Tony Mowbray’s Blackburn Rovers dream: Venky’s transfer trend must be bucked first | OneFootball

Tony Mowbray will need a significant change at Blackburn Rovers to achieve his play-off dream

Tony Mowbray is back in the dugout at Blackburn Rovers after returning as their head coach over the summer.

The 62-year-old’s first stint at Ewood Park began in February 2017, and the team suffered relegation to League One under his management.

But he led the Lancashire outfit back to the Championship in 2018, before the club earned 15th, 11th, 15th and eighth place finishes.

However, Mowbray’s contract expired at the end of 2021/22, and he departed, with Jon Dahl Tomasson taking his place.

The veteran coach is back, and will be hoping to improve on their 20th place finish in the previous campaign, with Michael O’Neill overseeing their survival against relegation.

Blackburn haven’t competed in the Premier League since their 2012 relegation, and fans will be hoping that Mowbray can bring them back into contention for a return to the top flight.

Tony Mowbray needs Venky’s trend to end to achieve Blackburn dream

Action images

Mowbray made his ambitions clear for his first season back in charge at Blackburn, and fans will be excited by what he wants to achieve.

The 62-year-old has claimed that he wants to earn a top eight finish in the Championship in 2027, which would be enough for a play-off place under the new, expanded format from the next campaign.

And he has urged the club to compete in the transfer market to help build a team capable of that play-off place.

“I don’t want to sit here and say, ‘We are going to finish in the top two’,” said Mowbray, via the Lancashire Telegraph.

“Our aim is to try and finish in the top eight.

“The new plans for how the season and the play-offs go is really interesting, to go down to as far as eighth.

“It has to be a target for everybody, I think, to give yourself a second chance of finding a way to get to Wembley and win a play-off final.

“We need to be competitive.

“We have still got some business to do in the transfer market, I am pretty sure, over the next however many weeks it’s open.”

However, fans will know to be sceptical of this ambition for one very obvious reason: the Venky’s have failed to properly invest in Blackburn through their entire tenure as owners.

They have proved very unpopular figures among supporters for a number of years, and it will take a big change in strategy for that to not continue into next season.

Mowbray’s ambitions are in the right place, and every club should be going into next season thinking they can achieve a promotion fight.

But at the moment, it is unrealistic to think this Rovers squad can compete at the top end after they’ve just finished 20th.

Action Images

The transfer market is open, and that does offer Blackburn the opportunity to strengthen their squad, and it is needed to even stand still at this level.

One major issue that needs to be solved at Ewood Park is the squad’s lack of threat in the final third.

Yuki Ohashi had his best goalscoring campaign yet for Blackburn in 2025/26, finding the back of the net 10 times, but that is still a meagre tally for a team’s top scorer to reach.

Some additional firepower is sorely needed, but other areas of the squad must also be addressed as well, with reinforcements also needed in midfield and defence.

Someone like Lewis Travis has not been adequately replaced after he moved to Derby County last summer.

If Blackburn are to have any chance of competing in the top eight, then significant investment will be needed.

But if they’re to even avoid a relegation battle, then the Venky’s will have to show greater interest in the club than they have done in the last couple of years.

Because both Cardiff City and Bolton Wanderers are coming up from League One, and they will have no intention of going straight back down and they should have resources behind them to compete in the transfer market.