordan Eastham, 23, GK, Ashton United, Free >>> Connor O’Riordan, 21, CB, Doncaster, Loan >>> Jack Vale, 24, CF, Released >>> Jalil Saadi, 23, DM, Ethnikos, Free
How's the season been so far?
Pretty much as feared, albeit that 3-0 win away at Hull now looks like the sort of result that will end up being our performance of the season. We nicked a home win finally against a still Will Still led Southampton which eased some pressure and a run of three successive wins leavened the mood immensely.
Injuries and suspensions have kicked in though - who could ever have foreseen that? - and the last home match against Derby County was very much a regression to the mean and a warning of what can happen when you rely on a thin squad.
We are short of a competent keeper (Toth is injured), a solid centre back pairing (Wharton & Carter are injured), our midfield dynamo (!) and skipper (Cantwell is injured), and too often we struggle to fashion many big chances so if Rovers are to win a game, back a single goal win…a penalty or o.g.
Our most recent away fixture at near-neighbours PNE was secured with fewer shots & an inferior xG than Preston’s but to the naked eye we were far superior for the vast majority of the game and deserved a win which amazingly leaves us both six points clear of relegation and six points off the play-offs.
Looked pretty dire and then suddenly three straight wins, what changed?
Over a season they say luck & form even themselves out. We were unlucky to lose at home to Birmingham, imploding in the final few minutes, the Ipswich postponement was a kick in the teeth and so the long-awaited home victory over Saints was perhaps a case of Lady Luck levelling the score somewhat. They should really have been out of sight but a combination of Adam Armstrong feeling sorry for his old club and some terrific keeping from Balazs Toth kept us in the game long enough to nick it.
That set up a tricky away trip to Leicester but on the day we were very much deserving of the win and the home crowd’s reaction suggested it wasn’t as big a shock to them as perhaps it was to us. They didn't seem overly keen on their manager…
This was a very fluid performance and indicated that perhaps this XI, if not the squad could make a fist of it in the Championship.
With confidence now growing, a visit to Brizzle revealed as solid a defensive performance as we have seen this season and a single goal delivered the three points against the Robins.
The problem was Balazs Toth and Scott Wharton were both injured and are out for many weeks which combined with Hayden Carter’s injury woes and Todd Cantwell’s seemingly never-ending "knock” this rips the heart out of the team - see above.
The Derby County result on the occasion of our 150th anniversary was not therefore wholly unexpected, especially given it was Eustace’s return to Ewood and the footballing gods like to have a laugh don’t they?
The international break perhaps allowed us to clear our heads before the trip to Deepdale and a very much weakened team acquitted itself with flying colours. The Championship is a crazy division and our roller-coaster form is testimony to that fact.
Where are we on Ismael now?
Don’t think much has changed if anything. He was an underwhelming appointment. He seems to be more prepared to toe the line than either was JDT or JE and so it’s harder to really warm to him for so doing. He has the aura of a man happy to take a salary whilst working for an executive team whose sole focus is cost-cutting. That he won’t express any form of discontent over the dismantling of the squad suggests he’s fine with mediocrity as a stretch-goal.
The only problem is that we are not convinced he’s making the best of the thin gruel he’s been served, nor are we sure that he didn’t supply the recipe. That season at Barnsley is presumably set in bold and highlighted on his CV. It’s doing a lot of heavy lifting for sure.
What needs doing in January?
New owners, new executive team, new manager, six or seven Championship level recruits to augment a thin/inexperienced squad and some long overdue remedial work on our pitch and repairs/maintenance to the stadium. Apart from that, we’re set fair…
Rovers in the league so far…
West Brom 1-0 Blackburn Price 15
Blackburn 1-2 Birmingham Cantwell 50 – Dykes 90, Stansfield pen 90
Hull 0-3 Blackburn Hedges 18, Ohashi 47, Cantwell 50
Blackburn 0-2 Norwich Sargent pen 45, 90
Watford 0-1 Blackburn Morishita 47
Charlton 3-0 Blackburn Gillesphey 31, Carey 78, Bree 90
Blackburn 1-2 Swansea Cantwell 28 – Franco 44, Cullen 67
Blackburn 1-1 Stoke Kargbo 82 – Manhoef 49
Coventry 2-0 Blackburn Torp 57, Thomas-Asante 59
Blackburn 1-3 Sheff Utd Ohashi 40 – Henriksson og 54, Burrows 70, Campbell 90
Blackburn 2-1 Southampton Alebiosu 76, Gudjohnsen 86 – Scienza 23
Leicester 0-2 Blackburn Gudjohnsen 20, 63
Bristol City 0-1 Blackburn Ohashi 45
Blackburn 1-2 Derby Ohashi pen 66 – Morris 19, Agyemang 45
Preston 1-2 Blackburn Devine 45 – Miller 45, Gudjohnsen 62
Where is the team strong and weak?
Ryan Alebiosu looks like a decent RWB replacement for Callum Brittain. Very athletic and impressive recovery pace.
The pre-injury Toth seemed to have solved our keeper problem.
We have an abundance of run of the mill midfielders. Not sure that’s a strength per se to be honest but at least we can cover injuries in that department.
Every element of the team to a degree looks vulnerable/inexperienced/under-manned.
Goal scoring is a major concern. We don’t create that much and we don’t convert as many as we need to. Andri Gudjohnsen has started to blossom though.
The injury enforced absences (noted above) through the spine are troubling.
How's your chaotic ownership situation?
Venky’s don’t want to spend any money and don’t want to sell us - but they pay the bills on time so we are not in the hands of a Chansiri (or an administrator) but we are in the custody of owners who simply do not appear to care and they have appointed an executive team whose sole focus remains cutting spending with the zeal of a Tory Chancellor.
I have no problem with Venky’s saying "we’ve had enough” but to do that whilst simultaneously refusing to sell the club seems at best illogical, at worst perverse.
Under Venky’s there is now no ambition and no obvious way out of the death of a thousand cuts, zombie existence we find ourselves inhabiting.
An illustration of the routine incompetence regularly displayed at the club - we declined to play in our special 150th anniversary shirts against Derby, nor did we put them on sale in the club shop, as the COO was concerned that we still had too many unsold home/away/third shirts remaining in stock. Somewhere in the Roverstore presumably, there are boxes of these shirts which cannot yet be put on sale (but have been paid for presumably).
The 150th anniversary shirts going on sale in our 151st year, weeks after the celebratory game in which they were supposed to be worn is just the perfect encapsulation of the rank incompetence that permeates all levels of this once proud institution.
Revised expectations for the season?
I predicted 18th pre-season. That might yet prove to be a tad optimistic. Still think there’s three worse than us…but it might only be three…
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