Blackburn Rovers, remember them? (Blackburn Rovers F.C.)

Member Name: samredmore

Product:	Blackburn Rovers F.C.
Date:	19/07/01 (237 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good, young team, David Dunn

Disadvantages: Unpredictable

At present, there are only three clubs to have won the English Premier Division. Manchester United, Arsenal and, er, that's it, isn't it?

It is often a forgotten fact that, in May 1995, Tim Sherwood lifted the Premiership trophy for the new champions, Blackburn Rovers. Although it was hardly the perfect way to seal up the championship race (losing 2-1 to Liverpool at Anfield and relying on West Ham to prevent Man Utd from collecting all three points at Upton Park), sure enough, Blackburn were the top team in England just six years ago.

"What happened next?" I hear you ask.
- "European Champions?"
- "Cup double winners?"
- "Premiership champions again?"
Actually, there was more of a relegation scrap, early exits from all domestic cups and an embarrassingly poor champions league campaign, which was prematurely ended by defeats to the giants of European football, Legia Warsaw. (No, I'd never heard of them either).

Kenny Dalglish, the man who had led Blackburn to such a triumphant Premiership campaign only a few years after winning promotion from what is now the 1st Division, had decided he was going to move into a new role as director of football, thus paving the way for Ray Harford to come in and guide the club to bigger and better things.
That was the plan, anyway. Things didn't quite work out like that and, a few seasons later, after departures by the likes of Harford, Kenny Dalglish and, by far the best player to have graced the not-so-famous-anymore blue and white shirt of the Rovers for many years, Alan Shearer.

Despite these happenings, things didn't look too bleak for Blackburn. After all, they still had the financial backing of Jack Walker, the defensive rock known as 'Big' Colin Hendry, Chris Sutton, when he was actually quite good and had agreed terms for a new manager to come in at the end of the season; a certain national manage
r, Mr. Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Once again however, a spanner was dropped into the works, and Eriksson decided maybe Blackburn was not the best option, probably after watching a few of their most recent matches.

Despite this, a high profile manager, in the form of Roy Hodgson, was appointed as the man to lead Blackburn into the new millennium, although he was actually sacked before the year 2000 came.
His sacking aside, Hodgson actually made an impressive start to his Blackburn career and managed to lift them to a UEFA Cup position, and once again gave them the opportunity to storm through Europe, just as they so nearly did last time around.
After a poor start to the 1998/1999 season, Blackburn were scaling the heights of 17-20th position in the Premiership when it came to the big UEFA Cup tie. Luckily Blackburn had avoided the immense force of Legia Warsaw this time around, and there was seemingly nothing in their way as they strode towards their first ever European title. Oh, that is apart from their first round opponents, who I hadn't heard of at the time and still have no clue as to who the are, although they were clearly one of Europe's big clubs, because they knocked Blackburn out of the competition.

Never mind, there was still the Premiership title beckoning, along with the League Cup and the F.A Cup. Surely Blackburn could put their European nightmare behind them and march on to a domestic treble? No. Instead, Roy Hodgson soon left under somewhat complicated circumstances, but no worry, Brian Kidd left Man Utd in order to save Blackburn from relegation and conquer the Premiership again.

After an impressive unbeaten run at the start of his Blackburn career, Brian Kidd managed to get Kevin Davies, probably the worst £7.5 million buy anyone has ever made, to notch his first of many classic strikes for the club. In truth, his first goal for the club was a bit of a miss-kick, and turned out to be his only Blac
kburn goal before he moved back to Southampton in exchange for Egil Ostenstad, a slightly better player, despite the fact that he only has a few goals for the club, was loaned out to Manchester City last season and looks set to leave the club in the near future.

After disappointing League and F.A Cup exits, the only thing left for Kidd to aim for was the Premiership title. The only hitch in the plan being that Blackburn were 19th place in a league of 20, in which only the top team won the title, oh, and the bottom three were relegated, but that couldn't happen to Blackburn, surely they were too good a club to have such a terrible thing happen to them. That's what everyone said anyway. Brian Kidd made it perfectly clear Blackburn would stay up, with the only opposition to this theory being that Blackburn were playing so badly, he probably would have been better off playing himself than some of the so called 'footballers' he had running round after the ball every Saturday afternoon. Not to worry though, Kidd remained positive Blackburn would survive, and the brilliant signing of Ashley Ward would surely give Blackburn the extra firepower to destroy whomever they faced. That was, until they didn't win yet another "must win" game, and were faced with a game against Man Utd, in which they did actually have to win to stop themselves from being relegated. But guess what, they didn't win and one of the biggest tragedies football has ever been faced with occurred. 'How can there be Premiership football next season without the mighty Rovers on the fixture schedule?' How can a team like Blackburn be allowed into Division 1? Surely they'll destroy the opposition, it would be terribly unfair. This was proved correct on the first day of the season when West Brom were given the first of many hammerings by Blackburn. The game ended 0-0.

With the Blackburn squad in turmoil after the departures of such greats as Stephane
Henchoz, Tim Flowers and 'Super' Sutton and the additions of players of Lee Carsley's calibre, the board remained adamant they would stick by Brian Kidd and had faith in his ability to lead them back to the big time. He was duly sacked days later.

With Kidd gone, and a vacant managerial position, Good Ol' Tony Parkes was placed in control until a suitable man was found to try and live up to the legacy of success left by Kidd. Many high profile names were mentioned, with the most exciting prospect being 'Donkey' Adams, who was playing for Arsenal at the time.

I made that last bit up about 'Donkey' Adams, but it's always nice to dream, isn't it?

