Blackburn Rovers' transfer plan for January becomes clearer | OneFootball

Rovers have their plans in place ahead of what could be a busy winter.

Blackburn Rovers will target a winger and a striker in the January transfer window, according to the Lancashire Telegraph.

The majority of the major transfer business that has been done by Rovers in recent windows has centred around sales rather than purchases.

In the last window, Blackburn allowed star goalscorer Sammie Szmodics to realise his Premier League dream when they sold him to Ipswich Town for an initial fee of £9 million.

The other former Blackburn player that has made a somewhat recent move to a Premier League side has also done very well. Adam Wharton left Ewood Park at the start of this year to join Crystal Palace. His performances for the Eagles earned him a call-up to England's Euro 2024 squad. The midfielder was sold in return for a £22.5 million deal.

With some of the money that they had in their piggy bank from these sales, Rovers were able to splurge a little bit in the summer. In total, £2 million was spent on transfer fees, according to the Lancashire Telegraph, for players such as Todd Cantwell, Makhtar Gueye, Yuki Ohashi and Balazs Toth.

Off the back of that, and with a slight sense that a play-off push could be on, Rovers are looking to spend again in the upcoming window.

Blackburn's January transfer window target positions

The second tier side are looking to add a winger and a striker to John Eustace's squad before the end of January, according to the Lancashire Telegraph.

Despite the £30+ million that they will eventually earn from the sales of Szmodics and Wharton, not all of that money was realised immediately, just like the £2 million they paid out for the aforementioned quartet of new signings didn't fully cover all the fees owed to their former teams.

This means that Rovers may not have as much disposable income as some supporters would have hoped, but the local outlet has said that there is "room for manoeuvre."

In terms of the type of players that they want, well experience at the Championship level is a bit of a prerequisite for any centre-forward that they go after.

Blackburn have lacked goals since the start of the season, especially from Gueye and Ohashi, who started their careers at Ewood Park well before tailing off a bit in the last two months.

For the winger, pace is what they are looking for. Rovers thought that Amario Cozier-Durberry, the former Arsenal academy product that they brought in on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion, would be the one to solve that problem, as per the Lancashire outlet, but he is yet to appear in a Championship starting XI for Eustace, in part because of injuries.

They added that there are no obvious signs of players that could be moved on, but additions to the squad could cause a need for a balancing of the scales.

Blackburn need to try and take this play-off chance

It was only two seasons ago that Rovers narrowly missed out on the top six. As was proven by the following term, a position in and around the top six is by no means guaranteed in this league. That's why they need to try and make good use of their current opportunity.

Even with their lull in form since the end of September, Blackburn are only three points behind West Bromwich Albion in fifth.

That's hugely down to the strong start they had to the new season. It's now up to them to prove that the recent run has been the aberration and not the first seven matches.

Their strong start was inspired by the boost that their new signings gave them. January provides them with that chance to inject some new blood into the squad again. If that's what they feel is needed to give them the best chance of finishing in the play-off places, then they must go for it.