"On the cheap" - Blackburn Rovers prediction on Valerien Ismael's first transfer window under Venky's | OneFootball

The Lancashire club have a chance at winning promotion to the Premier League, and plans will start to be put in place for the summer.

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 find themselves in an excellent position in the Championship with just 12 games to go – despite losing their most recent game to Swansea City, they remain sixth in the table.

Few would have predicted the Lancashire club to be in with a shout of the play-offs at the start of the season, but the team have worked incredibly hard to right the wrongs of the 2023/24 campaign and have pushed themselves into real contention of returning to the Premier League.

Rovers have not been in the top flight since suffering relegation in 2012, but there remains a belief at Ewood Park that they can make that giant leap back to the promised land, regardless of the fact that they have been without a manager for the last couple of weeks.

Valerien Ismael was announced as the new Blackburn boss on Tuesday evening, and he will now work to get his own plans in place for the summer transfer window, with improvements in key areas still needed to take the team to the next level.

Prediction made on Blackburn Rovers' plans for the summer

The club have brought in the former Barnsley and Watford manager on a deal until 2028, and he will already be evaluating his new squad and which players he believes need to come in.

However, Rovers' owners, the Venky's, have been extremely frugal since taking over the club and it seems unlikely that the Frenchman will have much of a budget to work with in the summer.

Football League World has asked their Blackburn Fan Pundit, Simon Middleshurst, how many players he expects to be signed before the start of next season.

He told FLW: "Realistically, it's difficult to say because I don't know how much money is going to be in the club to sign players.

"Most summers we tend to sign sort of maybe four or five players. So, I think we could probably bring in four or five players on the cheap. Players that have run out of contract in League One or lower down in the Championship that we always have to sign, or we’ll get the odd gem from abroad like we did last summer."

Simon continued: "More than anything, Blackburn do tend to rely on the free market and the loan market. So again, it all depends on what happens to clubs in the Premier League and what young players are going to be let out.

"But I reckon we'll probably lose five and probably gain five and we'll just not really increase the size of squad."

The Venky's need to give Valerien Ismael a strong budget to compete

While this season has been exceptional for Blackburn, there are still areas that need to be strengthened and Ismael must be given the opportunity to do that.

The owners of a club building a relationship with the head coach is crucial to their success, and Rovers have not done that for a number of years. This needs to change quickly if they are to have a chance at mounting another promotion charge if they fail to go up this year.

Player sales have earned Blackburn plenty of cash in the last year, with Sammie Szmodics and Adam Wharton leaving for the Premier League for £9m rising to £11m and £18m with add-ons that could the deal to £22m respectively.

This has not been reinvested into the squad properly, and without this influx of cash, it will be incredibly difficult for Ismael to keep the team in this position in the next few years.