By the time Plymouth Argyle visit Ewood Park on Saturday, empty seats are likely to be a theme: those in the stands, and the one vacated by John Eustace, to be filled by an interim successor. Most pronounced are the ones in the directors’ box, where Blackburn Rovers‘ controversial owners Venkys have not attended a game for more than a decade.
The fact that Eustace is prepared to jump ship from a club who are, at the time of writing, sixth in the Championship, for one in the relegation zone, tells you everything about the toxicity that has seeped in at the end of another stagnant transfer window.
When “reluctantly” granting Eustace permission to speak to Derby County following an official approach at the weekend, Blackburn noted they had made “six new additions” in January. That, supposedly, amounted to “significant investment” which left them in position to finish in the play-off places.
That is not the whole story. As the supporters’ trust points out, five of those players are only under contract until the end of the season.
“The short term nature of them does nothing to allay our long term concerns for the wellbeing of our club,” say We Are The Rovers.
“Evidently, John Eustace is of a similar opinion. To lose a manager who has done so much good work to restore some pride and hope to our club is heartbreaking.”
Eustace had a £500,000 release clause and on that front, there was nothing that could have been done to make him stay. It did not have to be this way. Tony Mowbray brought a degree of stability when he succeeded Owen Coyle in 2017, but in Eustace’s departure there are echoes of the sentiment felt when Jon Dahl Tomasson moved on in 2024. Nobody is entirely sure where Blackburn are going and less still, what heights their owners believe they are even capable of reaching.
The supporters have lost not just a manager but that hope of what comes next. The £21.4m raised from the sales of Sammie Szmodics – the striker who kept them up in 2023-24 – and now-England international Adam Wharton since 2023 have not been reinvested.
Over the last three winter transfer windows, the most extravagant outlays have been the purchases of Augustus Kargbo (£1m from Cesena in Serie B) and Connor O’Riordan (£410,000 from Crewe Alexandra).
There is ostensibly no reason for that frugality. Financial fair play is not a concern. According to one banner at Ewood Park the prognosis is simple: “Venkys told us all lies. No respect, no passion, no future, Venkys out.”
It is 14 years since Venkys bought the club with £23m for a 99.9 per cent stake. They promised to “absolutely respect the [former owner] Jack Walker legacy”, paying off debt but ultimately taking Blackburn down to the Championship and in 2017, to the depths of League One. An immediate return to the second tier followed.
The day they were relegated from the Premier League, the chicken draped in a blue and white flag that made its way onto the pitch – eventually removed by Wigan Athletic goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi and a senior steward – was not even the most farcical moment. Twelve managers have come and gone and 11 directors.
Venkys had overseen a downward spiral that initially left manager Steve Kean facing the brunt of supporter antipathy. The picture is clearer now.
In May, it will be 30 years since Blackburn won the Premier League under Walker, the local boy-done-good who made his fortune in the steelworks. The £25m he poured into the club was sufficient then; by the time Venkys took over, there was a sense they were fishing in waters out of their depth.
A £6.2m bid for Ronaldinho, and wages of £130,000 a week, was laughed out of the room. So was a loan move for David Beckham. The board initially denied any such bid had been made before realising it betrayed a hopeful optimism that could be harnessed to build momentum following a contentious takeover.
A restoration project was nothing new. After the Premier League success of 1994-95 Blackburn had gone down in 1999, but the rebuild in a fiercer environment had arguably been just as impressive – especially as it was followed by a League Cup triumph in 2002.
In two seasons out of four under Mark Hughes, they finished in the top seven, once finishing just four points off the Champions League places.
It is the prospect of an overhaul like that which is perhaps the biggest casualty of Eustace’s unceremonious switch to Derby. Supporters say they have witnessed nothing but a “catalogue of disasters over the last 14 years” and many believe that is not going to change now.
Chairmen like Walker no longer exist in the upper echelons of the English game, but they remain something to aspire towards. Even by the most basic of yardsticks, Venkys have not delivered – in 11 derbies with Burnley under their stewardship, Blackburn have not won a single one.
While it may seem easy to recount the past 14 years, the future is not so transparent. In one light it is surprising that Eustace should want to ditch Blackburn’s play-off ambitions for a club battling relegation, who were on the brink of financial oblivion in recent memory.
Derby is the place where he made more than 50 appearances as a player. It is also a club with its own penchant for the cult of celebrity, as opposed to the seasoned Championship manager, a predilection Eustace knows all too well.
In 2023 he was let go by Birmingham City, who immediately turned to Wayne Rooney, before sacking the former Manchester United and England forward after 83 days. The Rams have toyed with both Rooney and Frank Lampard in the last five-and-a-half years, axing their most recent recruit Paul Warne in early February. They can at least hope that under Eustace, brighter days lie in wait.
For all the talk of the incoming football regulator there is a suspicion that for clubs like Blackburn it comes too little, too late. The same can be said of Reading, Sheffield Wednesday and countless others. Eustace’s short reign – lasting almost 12 months to the day – promised much but is likely to go down as a footnote in 14 years of misery and frustration.
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