Blackburn Rovers' CEO Defends Summer Transfer Window
Blackburn Rovers’ new chief executive Steve Curwood has moved to defend the club’s bruising summer transfer window, accepting the anger in the stands but insisting the ambition – and the money – were there.
“Everyone is frustrated,” he admitted, as he tried to explain how a window that promised a reset ended with only four signings and three high‑profile deadline‑day collapses.
Deals on the table – then gone
Rovers went into the final days of the window hoping to land several key targets for Tony Mowbray, reappointed in June to steady a club that only just clung on to its Championship status last season.
They thought they had them.
“Deals were on the table. Deals were agreed with players and clubs,” Curwood told BBC Radio Lancashire. Then the market turned ruthless.
“We can talk about morals in football, maybe there aren’t too many now and that’s what’s happened. We were gazumped at the last minute on a couple of deals, and one was a foreign one which took a bit more time than you would anticipate.”
BBC Radio Lancashire understands two of the failed moves involved Reo Hatate, who instead joined Burnley, and Brian De Keersmaecker, who signed for Bristol City. Both would have been significant additions. Both slipped away when it mattered most.
Frustration shared – but board backed spending
Curwood pushed back at the suggestion that the board had lacked ambition or refused to back Mowbray.
“The investment has been there,” he said. “There hasn’t been a reluctance (from the board). There has been collaboration throughout the process. I think at the final hurdle we haven’t been able to get them over the line.”
The frustration is not just in the stands. It runs through the football department.
“Yes – it’s frustrating, we’re frustrated, and Tony wanted that extra little bit of something which we haven’t managed to do.”
Blackburn made only four signings in total, a modest return for a squad that had already been trimmed, and one that leaves Mowbray short of the “extra little bit” of quality and depth he had been pushing for.
Late appointment, chaotic window
The chaos did not come from nowhere. The managerial situation set the tone.
Michael O’Neill, who had kept Blackburn in the Championship last season while combining the role with his Northern Ireland duties, turned down the permanent job in mid-May. Rovers then turned back to a familiar face, reappointing Mowbray on 5 June.
That delay, Curwood admitted, shaped everything that followed.
“Ideally your manager will be in by the start of May to work out where are we going for next year,” he said. “So that timeline has been constrained somewhat, and then conflated by injuries.”
The result was a window Curwood openly described as “chaotic”. The club wrestled with the eternal transfer dilemma: move early and compromise on quality, or wait for first-choice targets and risk missing out.
“If you want to do your deals early, maybe you can’t go after the best players sometimes,” he said. “You’ve got to either wait and go for target number one with this risk, or cement one in the building because we know we can get him, like Jayden Fevrier for example.”
Mowbray’s call: quality over bodies
Rovers identified three or four options for each position, but Mowbray was adamant – he only wanted players who were fully committed to the club and his methods.
“We might highlight three or four targets, but Tony wants to make sure the people here want to be here and play for him,” Curwood explained.
That stance came at a cost.
“Was it the wrong thing to do to push for the specific players Tony wanted? These things happen when you try to be specific, but none of us want to just bring in just players to add bodies in the building.”
So Blackburn ended up light, but with the principle intact: no panic signings, no short‑term bodies just to swell the numbers.
Outgoings, offers rejected and a thinner squad
Seven players left Ewood Park over the summer. With several incoming deals collapsing, some supporters have questioned whether the clear-out went too far.
Curwood does not agree.
“You’ve got to allow the manager to make certain decisions,” he said. “The squad list was top-heavy. Certain players needed game-time, like George Pratt going to Bradford.”
Rovers did at least hold firm on some of their key assets. BBC Radio Lancashire understands the club turned down offers for Ryoya Morishita, Sean McLoughlin, Balasz Toth, Yuki Ohashi and Ryan Alebiosu, a sign that while Blackburn struggled to bring players in, they were not prepared to sell off the core of Mowbray’s side.
A whirlwind start – and a promise
Curwood arrived from League Two side Fleetwood Town just two months ago. He has walked straight into a storm.
“It’s been a whirlwind since I arrived – with a transfer window, an administrator going to another club, and a senior physiotherapist leaving,” the 54-year-old said.
He has asked for patience, and a little time to impose structure on a club that has lurched from firefight to firefight.
“The first 90 days will give me time to reflect and bring some of the processes this club need to improve where we are. We’ll be in a very different position moving into the next window, and beyond that.”
The anger around this window will not vanish quickly. Results will dictate how loud it gets. But Curwood has nailed his colours to the mast: this was a messy start, he knows it, and he is betting that the next window cannot look – or feel – the same.
