FM14: Blackburn Rovers - Arte et labore

Welcome To the Blackburn Rovers Team thread

HISTORY

Blackburn Rovers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire. The team competes in the Football League Championship from the 2012–13 season. They were relegated from the Premier League, the top tier of English football, at the end of the 2011–12 season. The club are currently managed by Gary Bowyer after previous manager Michael Appleton was dismissed on 19 March 2013. Appleton was the third manager to have lost his job in 6 months after Steve Kean and Henning Berg.

The club was established in 1875, becoming a founding member of The Football League in 1888. It is one of only three clubs to have been both a founder member of the Football League and the Premier League (the others being Aston Villa and Everton). In 1890 Rovers moved to its permanent home at Ewood Park. Prior to the formation of the Premier League in 1992, most of the club's successes were before 1930, when it had gained league and FA Cup trophies on several occasions. Relegation in 1965–66 was followed by 26 successive seasons of football outside the top flight.

In 1992, Blackburn gained promotion to the new Premier League a year after being taken over by local steel baron Jack Walker, who installed Kenny Dalglish as manager. In 1995, Blackburn became Premier League champions, having spent millions of pounds on players like Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton. However, the title-winning team was quickly split up and, in the 1998–99 season, the club was relegated. It was promoted back to the Premier League two years later, in the 2000–01 season, just after Walker's death. During this time it has qualified for the UEFA Cup four times: once as League Cup winners, twice as the Premier League's sixth-placed team and once via the Intertoto Cup. The 2009–10 season marked the club's 72nd non-consecutive year in the top flight. Blackburn are currently one of only five clubs to have won the Premier League, along with Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, and Manchester City.

The club's Latin motto is "Arte et labore", the club's translation of which is "By Skill and Hard Work", but literally means "Craft and Labour".

PLAYERS

No. Nation Position Player

1 England GK Paul Robinson

2 England DR Todd Kane (on loan from Chelsea)

3 England DL Tommy Spurr

4 England DC Matthew Kilgallon

5 Scotland DC Grant Hanley (vice-captain)

6 England CM Jason Lowe

7 Norway AML Joshua King

8 England AMC David Dunn

9 Ireland ST Leon Best

10 England ST DJ Campbell

11 Scotland ST Jordan Rhodes

12 England AMR Ben Marshall

13 England GK Simon Eastwood

14 Sweden AML Marcus Olsson

15 Cameroon DC Yann Songo'o

16 England DC Scott Dann (captain)

17 England CM Lee Williamson

18 Ireland CM John O'Sullivan

19 England ML Chris Taylor

20 Nigeria CM Dickson Etuhu

21 England CM Alex Marrow

23 Spain AMC Rubén Rochina

24 England ML Josh Morris

25 Ireland AMC Alan Judge

26 England DR/L Raheem Hanley

27 Wales DL/R Adam Henley

29 NorthernIreland CM Corry Evans

30 Portugal AML Fábio Nunes

34 England GK Jake Kean

45 Scotland CM Tom Cairney (on loan from Hull City)

— Brazil DR Bruno Ribeiro

— Portugal ST Edinho Junior

Ewood park

Location Blackburn, Lancashire

Built 1882

Opened 1882

Capacity 31,367

Field dimensions 115 × 76 yards (105 × 69.5

Record Attendance:

61,783 v Bolton Wanderers, 2 March 1929 – FA Cup 6th Round

Record League Attendance:

52,656 v Preston North End, 26 December 1921 – Football League Division One

Blackburn Rovers v Burnley: Calm before the East Lancashire storm

Key Players

Jordan Rhodes

Ruben Rochina

Going forward

Tactics

4-3-2-1

My starting lineup has been working well and helped me get into the playoff spots, good for short passing and winning the midfield battle

A little bit of information would be great.Look other team guides for presentation.

yeah, its just a start will be adding more today ran out of time before work yesterday

Don't really rate Chris Taylor so I sold Marcus Olsson and used the fee to bring in Mark Gonzalez on loan from CSKA. Also, I have Rochina in instead of Marshall when he's fit, but he does seem to pick up a lot of injuries.

In home games I've been dropping Evans and starting DJ Campbell up front with Rhodes.

2nd in the league in February.

Don't really rate Chris Taylor so I sold Marcus Olsson and used the fee to bring in Mark Gonzalez on loan from CSKA. Also' date=' I have Rochina in instead of Marshall when he's fit, but he does seem to pick up a lot of injuries.

In home games I've been dropping Evans and starting DJ Campbell up front with Rhodes.

2nd in the league in February.[/quote']

Ive been playing Judge wide right and he is playing pretty well actually, pretty much playing a 4-4-1-1 with one of the MC's dropped into the DM strata one winger more attacking than the other. Seems to be working pretty well, club is in such a dire financial state though I cant really think how I am going to manage to improve enough to stay in the prem when I do win promotion.

