Blackburn Rovers can have one relief at how Birmingham City transfer saga ended: View | OneFootball

One target for the Ewood Park club headed elsewhere in the Championship late in the summer window

On the whole, those associated with Blackburn Rovers will consider the 2024 summer transfer window to have been a successful one.

Admittedly, the Ewood Park club did suffer the disappointment of losing last season's Championship top scorer, Sammie Szmodics, whose goals proved so important to keeping them up.

However, few could begrudge him a move to the Premier League with Ipswich Town, and nine new first-team signings for John Eustace's side have also eased frustrations.

Indeed, there is a general feeling around the club that, despite the loss of Szmodics, the strength of the squad as a whole is greater this season than the previous campaign.

Even so, Blackburn were unable to sign every player they targeted while the market was open, and one of those they did miss out on, was Siriki Dembele.

Rovers missed out on Birmingham transfer agreement

Throughout the window, Dembele was one player who the Ewood Park club were heavily linked with.

Indeed, it was suggested that Eustace in particular was keen to land the winger, having previously worked with him at Birmingham last season.

In the end, though, no deal to bring the 28-year-old to Ewood Park would materialise, before the window closed.

The likes of Amario Cozier-Duberry, Andi Weimann and Todd Cantwell instead adding to Blackburn's options in attacking midfield.

Even so, Dembele would still get his move back to the Championship before the window closed, following Birmingham's relegation at the end of last season.

Given how that ended up playing out for the winger, it could be argued that, in one way, Rovers may be rather pleased with the schedule delivered by the fixture computer this season.

Blackburn will have no early clash with Siriki Dembele this season

With a move to Lancashire not happening, the deadline day in this summer's transfer window instead saw Dembele complete a permanent move to Oxford United.

By that point, however, Blackburn had already come up against the newly-promoted U's, hosting them at Ewood Park a week earlier.

That game had ended in a 2-1 victory for Eustace's side, Joe Rankin-Costello and Arnor Sigurdsson scoring to complete the turning after a stunning Mark Harris opener for Oxford.

With Dembele having joined the U's later in the window, Rovers may be pleased they did not have to face him in that fixture.

Having clearly been keen on him during the summer transfer window, it would have been something of a sucker punch had he been able to do damage to them straight after joining Oxford instead.

The 28-year-old certainly knows how to make an impact at Ewood Park as well, scoring twice for Birmingham in the Blues' 4-2 defeat away at Blackburn last season.

As it is, the way the fixture schedule has played out, means Rovers will not have to worry about a repeat of that this season, knowing they have already picked up three useful points against the U's.

With that in mind, in this sense at least, it may well be argued that with the way the transfer window ended for Dembele, Blackburn could be inadvertently pleased with the way their fixtures have been scheduled for this season, in one sense at least.