Football Season Guide

Blackburn went from clinching Championship survival by the skin of their teeth on the final day of the 2023/24 season to being in with a shout of the play-offs at the conclusion of the 2024/25 campaign, but it was still another turbulent season for the Lancashire outfit. The ongoing financial uncertainty surrounding owners, the Venky’s, leaves a constant cloud hovering over the club. The fact that John Eustace left his role as head coach in February, with Rovers in 5th place, to take on a relegation battle at Derby spoke volumes. Eustace claimed the move was based on wanting to be closer to his family but his not-so-subtle hints to the club’s hierarchy throughout the season about a lack of backing suggested there was a lot more to his departure. The club appointed Valérien Ismaël, who arrived with plenty of Championship experience but mixed success. After a disastrous start which saw the Frenchman pick up just two points from his first seven league games in charge (W0 D2 L5), he managed to steady the ship with four wins and a draw to end the season. Rovers just missed out on the play-offs but there were positive signs. Makhtar Gueye and Yuki Ohashi both had encouraging debut seasons, helping fill the void left by Sammie Szmodics who was the league’s top scorer in 2023/24. The centre of the park is solid with captain Lewis Travis and Sondre Tronstad one of the Championship’s most reliable midfield pairings. The defence was also a lot tighter, conceding 26 fewer goals. In fact, only Sunderland improved their final overall points tally by a greater margin from the previous season. Unfortunately, the summer has seen the squad lose two of their top four goalscorers in Tyrhys Dolan and Andi Wiemann. The latter has left to join former boss Eustace at Derby, along with Danny Batth who was a stalwart in Blackburn’s much-improved defence last season. Sean McLoughlin has been brought in to replace Batth but is the only Rovers recruit so far to arrive with genuine Championship experience. Versatile midfielder Sidnei Tavares briefly played for Leicester but has plied his trade mostly in Portugal, whilst wide players Dion De Neve and Ryan Alebiosu both arrive from Dutch club KV Kortrijk as younger prospects.