Blackburn Rovers should line up Leeds United swoop for Darko Gyabi as Lewis Travis' replacement | OneFootball

Blackburn Rovers captain Lewis Travis is on his way to Derby County - they should move quickly for Leeds United outcast.

Blackburn Rovers captain Lewis Travis is seemingly on his way to Derby County to link up with former boss John Eustace, which is going to leave Valerien Ismael with a gap in his midfield to fill before the September 1 transfer deadline.

Rovers were rocked by the news that captain Travis announced his intention to leave the club and join Derby this summer, with confirmation of his switch to Pride Park expected sooner rather than later.

Travis joined the Rovers academy in 2015 from Liverpool, and has gone on to make 264 appearances in all competitions for the club. Now though, the midfielder is set to join Derby on a permanent deal, with the two clubs having agreed a fee in the region of £3 million for the 27-year-old.

Valerien Ismael's side have begun the new Championship season in indifferent form, having lost their opening two games away to West Brom and at home to Birmingham City, with a home loss to Bradford City in the EFL Cup sandwiched between.

They notched their first Championship points on the board over the weekend courtesy of an emphatic 3-0 victory at Hull City, with Travis nowhere to be seen in the matchday squad amid his impending move to the Rams.

Blackburn Rovers should target Leeds United's Darko Gyabi as Lewis Travis' replacement

Blackburn boss Ismael will need to be in the market for a new midfielder to replace Travis, at least in the short-term, and given there's no certainty that the Frenchman will receive much of the fee that will be brought in by his captain's sale, a loan move for Leeds United man Darko Gyabi should certainly be looked into at the very least - if not a permanent one in an ideal world.

Gyabi spent time in the youth ranks of Millwall before joining Manchester City's setup in 2018 at the age of just 14.

Four years later though when he was 18 years of age, Gyabi then joined Leeds United in the summer of 2022 for a fee believed to be in the region of £5 million, at the same time that Kalvin Phillips was heading in the opposite direction to the Etihad Stadium.

The midfielder has since struggled to find first-team football at Elland Road since his move to the club, playing just five first-team games for the Whites before heading out on loan to Plymouth Argyle for the second half of the 2023/24 campaign.

Having impressed during his brief stint in Devon, Gyabi re-joined the Pilgrims last summer for a season-long loan, where he appeared 48 times in all competitions under Wayne Rooney and then Miron Muslic, but Argyle were ultimately relegated to League One.

Now back at Leeds, Gyabi hasn't featured in either of their two Premier League matchday squads and looks primed to depart the club before the end of the window, and Blackburn could be an ideal next step in the career of the former England youth international.

Still only 21, Gyabi has a full season of Championship experience under his belt and still has ample time to improve.

It was reported by journalist Pete O'Rourke towards the beginning of the window that a number of Championship clubs were interested in taking Gyabi on loan, but so far nothing has transpired, and he currently remains a Leeds United player with not long left to go of the window.

Gyabi's contract runs out and the end of this season, so Leeds need to make a decision - they could hand the midfielder an extension and then loan him out to a club like Blackburn, which would seem the logical decision to make, given the fact he could still retain some transfer value, or if that isn't on the table, then a full-on permanent transfer could be do-able.

With John Buckley also being touted for a surprise switch to Saudi Arabia, this leaves Sondre Tronstad, Sidnei Tavares, Adam Forshaw and Jake Garrett as the club's midfield options - of which the latter two haven't featured so far this season yet.

Signing Gyabi either permanently or on loan could be a smart addition for Ismael's side as they look to cope with the loss of Travis, and he's a player that could have considerable re-sale value further down the line if they were to get a full-time deal done.