On the plus side of things there are so many good youngsters.

I played one season with them (won Champhionship) after that Charlton lured me with tycoon takover.After promotion i was given a budget around 20 million which i was really happy with it.First season was really just getting rid of as many high earners as possible.Had quite diffucult time selling them so i went another way.I almost did not play Cambell,Best,Robinson,Etuhu until first transfer window.They were unhappy but they accepted mutual termination of contract which was good.The only player i was able to sell was Scott Dann to Crystal Palace.

Rely on youth players because they are really good.And Rhodes is TOP TOP striker for Champhionship and also for PL.

Also good thing managing Rovers is their youth facilities+youth coaches.

Ive been playing Judge wide right and he is playing pretty well actually, pretty much playing a 4-4-1-1 with one of the MC's dropped into the DM strata one winger more attacking than the other. Seems to be working pretty well, club is in such a dire financial state though I cant really think how I am going to manage to improve enough to stay in the prem when I do win promotion.

On the plus side of things there are so many good youngsters.

Finances are worrying. First thing I did was try to offload the likes of Etuhu and Best, but good luck getting anyone to pay to take them off your hands. Best was a problem for me in terms of morale too, he wasn't happy with my aims for the season or with being my third choice striker.

Edit:

When you have to put Spurr in a full-back, is there any way to stop him launching every throw in at the penalty area? I hate long throws and I like to keep the ball and work an opening, but instead he literally throws possession away every time I get a throw in the opposition half.

Finances are worrying. First thing I did was try to offload the likes of Etuhu and Best' date=' but good luck getting anyone to pay to take them off your hands. Best was a problem for me in terms of morale too, he wasn't happy with my aims for the season or with being my third choice striker.

Edit:

When you have to put Spurr in a full-back, is there any way to stop him launching every throw in at the penalty area? I hate long throws and I like to keep the ball and work an opening, but instead he literally throws possession away every time I get a throw in the opposition half.[/quote']

Yeah Ive done the same with exactly the same result, nobody wants them. Ive managed to ship Etuhu out on Loan to West Brom with a buy clause for 300k, which is peanuts I know but his wage is just to big. No idea what my plans are for Best though, just want to get rid of him.

I totally agree with Spurr makes me sad to see him do it every single time. Best bet would be to unlearn the throwing PPM and set Throw in tactic to be short.

Well after first season got promoted via playoff's my first 9 games I went without a win,l so im happy finishing 3rd, ben marshall was amazing for me scoring some vital goals and 15 assists, as you can see Lowe was at it again 17 yellow card's.

any tips on who to sign to try and stay in the prem?

Won the title in the first season playing a combination of 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3. Rhodes has 38 goals in total of which 35 were in the league IIRC.

Having lost Cairney in January, I got in Jacob Mellis who did well.

Gave lots of mutual terminations as no one wanted most of the dead wood high earners and I dont blame them.

Be wary of the promotion wage rises for many of them including Dann, Robbo, Etuhu, Best & Campbell. Im stuck with Best at start of PL season and he's on 56k a week. Board wont agree to mutual termination as it would cost 5.5m.

Pushing this back on top. Has anyone continued with Rovers?

Won the title in the first season playing a combination of 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3. Rhodes has 38 goals in total of which 35 were in the league IIRC.

Having lost Cairney in January, I got in Jacob Mellis who did well.

Gave lots of mutual terminations as no one wanted most of the dead wood high earners and I dont blame them.

Be wary of the promotion wage rises for many of them including Dann, Robbo, Etuhu, Best & Campbell. Im stuck with Best at start of PL season and he's on 56k a week. Board wont agree to mutual termination as it would cost 5.5m.

what style 4 rhodes

It might be cheeky, but I thought I'd quote my post from the SkyBet thread in here in its entirety, see if there are any others doing a Blackburn save and drum up some interest.

The Blackburn save is actually going rather well, though it's still early days. Obviously the main priority is to reduce the wage bill, get some of the high earners out of the club and try and stabilise the finances. Oh and try and achieve a good league position. Preferably promotion.

On the first front I think I've done pretty well, at least for this season. I've managed to loan out Leon Best (Watford paying 30% of wages) and Dickson Etuhu (Celtic paying 100% wages ), plus removed Lee Williamson and Bruno Ribeiro. I've also made a whole bunch of loans. This has now reduced the wage bill below the budget, which makes me happy.

Coming into the club is, well... No one. Nada. Zilch. Although I have made an offer for Henrique to arrive when his contract expires in October and I'm tempted to see if I can get a decent back up DM on loan.

