Four defeats in a row for Blackburn after difficult summer - Interview Friday, 6th Oct 2023 14:03 by Clive Whittingham Financial pressures, departures of key players, injuries and Indian tax law have all bitten chunks out of a Blackburn side that is now 0/4 in the Championship ahead of Saturday's trip to Loftus Road - Ian Herbert is our regular Ewood Park correspondent. Well... a lot of goals at least! Bit of a mad start for Blackburn, but four straight defeats in the league heading into this, what have you made of it? Watching Rovers at the moment is a little like being asked to attend your niece’s nativity play. You love her dearly, you feel you really ought to go out of a sense of duty, you never know, it might be wonderful, you *might* find it emotionally uplifting…but… We are playing some wonderful stuff apparently, in all the areas except the two most important ones - the opposition’s and our own penalty areas. The defence has proved to be somewhat brittle and has not been helped by the unsettling departure of number one keeper Thomas Kaminski to Luton. His replacement, Aynsley Pears, has introduced a new random variable to our defending, albeit his injury sustained on Sunday by kicking Jamie Vardy (so we can definitely forgive him that) means a first league start is impending for our new Swedish international (one cap…) keeper. What could possibly go wrong ? Up front, the lack of South American wide forwards is noticeable. The injuries to the stalwart Gallagher and bright young thing Leonard, leaves us thin. The introduction of an Icelandic wide forward in Sigurdsson however is encouraging as he shows signs of possessing real talent, if not 100% fitness as yet. Sammie Szmodics is carrying a heavy burden bravely but unless he can score another 30 or so this season, we need options. Blackburn in the league so far… How is JDT doing? Purist, but enough pragmatism given your circumstances? He knows he’s destined for bigger things you suspect and that Blackburn Rovers is presently a blank canvas upon which he can exuberantly sweep lavish brushstrokes to visualise his version of Danish total football. Except this is Blackburn Rovers; so obviously we’ve sold all his brushes, loaned out his easel and as for paints, “well, there’s some crayons in the little one’s bedroom that you can use Jon…” With the right resources you sense he could “do a Bielsa” with Rovers, but he’s had the rug pulled from under his feet and we fear he might not be with us long after the first post-international break sacking-season starts in earnest. The recent departure of your erstwhile good friend (ahem) Michael Beale has started the anxiety cramps already… He’s very open and honest about the summer restrictions he faced - what were those? Whose fault it is? It depends who you believe and/or how good your knowledge of Indian tax law and International Financial Reporting Standards is…these aren’t topics typically covered by Robbie Savage on 606 in fairness. It appears a budget was set, scouting started, something in India changed*, the budget was slashed, identified targets then couldn’t be secured, sights were lowered, panic set in and the obvious schism between CEO and manager is perhaps the most entertaining aspect of our season so far. JDT is a master of the passive aggressive throwaway comment in press conferences and radio interviews, God love him. As he’s clearly the most ambitious man at the club, perhaps we should make him the CEO? *Factually, there has been a change in Indian tax law regarding overseas investments - the extent to which this could or should have affected Rovers is however moot. It feels much more like Venky’s are finally starting to question their investment and our compliant CEO is happy to remain a “safe pair of hands”, skipper a steady ship that causes no ripples and happily proclaim to a BBC Radio Lancs pre-season interview that there was absolutely no pressure on JDT to achieve promotion. Way to sell those season tickets Steve… What business did you get done? Who came in and out? What did you make of it? We lost Brereton-Diaz, Dack, Ayala and our loanees and have managed to bring in Ennis (seemingly always injured) from Plymouth, Sondre Tronstad (not usually selected) from Vitesse Arnhem both on frees whilst paying actual hard cash* for Leopold Wahlstedt from Odd and Semir Telalovic from Borussia Monchengladbach (reserves/academy). Sigurdsson (signed whilst nursing an injury), the promising Moran (Brighton) and Hill (Bournemouth) also arrived on loan deals to provide much needed depth. Intuitively it feels like we are probably at least two quality players down from a truly effective squad capable of matching last season’s over-achievement; a striker (Diaz back on loan perhaps in January ?) and midfield cover for Adam Wharton who already looks knackered given his workload. Much like the task of any casting director of Bugsy Malone, there is a heavy reliance on youth talent to perform on cue. *albeit buttons in the context of the Championship’s parachute-packed relegated clubs. Ins >>> Leopold Wahlstedt, 24, GK, Odd, £900k >>> Semir Telalovic, 23, CM, Borussia Monchengladbach, Undisclosed >>> Sondre Tronstad, 27, CM, Vitesse, Free >>> Niall Ennis, 24, CF, Plymouth, Free >>> Arnor Sigurdsson, 24, AM, CSKA Moscow, Loan >>> James Hill, 21, CB, Bournemouth, Loan >>> Andy Moran, 19, AM, Brighton, Loan Outs >>> Thomas Kaminski, 30, GK, Luton, £2.5m >>> Ashley Phillips, 18, CB, Spurs, £2m >>> Ben Brereton-Diaz, 24, CF, Villarreal, Free >>> Bradley Dack, 29, AM, Sunderland, Free >>> Daniel Butterworth, 23, CF, Carlisle, Free >>> Tayo Edun, 25, LB, Charlton, Undisclosed >>> James Brown, 25, RB, Ross County, Undisclosed >>> Daniel Ayala, 32, CB, Released >>> John Buckley, 23, CM, Sheff Wed, Loan >>> Jack Vale, 22, CF, Lincoln, Loan What was left undone? Well we registered everyone before the deadline this time with not a legal challenge in sight, so frankly we are all too busy popping champagne corks on the terraces celebrating our administration and processing triumphs to notice. As above, a striker & midfielder would have been nice but can we be truly trusted to have nice things? Stand out players and weak links? Best player currently is Sam Szmodics. He’s really blossomed this season. Best prospect is Adam Wharton. Much is expected of a young man with extraordinary talent but with youth comes a certain naivety that needs to be addressed if he’s to reach his full potential. This season will test him and galvanise him ready for a move to (God forbid) Everton, or somewhere like that next summer. Weakest link is probably between the sticks. Pears has had numerous issues this season coming out of his area rashly leaving an open goal to be exploited when he should have stayed, and curiously, staying put for some crosses hovering over his six-yard box that really needed the attention of his gloves. He’s injured though now, so big pressure on the young (largely inexperienced) Leopold. Revised expectations for the season? Not revised for me as yet - predicted 14th pre-season and I’m sticking to that…albeit it’s looking optimistic now rather than prudently cautious. Come back on January 31 2024… Links >>> Rovers official website >>> Official website >>> Lancashire Telegraph — Local Paper >>> BRFCS message board and podcast >>> Rovers Chat — Blog The Twitter @ianherbert, @loftforwords Pictures — Action Images Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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