•  Blackburn Rovers missed out on the play-offs last season and aim to improve on their seventh-place finish.
  •  The team has had a mixed start to the new season, with two wins, two losses, and one draw in their first five matches.
  •  Blackburn has lost several academy players, including David Raya, Darragh Lenihan, Ryan Nyambe, and Ashley Phillips, which could have been costly mistakes in the long run.

In the previous season, Blackburn Rovers nearly missed out on a play-off spot.

Over the next season, Jon Dahl Tomasson’s team will try to improve on their seventh-place position.

The team’s first five games of the current season have been a mixed bag, with the team winning two, losing two, and drawing one.

Following the closing of the summer transfer window, the team will be able to regroup during the first international break of the season.

Who are the academy players that Blackburn should have kept?
It was a rough summer, with big names like Ben Brereton Diaz and Ash Phillips leaving.

Phillips came through Blackburn’s youth but was the latest to leave for a bigger team.

Here are some previous academy graduates who Rovers might have been better off keeping had they stayed…

Raya joined Brentford from Rovers for around £3 million, a pittance in comparison to what the Spaniard is now worth.

The shot stopper went on to play an important role in helping the Bees establish themselves in the Premier League, garnering numerous accolades for his efforts.

The 27-year-old was loaned to Arsenal this summer with a £30 million buy option.

While the £3 million that Blackburn received in 2019 was a large sum at the time, he might have earned the club much more had he progressed into the player that he is today at Ewood Park.

A fee of around £30 million would be worth it.

Lenihan was permitted to depart the club as a free agent in the summer of 2022, which cost Blackburn money.

The defender is an international for Ireland and was one of the division’s top center backs last season.

He would provide a level of quality to Tomasson’s back line that they now lack.

Losing out on a fee reflects how poorly managed the club has been in recent years.

Nyambe is another defender that was allowed to leave as a free agent in recent summers.

The full back was a useful player to have in the squad and could have been a solid addition to Tomasson’s plans.

Instead, he joined Wigan Athletic as a free agent where he continued to show that he is a Championship calibre player.

Losing Phillips last summer was a big blow to the club’s academy system.

While he has yet to do anything at Spurs, and it may take a couple of years for him to come good at that level, it is still a loss to Tomasson’s defensive options.

That Tottenham were already willing to pay a £3m fee for him suggests the level of potential that he possesses is quite high.

Rovers may not regret losing him right now, but it is one that they are likely to look back on in a few years as a mistake, especially for the fee involved.