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All Leagues, EPL, England, Europe, Fantasy EPL, Features, Ian John, Leagues, Regions POSTS

The Season Ahead Part Four : Blackburn Rovers

Published by Ian John on August 26, 2009

Blackburn Rovers
Prospects for 2009 :
Roque has gone and they’ve got Franco Di Santo in from Chelsea on loan. Presumably because Christian Vieri was so old, fat and slow that he couldn’t even get a game in the Finnish national team. Kalinic is an interesting signing and could be the next Davor Suker…or the next Bosko Balaban. I know where my money lies on that one. The signing of Lars Jacobsen on a free from Everton must have got Rovers fans heart racings and their hopes up of a Champions League place come the end of the season and if you can’t see the sarcasm in that sentence there is no hope for you.

2009 is a big season for :
Stephen Warnock : The former Liverpool man has established himself as one of the best left backs in the country at Rovers and his form will be key to how Rovers perform both defensively and in an attacking sense. A talented player and one Blackburn must hold on to, especially given the talent that has left the club in the summer.

Guaranteed to irritate in 2009 :
To be fair to Blackburn, there isn’t a lot generally that irritates many others about them. They are usually too good to be embroiled in the real relegation fight and patently nowhere near good enough to challenge for the top placings in the league. They therefore exist in a kind of Premiership limbo and no real threat to any side. No doubt the arrival of Burnley into the top flight will irritate them slightly, especially if the clarets play decent football, but that’s really a minor local argument. No, the only thing likely to annoy us this season with Rovers is the sight of manager Sam Allardyce’s jaw constantly on the go with his chewing gum and incessant moaning about officials, but then again most managers do that, so it isn’t something exclusive to the Rovers boss.

Things they’ll moan about in 2009 :
Big Sam Allardyce, or as Tranmere fans love to blithely and unfairly call him “Fat Sam”, is a world class moaner and no doubt he will have a few things to say about officials over the course of the season. We will also have the fact that Blackburn’s physical approach is bemoaned by other managers (naming no names, eh Arsene?) and the fact that the manager will have to come out and defend their approach to the game to the media. Like we really care? Part of football’s enduring appeal is that at different times, different styles succeed. So while Arsenal’s beautiful passing game may win on occasion, sometimes it’s nice when teams like Rovers kick them into the stands and bundle the ball over the line with their simian brows to snatch an unlikely win. Otherwise it would be boring wouldn’t it?

Song that sums up their chances in 2009 : “Glory Days” by Bruce Springsteen
The era when Rovers were challengers to Manchester United, Shearer and Sutton terrorising defences up and down the country and David Batty and Graeme Le Saux thumping each other, seem a long forgotten memory. Rovers fans know that their glory days lie in the past. It’s hard to see this season being anything else other than a replication of last season, minus the talents of Roque Santa Cruz. That and Fat Sam the Stat Man’s reliance on so much computer wizardry that he should have a USB slot fitted into his jowls, means that Rovers best memory of this season will likely be, remembering the good old days.

Image Courtesy of ***EamonCurry123*** at Flickr.com