Scott Dann has been agitating for a move and I agreed to his request as at the time it would have dropped our wages back below the budget. However no one made an offer and I'm hoping that an extended run in the first team might get him to change his mind as I no longer need to sell.

On the competition front, things are also going ok. We find ourselves in 4th and unbeaten in the league, though we've not looked particularly convincing at times. Our only loss so far was away to Fulham in the League Cup and we were a little hard done by. It was 0-0 at the end of 90 minutes, they got a lucky rebound goal that should have been disallowed, then got a second when we went chasing an equaliser.

Moving on to players and formations. I spent the pre-season and the first league game trying to use a lopsided 4231 but although it did ok, it didn't feel like it was working properly, so I've reverted back to my old favourite: the 4411. I've made a slight change by dropping one of the CMs into the DM spot, but that's mainly due to the PPMs of my best defensive midfielders. I tried Ruben Rochina in a number of different roles, but a bog-standard AM-A seems to have done the trick and he makes some great surging runs into the box.

Jordan Rhodes is an enigma. He's obviously a great striker, but I can't quite get the best out of him. He doesn't have the pace to be an AF, so I'm trying him as a CF-S at the moment, though I may change this to CF-A. I'm just trying to prevent him from becoming isolated.

I'm keeping team instructions simple as you can see. I may make other changes in future, but I want to get the balance of the roles correct first. The only player instruction I'm using is for the GK to Distribute to Defenders.

I'm hoping that come the Winter, I'll be able to move on a couple more players and bring in some of the youths that I have with high promise, namely Tim Payne, Josh Morris, John O'Sullivan and Anthony O'Connor.[/Quote]

won the title on the new patch, 1st season in the epl and i cant sign a player due to leon bests wages!"

Blackburn

#Out

#BurnleyTillIDie

won the title on the new patch, 1st season in the epl and i cant sign a player due to leon bests wages!"

I got him to agree to a mutual termination just before the wage rise.

Robinson on the other hand, it's a bit **** having your highest earner (£60k p/w) never playing a game for you!

Won the championship first season as Blackburn. didn't buy anyone as no one good enough. team is good enough anyway to get promotion ideally playing a 4-2-3-1 because of all the attacking midfielders available. Team will go bankrupt if you don't win promotion I think as I would have done and I didn't buy anyone. Sold what I could but no one wants the high earners. played kean in goal instead of robinson. taylor was unstoppable before he got injured for 5 months and it ruined his career. Rhodes sensational.

Team not good enough for premiership and I got 19 million to spend. had a takeover halfway through 2nd season but no big money. sold a player for 50 million to psg and had to rebuild my team

Started up a new Blackburn game

Made it into January so far

Lost my first league game just before the new year, cruising the league (15 points clear of 2nd atm) but out of the league cup to Spurs and Sheff Wed in the FA cup, so promotion is the only goal

Got a local takeover, so the Venky's are out Not a sugar daddy, but I'll live with that

Got Best to agree on a £0 deal but have to pay £22k a week for the remaining of his old contract - Can't get rid of Etuho or Robinson

Started up a new Blackburn game

Made it into January so far

Lost my first league game just before the new year, cruising the league (15 points clear of 2nd atm) but out of the league cup to Spurs and Sheff Wed in the FA cup, so promotion is the only goal

Got a local takeover, so the Venky's are out Not a sugar daddy, but I'll live with that

Got Best to agree on a £0 deal but have to pay £22k a week for the remaining of his old contract - Can't get rid of Etuho or Robinson

Managed to get the board to terminate Robinson's contract in February - £1.2m went away with him - But a years wages when promoted would cost £3.6m or so, so in the long run it is good money spend, now for Etuho, and then for the loan players returning

Promotion gained on Marts 26th Blackburn back in the EPL

Promotion gained on Marts 26th Blackburn back in the EPL

Title won on the 29th of Marts with 7 games remaining

Title won on the 29th of Marts with 7 games remaining

Etuhu had his contract terminated And Rhodes signed a new contract without the promotion raise, and even on lesser money. Wage budget is now under its limit - £11m in the red though so far

Rundown on first year as Blackburn Boss

Most Team Points - 109

Most Team Goals - 125

Rhodes smashed in 42 League Goals - Cairney 17 League Goals - Conway 14 League Goals

Conway made 18 League assists - Cairney did 17 - Rhodes did 15

Rhodes avr 7.42 in Game ratings - Cairney avr 7.46 - Chris Taylor 7.34

Cairney and Spurrs got 6 MOTM - Rhodes got 5

Kean, Kilgallon, Spurrs, Cairney, Conway and Rhodes in Team of the Year

Rhodes, Topscorer of the Year

Me, Manager of the Year

Hi Gents

Any chance of a 2015 Blackburn Thread?