29-06-2007 Premiership Preview for the 2007/08 Season - Blackburn Rovers - from PinnacleSports.com

Forbes magazine’s annual rich list of football clubs published in March of this year showed that ten of the top twenty-five most valuable football clubs in the world play in the Premiership. Their relative positions in that elite group correlate closely with success on the field, underlining the close relationship between spending power and success, the prevailing philosophy of ‘speculate to accumulate’ seems to hold true. The frenetic horse-trading of the summer months is the most important phase in the process of Premiership clubs reorganising and strengthening their squads, providing ante-post players with vital clues to next season’s competition. Keep checking the Premiership market at PinnacleSports.com to see where the smart money is going.

Blackburn Seek European Entry Via Back Door
Blackburn Rovers manager, Mark Hughes, will be recalling his players earlier than most of his Premiership rivals as they play their first competitive game on the 21/22 July seeking entry to the UEFA Cup via the arduous route of the Intertoto Cup. The competition first round actually begins in June and offers clubs who finished just outside UEFA Cup qualification places a chance of gaining one of eleven in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup.

Rovers commitment to the Intertoto illustrates how important European participation is to the club that finished 10th in last season’s Premiership. Blackburn have as yet held on to their most important players – Benni McCarthy, David Bentley and Morten Gamst Pedersen – but in order to retain top talent, clubs must be competing at the highest level, meaning European competition. The Intertoto does represent something of a gamble given the impact such a long campaign can have on the club’s ability to maintain performance levels throughout a long and brutal Premiership campaign.

The 2007/08 Premiership campaign will be Blackburn’s seventh consecutive season in the English top flight, during which time 6th position is the best finish they have achieved. PinnacleSports.com certainly don’t see Blackburn stealing Manchester United’s title, pricing them 207.09 to become Premiership champions.

Blackburn are one of a handful of clubs that constitute the second echelon of Premiership clubs behind the big four – Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United – but clearly it is their ambition to break into the big time. The Lancashire club have become the latest takeover target of an American business tycoon. US-based Daniel Williams is fronting a consortium that is involved in initial talks with the club, though reports have stressed that a takeover isn’t imminent, and therefore is unlikely to make a difference to the club’s chances this season. To date Mark Hughes is yet to make any significant new signings, so it critically important that he resists attempts by rivals to poach his best players, and thereby retains the club unity which has been an important aspect of the relative success he has enjoyed.

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