For Blackburn managers of the recent past, this has been the cruellest month. Jon Dahl Tomasson and John Eustace left the club in February 2024 and 2025 respectively when they became disconnected from the club’s unpopular owners, Venky’s. The problem for the current manager, Valérien Ismaël, is that fans are growing increasingly anxious for another change in the dugout as the cycle repeats itself. It has been another winter of discontent at Ewood Park.
After finishing seventh last season thanks to a late season surge under Ismaël, there will be no push for the top six this time. A scrappy defeat by Hull via Lewis Koumas’s 81st-minute winner made it one win in 15 games in all competitions, Rovers now mired in the relegation zone and the prospect of dropping to League One is alarmingly real with a three-point gap to West Brom in the last safe position.
