Blackburn Rovers made huge £10m+ profit on transfer but £7m frustration loomed: View | OneFootball

Blackburn Rovers sold Chris Samba to Anzhi Makhachkala for big money but had to use a huge chunk to cover debts

2012 was a tumultuous time for Blackburn Rovers after the recent takeover by controversial owners Venky's, and things were looking bleak, both on and off the pitch.

The club were struggling in the lower echelons of the Premier League table under Steve Kean, while they also had significant debts, and Ewood Park was not a good place to be, with protests commonplace against the club's owners.

In January 2012, some of Blackburn's supporters staged a 24-hour protest outside Ewood Park, showing the severity of the situation, and things would get worse in the coming months.

Chris Samba, the club's captain during the 2011/12 campaign, was sold in February 2012, hardly ideal for a club battling to retain their Premier League status. While they made a very healthy profit on the Congo international, the majority of the money was used to cover some considerable debts the club had.

Blackburn Rovers made huge money on Chris Samba but frustration loomed

Rovers had signed Samba from German outfit Hertha Berlin five years prior for a reported fee of just £450,000, and over the course of the next few seasons he proved an excellent addition.

Samba became a bit of a cult-hero at Ewood Park thanks to his commitment and brave performances, and he was a key player for Rovers as they became a stable mid-table Premier League side throughout the late noughties.

As well as being an excellent defender, Samba had an eye for goal, scoring 18 times in 185 appearances for Blackburn, an impressive return for a centre-back. Given Rovers' struggles during the 2011/12 season, it seemed inevitable that he would attract transfer interest.

That proved to be the case in January 2012, with Premier League relegation rivals QPR desperate to sign Samba, but the side from West London had seen a deal collapse, much to the annoyance of the player.

Understandably, Rovers weren't too keen to sell a key player to a relegation rival, but Samba handed in a transfer request, and it proved a messy ending to his time in Lancashire, with the player going on strike following his failure to seal a move away.

However, it looked like he'd remain at the club following the closure of the transfer window in January, until ambitious Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala forked out £11million to sign him in February with the window still open in Russia.

On the face of it, it looked a decent deal for Rovers as they made a huge profit of over £10million on the player they'd signed for £450,000 a few years prior.

However, given the club's financial situation, it was reported by the Daily Mail that £7million of Samba's transfer fee went straight into Blackburn's bank account to reduce debts.

While necessary for the financial stability of the club, it was hugely frustrating from a football point of view, with a key player departing for big money but barely any of that money able to be used for strengthening the squad.

It was no surprise that Blackburn were eventually relegated from the Premier League after finishing 19th in 2012, and Samba's time at the club came to a bitter end.

Chris Samba made a return to English football after Anzhi Makhachkala move

Samba's time in Russia was relatively short-lived, and after less than a year with Anzhi Makhachkala, he returned to English football and the Premier League, finally getting the move to QPR he had craved just 12 months earlier.

However, after QPR were relegated at the end of the 2012/13 season, Samba bizarrely returned to Anzhi Makhachkala, begging the question of why he even left in the first place.

After five years at Blackburn, Samba was struggling to find a permanent home, and less than two months after returning to Anzhi Makhachkala, the club put their entire squad up for sale as part of a financial restructuring. This meant that he subsequently moved to Dynamo Moscow, his third club in just a couple of months.

Samba would regain some stability in the Russian capital, remaining with Dynamo Moscow until the summer of 2016, when he moved to Greek giants Panathinaikos. However, he struggled for regular minutes in Greece, and would make a surprise return to English football with Aston Villa in 2017.

The Congo international played a bit-part role with Villa, playing just 14 times in total, and he was released after their play-off final loss in May 2018.

That was to be his last club, and he retired later that year, starting a coaching career which actually saw him return to Blackburn Rovers as an academy coach in November 2021.