Toby Wilding

Tue 15 April 2025 18:12, UK

Blackburn Rovers haven’t been an easy club to support in the 15 years since Venkys completed their takeover, and ongoing managerial chaos shows that is just as true as ever now.

At the time of their arrival, the club were comfortably established as a Premier League mainstay, who were capable of upsetting the so-called big clubs while enjoying cup runs at home and abroad.

Since the takeover however, things have changed drastically, with the early ambitious promises of success rapidly making way for a wall of silence coming from the owners in their base in India.

On the ground at Ewood Park meanwhile, Blackburn were relegated from the top-flight in the first full season after the takeover, and have yet to return. There was even a drop into League One for one season.

Since returning to the Championship, opportunities to win promotion via the play-offs have been squandered with disastrous January transfer windows.

In doing so, Blackburn have seen good managers walk away midway through each of the last two seasons.

This year even saw John Eustace head to relegation-threatened Derby County as his exit route from the Lancashire outfit.

Now though, fans of the club have been forced to endure yet more concern about the managerial situation at Ewood Park following the latest updates.

Wayne Rooney linked with managerial return

On Tuesday (15 April), it was reported by talkSPORT that Wayne Rooney would be a strong contender to take over as Blackburn manager if Valerien Ismael leaves the role.

The Frenchman has had a poor start to his time in charge of the club since replacing Eustace, finally winning his first game at the eighth attempt against struggling Luton Town at the weekend.

Even so, a move to replace Ismael with Rooney would have done nothing to ease the fear among the fanbase around the occupant of the Ewood Park dugout.

While it has not worked for Ismael at Blackburn, he does at least have some respectable moments in the Championship on his CV.

He defied plenty of odds to guide Barnsley to the play-offs during the 2020/21 campaign, and his West Brom side were fifth when he was sacked by the Baggies the following season.

That is at least more than Rooney has done in the division. Last season, the Man United and England icon replaced Eustace at Birmingham City with the Blues occupying a play-off spot.

It was a catastrophic move that set the Midlands club on course for relegation to League One, so with cracks showing in the Blackburn squad since Eustace left, many would fear what Rooney might do to it.

Despite what happened during his time at St Andrews, Rooney was given another chance in the Championship by Plymouth Argyle this season.

That though would end just before the turn of the year when he departed with the Pilgrims bottom of the table and four points from safety.

There were even questions about whether Rooney would want to return to management after those experiences with Birmingham and Plymouth.

So a move to appoint someone with such a managerial record would have led to more fears of relegation next season for fans of a Blackburn side with only four wins in their last 21 league games as it is.

Rooney not suitable for Blackburn after Birmingham and Plymouth

Given the records noted above, the subsequent update from the Lancashire Telegraph that has ruled Rooney out of the running for the role will be a relief for the Ewood Park faithful.

Yet in spite of that, the fact that Rooney seems unlikely to be taking over at Blackburn should not be enough to get Ismael off the hook just yet.

When he took over, the club still sat in a play-off spot in the Championship, but after a run of just five points from eight games under the Frenchman that is unsurprisingly no longer the case.

Instead, Rovers are now tenth in the standings, seven points adrift of the top six with just four games left of the season to play.

Consequently, it looks as though yet another chance of promotion via the play-offs has been thrown away by the club before we have even got to that end of season lottery.

Instead, what Blackburn are currently producing under Ismael can only be described as relegation form if it translates across the whole of the season.

So the suggestions from this update that the club are unlikely to move for Rooney because they remain committed to their current manager also have to be a concern.

Valerien Ismael should be under pressure at Blackburn Rovers

Of course, eight games would feel very early to sack a manager, but there must be some expectation on Ismael to get more out of a team that previously showed such promise in these final games of the season.

If not, then it ought to be just as hard to back him in the summer and heading into the new campaign, as it would be to back Rooney if he were appointed.

A 1-0 win against a second from bottom Luton side who hit the woodwork on several occasions on Saturday (12 April), is surely not enough to fill that criteria.

It should also be noted that Ismael has yet to win over the fans even regardless of results, with his reluctance to acknowledge supporters at full time in matches unsurprisingly not going down well.

Things like that can also make it very easy for an already tense situation at Blackburn to become even more toxic, in turn making it even harder for those on the pitch to deliver results.

So with all that in mind, supporters are still going to expect a lot more than they have been given from Ismael so far, even amid the relief that the club seemingly do not consider Rooney to be the next answer.