Portsmouth set to deal Blackburn Rovers transfer blow | OneFootball

Blackburn Rovers had been optimistic about securing the signing of Liverpool left-back Luke Chambers, but Pompey are moving ahead in the race for him.

Blackburn Rovers had been confident of securing the services of the Liverpool left-back Luke Chambers, but fresh reporting is indicating that Ewood Park might not be his final destination after all, with Portsmouth moving ahead of their EFL Championship rivals.

Despite being among the pre-season favourites for relegation from the Championship, Blackburn Rovers have had a strong start to the 2026-27 season. With a win and a draw from their first two matches, they're well-placed early on to ensure that they don't have to go through another season like 2025-26, when the threat of falling into League One was in their rearview mirror for most of the season.

But with more than a week still left of the summer 2026 transfer window, there is still more strengthening that can be done, and Rovers are now set to miss out on one of their targets. Left-back Luke Chambers has been coveted by a number of EFL clubs, and Blackburn had been hoping to get a deal to take him to Ewood Park, but the interest of Portsmouth may result in the player heading to the south coast instead.

Blackburn Rovers could be set to be beaten to the signature of Luke Chambers by Portsmouth

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Reporting on his Patreon on Sunday morning, journalist Alan Nixon has revealed that Portsmouth have moved ahead of Blackburn Rovers in the chase for the signature of Luke Chambers.

​​​​​​He confirms that Liverpool have been told that a decision will shortly be made over where the 22-year-old will be heading to next, but also reports that Portsmouth are "pushing ahead in the chase" for his signature.

Chambers has been training with the Liverpool first-team squad but has not yet been given a shirt number by the Merseyside giants for the 2026-27 season, which hints that the club are ready to move the defender on.

Nixon reports that "Pompey think they have the best chance" of landing the defender, who was on loan with Charlton Athletic for the second half of the 2025-26 season. He's been on the books at Anfield since 2022, but has not featured for them in the Premier League.

What fans are saying about Luke Chambers on social media at the moment

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Luke Chambers is a promising young player, and his availability has caused a lot of comment on social media. Here's some of what's being said about the possibility of the full-back leaving Anfield for a Championship club.

This fan sees Chambers' potential arrival at Fratton Park as part of a broader pattern of improvement across his club:

And this Liverpool fan believes that his club could come to regret offloading their younger back-up players later in the season:

Luke Chambers could be a valuable addition to a Championship defence

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Having been with the Liverpool academy since the age of six, Luke Chambers may be disappointed to leave the club, should that end up being his destiny this summer. He's certainly highly thought of; speaking to the Liverpool club website in 2022, Liverpool's more established full-back Kostas Tsmikas described him as "a very, very good player and always very focused in the training", while he's also been capped by England at u15, 16, u18, u19 and u20 levels.

But Chambers' Anfield career has failed to ignite. He's made a handful of appearances for them in the Europa League and the Carabao Cup, but has failed to break through in the Premier League or the Champions League, and now, at 22 years of age, it's time for tough decisions to be made over the defender's future.

Chambers has spent much of the last three seasons on loan. He started out with a half-season in Scotland with Kilmarnock for the second half of 2022-23, and spent two half seasons on loan at Wigan Athletic in League One before returning to Anfield. In January 2026, he was sent out on loan again, this time to Charlton Athletic in the Championship, where he made 18 appearances for the Addicks over the second half of the season.

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His performances for Charlton last season were enough to alert Championship clubs to his potential, and Queens Park Rangers had also been linked with him earlier in the summer, though their interest in him has since cooled.

This leaves Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth tussling for his signature, and whoever ends up getting him will be signing a player who may not have Premier League experience, but who has now played in both League One and in the Championship, and who has been brought up with the high values that are instilled in players at the very biggest clubs.

There are no promises when it comes to signing young players, but given the promise that he's shown at Liverpool, the international experience and the clubs' need to strengthen, Luke Chambers certainly fits the profile of the sort of player who could develop into a solid defender in the Championship.