Blackburn Rovers repeating unwanted 2022 transfer landmark even more concerning now: View
Blackburn Rovers lag behind in summer transfers, under pressure to add senior players quickly to avoid falling behind rivals.
John Eustace’s squad needs reinforcements urgently after a disappointing season, facing potential relegation threat without new signings.
Concerns rise as Rovers fail to make key signings despite past financial gains, adding to frustration amid legal issues with club owners.
The summer transfer window has certainly not been a productive one for Blackburn Rovers so far.
On several occasions since the window opened, head coach John Eustace has stressed the need for the club to bring in signings to help aid his first-team squad.
Yet despite that, as things stand, the Ewood Park club are currently yet to sign a single senior player to add to the options available to Eustace ahead of the new campaign.
With Blackburn due to start their season at home against Derby County on Friday 9th August, the pressure is building on the club to change that quickly.
Indeed, the club having now found themselves in a similar unwanted situation, to just a couple of years ago, which will further add to the need and expectation on them to get deals done soon.
Blackburn Rovers out on their own for the wrong reasons
The fact that they have yet to make a new first-team signing, means that the club now found themselves in a unique position within the Championship.
Unlike Rovers, every other club that is due to be playing in the second tier of English football next season has made at least one signing for their senior squad this summer.
That has left Blackburn in the unenviable and unwanted position of having to play catch-up to their rivals, although it is not the first time recently they have found themselves in that situation.
Back in the summer of 2022, Rovers were also the last Championship club to get off the mark in terms of senior signings.
At that point, the first deal completed saw right-back Callum Brittain move to Ewood Park from Barnsley on the 21st July 2022, meaning this wait for a signing has now gone on even longer.
Of course, there will have been concerns about that wait for signings two years ago, but in the circumstances, the fact that Blackburn are in this position again is more worrying this time around.
John Eustace badly needs reinforcements
There can be no denying that Rovers came into this 2024 summer transfer window having just been in a more precarious position than they were in the summer of 2022.
Two years ago, the Ewood Park club had ended the 2021/22 season eighth in the Championship table, spending much of the campaign in contention for a play-off spot. Indeed, they finished that season just six points adrift of the top six places.
As a result, at that point, the lack of signings may have felt more of a bone of contention, in not preparing to build on the encouragement of the season before.
Now though, there is very little encouragement on which to build. Rovers, of course, finished the most recent campaign 19th in the second-tier standings, just three points clear of the relegation zone, with a final-day win at Leicester City securing their safety.
That means that this time around, signings are needed not to push on in a push for promotion, but to strengthen the squad to a point where it is capable of staving off the threat of relegation when those around are also improving.
In turn, the consequences of failing to get those reinforcements through the door could be much more severe for Rovers, in terms of what a return to League One might mean for the club.
Indeed, it is also worth noting that back in 2022, Blackburn had to spend the early part of the summer searching for a new head coach, with Jon Dahl Tomasson eventually replacing Tony Mowbray.
