The Rovers Return

Stephen Warnock has left for Aston Villa.

It is with great sadness I bid Stephen Warnock farewell as he leaves for Aston Villa.

He has officially signed for the Midlands club tonight to end weeks of speculation surrounding his future.

For once, I can fully understand the decision of one of our top players to move on. Warnock has always been loyal to Rovers, given 100 per cent and repaid the faith shown in him when he was signed by the club by becoming one of our best players.

Moving to Villa at a time when the club are in a position to challenge higher up in the table represents a good career move for the defender and I wish him well. It will also bode well for his England ambitions as, with Rovers, England careers are a practical impossibility.

With the sad news of Warnock’s departure comes the better news of Big Sam’s latest recruitment, Pascal Chimbonda. I’m assuming Allardyce made sure the signing of Chimbonda was wrapped up before the sale of Warnock was officially sanctioned, and I hope the money from the sale of Warnock will be used to strengthen even further.

Chimbonda is a good defender. A solid performer with proven Premiership credentials. He has signed from Spurs for about £1.5-million.

Stephen Warnock

My dad runs a dry-lining firm (anyone in the north west wants some dry-lining doing, let me know), and his firm will be dry-lining David Dunn’s new castle mansion palace house.

He was over there on Friday chatting with the Rovers midfielder and, although it’s no secret something’s going on, Dunny told him he reckons Stephen Warnock is on his way to Villa.

I know it’s not the most ground-breaking, shocking secret ever to emerge from Ewood Park, but, horses mouth and all that…

It’s been in the news today that the left back, who has been a revelation since reviving his career at Ewood, was left out of the Sunderland game because he ‘wasn’t in the right frame of mind’ because of the constant talking about his future.

Now, it seems, we may be resigned to losing him. Which is sad. Warnock is one of those players that seems like a genuine nice guy. Not someone who’s in it for a year only to take the money and run. One for the fans to love.

In other news, The Rovers Return has been given the highly-prestigious honour of being Wsn.com‘s best independent Rovers blog. I’d like to thank God, I’d like to thank my daddy…

Gael Givet gives Rovers the lead

Rovers have succumbed to another defeat, making this a terrible start to the season, and I can’t help but feel we should have a minimum of four points from our opening fixtures. A bad day all round as, just half an hour before kick off, I was sacked from my post as manager of Rovers on Football Manager…

It was another case of missed chances costing Rovers as two from Kenwynne Jones cancelled out Gael Givet’s first goal for the club.

Last time out against City we dominated for long periods and should have scored at least twice, and had a penalty, but we didn’t, and paid the price.

Yesterday, we dominated, took the lead and threw it all away.

Granted, we had two goals disallowed, one very questionably and another which seems fair enough. The first was a daft decision as Samba collided with keeper Martin Fulop, which Alan Willy Wiley judged that to be a foul, excuse me for assuming football is a contact sport… The second I can understand as Samba is stood next to the keeper and, although he didn’t touch the ball, he was right under it as it sailed into the net.

Those unlucky decisions – which could have gone either way – aside, we should still have won the game, and comfortably.

Sunderland couldn’t cope with the height of N’Zonzi, Roberts and Samba as the ball was pumped up-field to good effect. Unfortunately we couldn’t turn the domination into goals. Read more »

Ewood Park

Interesting post at BRFCS for any stattos out there about Rovers’ top 50 attendances (since the new ground was completed in 1994 – our actual record attendance is over 60,000 from a cup game with Bolton when there were no seats!):

Post was written on Friday so the City game will actually have knocked the Leeds match in 50th place out!

EDIT: Man City, 29,584 on Aug 15, 2009 is 33rd highest attendance since 1994.

vs Liverpool (feb 96)………..30,895
vs newcastle (apr 96)……….30,717
vs Man Utd (apr 98)………….30,547
vs Newcastle (may 95)……..30,545……VE Day
vs Fulham (may 02)…………30,487
vs Man Utd (apr 97)…………30,476
vs Man Utd (dec 02)…………30,475
vs Man Utd (may 99)………..30,436…….relegation day
vs Bolton (feb 96)……………30,419
vs newcastle (dec 96)……..30,398
…………………………………………………………………10
vs Tottenham (feb 98)…….30,388
vs Man Utd (april 08)………30,316
vs Liverpool (oct 94)……….30,263
vs Man Utd (oct 94)…………30,260
vs Liverpool (aug 97)……….30,187
vs Sunderland (jan 99)……..30,125…..FA Cup rd4 Read more »

On this day, eight years ago, Blackburn Rovers’ greatest fan sadly passed away.