Anyway, either Blackburn could find no one suitable for such a tough job (probably), or nobody wanted to become the Blackburn manager (clearly not), so Tony Parkes took the reigns on a 'permanent' basis.

Once again, a new manager meant a good unbeaten run to start off with, but it soon turned sour, as the giants from Ewood Park struggled against the likes of Crewe Alexandra and found themselves mid-table, with little prospect of promotion, but with relegation a good possibility if things went as planned.

Tony Parkes was finding life as manager of the nations finest club not quite what he had expected, and so in came yet another new manager. This time it was different though, the new man, Graeme Souness, was Scottish. Blackburn fans all around the world were suddenly filled with the hope that maybe 'Big' Colin Hendry, who had since moved to Rangers, could be on his way back. Sadly, Hendry moved to Coventry instead, whilst Blackburn's season came to a slow end, having finished well below the play off places and being pipped to relegation by Port Vale, Walsall and Bury, the last game of the season did still mean they had a say in the promotion battle though. With Ipswich being a team near to where I live, I was hoping for th
em to gain promotion, and all Blackburn had to do to make this happen, was to take a point from the visit of Manchester City. A good 4-1 hammering followed, but sadly it was the team from Manchester to take the points, therefore forcing Ipswich to finally achieve promotion the hard way (the play offs).

A summer clear out, and a new, younger feel to the Blackburn side meant, for some unknown reason, they were actually quite good last season. A solid 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace got the season off to the perfect start. A poor run followed, however, and it was looking like they would have a season similar to the previous one.
A strange thing happened last season though, it started in October, and Blackburn went on a somewhat incredible run in which not many games were lost. This run shot them up the league table and into the play-off zone. Surely it was to come to an end soon, but no, it continued all season, and things were looking very merry indeed. Graeme Souness seems to have added a certain grittiness to the side, this seemed to have been lacking under previous managers, and seemed to make Blackburn much better at grinding out results on cold winter nights at old, crumbling stadiums such as Gresty Road.

Last season, however, Jack Walker, the clubs chairman tragically passed away. This upset many of the players, especially the ones who had known him for a long time. Jack was a well loved man and always seemed to have a close relationship with everybody at the club, making it all the more worse that he is now gone. R.I.P Jack Walker.

Despite these problems, Blackburn continued churning out results and, one evening in early May, finally secured promotion back to the Premiership with a 1-0 victory over Preston North End, at Deepdale.

Here are a few of Blackburn's best players, and some information on them :-

BRAD FRIEDEL
Position - Goalkeeper
Nationality - American
Brad Friedel was signed last seas
on on a free transfer from Liverpool. He is an experienced goalkeeper and is usually very reliable. Can be prone to the odd 'David James' style clanger however.

HENNING BERG
Position - Defender
Nationality - Norwegian
Signed on loan from Man Utd last season. Very good at booting the ball up the pitch in a Tony Adams / Martin Keown manner.

CRAIG SHORT
Position - Defender
Nationality - English
A solid, reliable defender. Don't be fooled by his name, Craig Short is very big, and doesn't miss out on many headers.

DAMIEN DUFF
Position - Winger
Nationality - Irish
Damien Duff, although still young, has been a regular in the Blackburn side for a few seasons now. Is very skilful, can run at defenders and can fire in a good cross. Scored one of Blackburn's best goals this season with a break from midfield against Birmingham.

KEITH GILLESPIE
Position - Winger
Nationality - Northern Irish
Not one of my favourite players, is a bit weak for my liking and he never seems to do much. Was quite good when he first went to Newcastle from Man Utd, but hasn't really developed, as he should have.

GARRY FLITCROFT (CAPTAIN)
Position - Midfield
Nationality - English
A tough tackling midfielder most famous for his Blackburn debut, in which he was sent off.

DAVID DUNN
Position - Midfield
Nationality - English
In my view, David Dunn is a future England regular. He has played for no one other than Blackburn and has only really become a regular in this last season. However, he is already the England U-21 captain and has weighed in with a massive 18 goals this season.

MATT JANSEN
Position - Striker
Nationality - English
Second top goal scorer in division 1 last season. Started his career at Carlisle, from which he turned down a move to Man Utd and went to Crystal Palace instead. Due to bankruptcy, Palace were forced to sell hi
m to Blackburn 3 seasons ago. After a good start to his Blackburn career, he spent a year on the bench for Blackburn before returning this season to prove how good a player can really be.

MARCUS BENT
Position - Striker
Nationality - English
Started his career as a right-winger for Port Vale before moving to Sheffield United and becoming a free scoring sensation up front for them. Was bought by Souness last season and has weighed in with his fair share of goals.

MARK HUGHES
Position - Midfielder / Striker
Nationality - Welsh
The Wales national team manager was signed last season on a free transfer from Everton and immediately announced himself with two goals on his Blackburn debut. May not be featured too often this season due to him being about 50 years old, but there's no substitute for experience, as they say.

CORRADO GRABBI
Signed for £6.5 million during the close season. Stood out in Blackburn's recent 2-2 demolition of Manchester United for missing some incredibly easy chances. Did manage to tackle Fabien Barthez though. Twice. And still not score.

This season I expect Blackburn to survive quite comfortably in the Premiership and probably win it, or as good as win it (about 12th place). With the new signing of Grabbi to boost the strike force, I can see Blackburn improving and once again becoming a good Premier League side.


Note :
I do actually support Blackburn, despite slagging them off throughout this op and ranting on about how they seem to mess everything up.

Thank you for your time.

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