Blackburn Rovers lauded for "exciting" transfer - "there's great things to come" | OneFootball

Ryoya Morishita's Blackburn Rovers career couldn't have started any better

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Blackburn Rovers will hope to finally kickstart their Championship campaign as they returned to winning ways with a 1-0 victory against Watford on Saturday afternoon.

The East Lancashire side have begun their first full season under Valerien Ismael in rather inconsistent fashion, yet were able to record their second success of the term with a narrow victory at Vicarage Road following the September international break and the recent closure of the summer transfer window.

Rovers came close to earning a first Championship play-off finish since their relegation from the Premier League back in 2012 last term as Ismael rectified an extremely underwhelming start to his Ewood Park tenure with a strong end to the campaign which saw the club finish seventh. However, the same consistencies are yet to fully come to the fore in the early weeks of the current season.

The Frenchman oversaw an extremely active first transfer window and hectic period of time which transitioned from pre-season into the early weeks of the competitive term, as he aims to mould a competitive squad despite Blackburn not exactly boasting the strongest of transfer budgets in comparison to many divisional rivals.

As such, the club have so often looked to pull off several bargain transfer coups in recent times, with Rovers also recruiting many incomings from far and wide this summer, and one of those has already made a significant impression on a vast majority of supporters.

Blackburn Rovers praised for striking Legia Warsaw transfer agreement for Ryoya Morishita following Watford exploits

The former Premier League champions made 10 signings over the course of the summer, with a handful of said deals being finalised during the window's latter stages ahead of the September 1st deadline.

One of those came in the form of former Legia Warsaw man and versatile playmaker, Ryoya Morishita, who was signed from the Polish giants for a reported fee of €2m, which equates to approximately £1.73m.

It has since been claimed that the three-time Japanese international was the club's prime replacement for Tyrhys Dolan, who moved to Espanyol in the summer after rejecting a fresh contract with Blackburn.

The 28-year-old came to England with an impressive record of 15 goals and as many assists in just 78 appearances for the European regulars, and his quality was definitely on show against one of Ismael's former clubs on Saturday with a cool finish after being played in by compatriot, Yuki Ohashi.

After a stellar performance on his first start for the club, Football League World's Blackburn fan pundit, Simon Middlehurst, is hoping for more of the same as the season progresses.

"Morishita had a really good, exciting start to his Blackburn career," Middlehurst explained. "Obviously, getting a goal on his first start.

"He's someone who brings a lot of energy, not just on the pitch but to the squad as well. It looks like he's embedded himself among the squad really well.

"A lot of Legia Warsaw fans were really disappointed that they sold him to us, and especially for the amount of money we paid for him," he explained.

"He's definitely a transfer that Blackburn fans are excited to see more of, and hopefully there's great things to come from him going forward.

"Valerien Ismael's come out and said that he's someone he really wanted to get in, and it seems like a really good signing, so hopefully we can see the best of him."

Ryoya Morishita has been on Valerien Ismael's radar for quite some time

Morishita has certainly showcased what is expected to come from him as the season progresses, and his work ethic and quality certainly goes hand-in-hand with Ismael's high-pressing system which has come to great effect against Watford and in the 3-0 win at Hull City in August.

Speaking post-match, it is also evident how pleased the former Barnsley boss was to secure his services, despite appearing on his radar in intriguing fashion.

"To be honest, last year I was talking with Legia for the head coach position at some point," he told the Lancashire Telegraph.

"So I needed to assess the squad. I saw straight away that one of the players was able to do the job I asked. I got all their data.

"So when I came to Blackburn and we started to work on the squad, we knew that we needed a player in the winger position. We had good success with Dolan, with that profile of the player," he added.

"We knew that type of player could be very good for us."