Blackburn Rovers Championship Odds: Tough season ahead

Blackburn Rovers had another topsy-turvy season last year but it exceeded all expectations as they finished seventh, only just missing out on a play-off place on the final day. 

Valerien Ismael did well to rally the troops to end the season with a six-game unbeaten run, but this looks to be a tougher task. Below you can find my Blackburn Rovers Championship Odds for the 2025/26 season. 

It feels like a lifetime ago that John Eustace was at the helm of Blackburn Rovers. His stock was going up and up as he took them into the play-off places before he jumped ship to take charge of Derby, with the lingering ownership issues causing long-lasting issues at Ewood Park. 

The Venkys continue to take the club further towards League 1, and it’s difficult to understand their long-term plan for success. Clearly they are short on cash and aren’t willing to invest heavily to help Rovers reach the Premier League, so it’s tough to imagine them reaching as high as seventh this season. 

Championship Odds

Transfer business

In: Sidnei Tavares (£1.5m), Dion De Neve (£700k), Ryan Alebiosu (£500k), Sean McLoughlin (£500k).

Out: Callum Brittain (Undisclosed), Joe Rankin-Costello (£800k), Tyrhys Dolan, Andreas Weimann, Dilan Markanday, Danny Batth, Jordan Eastham (all free). 

The business from Rovers has been tough to judge, but looking at the key outgoings it’s tough to be confident ahead of the new campaign. Joe Rankin-Costello was a key figure under Jon Dahl Tomasson but has now left the club for Charlton Athletic, while Tyrhys Dolan has also departed on a free for Espanyol. 

He has arguably been Blackburn’s standout player over the past two years and will be a major miss this season, with Andreas Weimann also heading out the door. Dion De Neve has come in but he is an unknown quantity, while Sean McLoughlin has Championship experience but isn’t likely to move the needle. 

Key Player: Todd Cantwell

Todd Cantwell remains at the club, and the 27-year-old showed moments of real quality as he helped drag Blackburn towards the play-offs last term. He will want to improve on the three goals and seven assists he bagged in the league in 2024/25, but now Dolan has departed, it feels as though the former Norwich man will be creator-in-chief for Rovers. 

Yuki Ohashi and Makhtar Gueye will be tasked with scoring the goals to keep Blackburn in the division, but the supply line is likely to come from the boots of Cantwell. After a tough few years, he looks to have found his feet at Ewood Park, playing 37 league games last term. With his wonderful dribbling ability, I’ll pick him out as Blackburn’s key figure in the 2025/26 campaign. 

Prediction: 18th

I just can’t get excited about Blackburn at the minute, and think they could get quickly drawn into a relegation battle. The only real reason I have them staying up is because Ismael did well at the end of last season with this group of players, and with Dom Hyam at the back and Cantwell at the top end of the pitch they should have just about enough. 

Football Odds

But if things go badly wrong, there could be another managerial sacking and things could look dodgy towards the back end of the season. I’ll go for 19th, but I can't see much higher than that in truth. 

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