Bolton Wanderers may now have Blackburn Rovers envy for one clear reason | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers are expected to be envious of local rivals Blackburn Rovers after the latter brought in Dapo Afolayan late in the January window.

Local rivals Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers have shared plenty of players down the years with both sets of supporters having been left frustrated in one way or another.

Now, though, there is reason for Bolton supporters to be jealous of their fellow Lancastrians after Blackburn completed the signing of Dapo Afolayan for an undisclosed fee from Bundesliga club St Pauli.

In recent memory, Kevin Davies was one player that struggled to hit the ground running at Ewood Park before going on to become a club legend down the road in Bolton.

That is perhaps balanced by Per Frandsen opting to leave Bolton at the peak of his powers for Blackburn, while Youri Djorkaeff, perhaps past his best, also chose to stay close to home by hopping to Blackburn.

There have been stories of regret and envy from a transfer perspective for many a year and now there is a new tale to be told and to frustrate the Whites with their one-time fan favourite Afolayan, now tasked with helping Rovers push to safety.

Dapo Afolayan was brilliant when at Bolton

Having initially joined on a loan deal in the second-half of the 2020/21 campaign, Dapo Afolayan helped Wanderers gain automatic promotion to League One before joining on a permanent basis from West Ham United that summer.

In the third-tier, Afolayan was simply magnificent and the goals and assists that didn’t quite come in League Two, where he managed just one goal, and that came on the final day of the season, with no assists, very much came in the third-tier.

A case of previous bad luck and also further development into being more effective and efficient in the final third, Afolayan was the key man for Bolton as they propelled themselves to a ninth place finish with the best points per game rate in the division for the final 22 matches of the campaign.

The following season saw Afolayan once again be a key man with some notable standout match-winning performances against Fleetwood Town and Peterborough United.

The real standout came in October 2022. Ian Evatt’s Bolton were 2-0 down at half-time against Accrington Stanley but, with a change in shape and Afolayan going back to his preferred left-wing position, the attacker was utterly magnificent as he scored the winner after being heavily involved in each of the first two goals in that second-half.

That change of shape was a major issue, though, because Evatt continued to stick with the back three, despite frustrating performances and the fact that Afolayan didn’t fit into that system too well.

System over substance was the decision made and Afolayan was sold to St Pauli, and now, a couple of years on, he is playing for Wanderers’ local rivals Blackburn.

Similar situation to St Pauli for Dapo Afolayan at Blackburn

When he arrived in Hamburg in January 2023, St Pauli were rock-bottom in the 2. Bundesliga but, under the management of now Brighton and Hove Albion boss Fabian Hurzeler, they eased themselves clear with Afolayan pivotal to that.

The 2023/24 season then saw Afolayan provide a notable spark once again with nine goals and three assists in 27 starts at St Pauli gained promotion to the top-flight for the first time in over a decade.

Afolayan has gone on to play almost 40 games in the Bundesliga for St Pauli and that level of pedigree is something that Blackburn supporters should be very excited about.

He arrived at Ewood Park with Blackburn in a similar position to that struggling St Pauli side and his ability to understand and play to a cohesive tactical plan, which will be required if they are to fight their way out of danger, while also providing a game-changing level of technical ability, is extremely useful for Rovers.

Afolayan has the opportunity to help Blackburn steer clear of the bottom three and thus perhaps already become a cult hero and, if he does, that will only further upset already envious Bolton supporters as they still strive to get out of the division from which he departed three years ago.