His contribution to Blackburn as a town and a football team will never be forgotten.

Rest in peace Mr Jack Walker.

The view from my new seat in the Blackburn End

- We didn’t deserve to lose. The 2-0 scoreline flattered a lacklustre City side who, had we been able to convert numerous first half chances, would have had to work a lot harder to come away with all three points. I can only hope Nikola Kalinic provides the killler instinct we lost when Santa Cruz jumped ship.

- Lars Jacobsen was a steal from Everton. He looked good in pre-season and didn’t disappoint on his league debut. Solid defensively and excellent going forward. He put in some demon crosses as well.

- Steven N’Zonzi also looked good. Unfazed by the step-up from the second tier of French football. He slotted in to midfield well and looked good on the ball. His height really does come in handy as he really is unbeatable in the air, unless he’s up against a giraffe…

- Our other debutant was Franco Di Santo. Brought on as a sub to replace Jason Roberts, he didn’t really see enough of the ball to make any impression. Still waiting to see what the young Argentine is capable of.

- In an effort to find some fresh impetus, Big Sam threw on Di Santo for Roberts. In my opinion, this was a mistake. By leaving McCarthy on and removing Roberts, we lost a lot of pace up front. Although he did miss a couple of sitters in the first half, Roberts looked dangerous throughout and I would have left him on. Read more »

The excitement league that is…

All Rovers fans, I’m sure, will look back at last season as a season to forget. A real season of transition as we got used to life without Hughesy.

It was a struggle. A real battle. Filled with emotion, disappointment, later hope with the arrival of Big Sam, frustration seeing Robinho’s last minute equaliser for City and, ultimately, elation as we eventually avoided the dreaded drop.

A real rollercoaster ride.

Hindsight is a beautiful thing. And, looking back on last season, it has to be said that yes, it was exciting.

Not exciting in a particularly enjoyable way. But with all the thrills and spills of that relegation battle, Rovers fans had to endure the most heart rate-raising and cortisol-inducing season of all fans in the Premier League, according to some ‘boffins’ who apparently measured these in groups of fans across the country.

In some ways it is better to have a relegation battle. Because, at the end of the day, football is an entertainment business. In fact it is probably the most expensive entertainment business in the world, the English Premiership! Read more »

Done a guest preview piece for John over at Low Life Opinions.

Are you pleased with Blackburn’s transfer activity over the summer?
It’s been a lot more active than transfer activity of previous seasons. If Jerome Rothen joins from PSG that will make it nine new faces at Ewood for the coming season! It remains to be seen if that one materialises. The big summer signing is Nikola Kalinic for £6m. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing this lad in action. Slaven Bilic, his national team manager, says he is ‘the future of Croatian football’, so he can’t be useless surely! Right back Lars Jacobsen on a free from Everton could be the bargain of the summer. While midfielders Steven N’Zonzi, who is about 12ft tall, and Elrio Van Heerden are somewhat unknown quantities but look useful. Di Santo on loan from Chelsea is another exciting prospect as the young Argentine looked impressive in Chelsea’s pre-season games. The news Nathan Ellington has come in on trial is a bit strange, but if he’s on a free I suppose it’s a no-lose situation…

Are there any youngsters who you think will make a big impact for Blackburn this year?
There’s a couple of decent-looking youngsters coming through the ranks. Mainly Bryan Hodge and Alan Judge. Judge is the better of the two but has been loaned out to Plymouth. Hodge may get some first team action. But all eyes will be on N’Zonzi, Di Santo and Kalinic, who could soon become household names. We have recently got into the knack of gambling on strikers that turn out to be gems who then jump ship as soon as a bit of cash is waved in their face. Bellamy and Santa Cruz both went in these circumstances, and McCarthy somehow stayed despite strong interest from Chelsea. Kalinic could be the same if he’s as successful.

What’s the minimum Blackburn have to achieve this season in order for it to be considered a success?
Mid-table. And to finish above Burnley! The main objective is to not be involved in the relegation battle again, and I think we have enough to do that. We need a safe mid-table finish, although I do think we’re capable of challenging for a European spot. But who doesn’t say that? Read more »

The Premier League table taken from the BBC website

We don’t even have to play a game to be above them.