Blackburn Rovers have been tipped to suffer a narrow relegation at the end of the 2024/25 campaign, according to a Supercomputer which predicted the league table.
The Lancashire outfit struggled for the majority of the 2023/24 season and were on a slippery slope towards the bottom of the Championship when Jon Dahl Tomasson was relieved of his duties back in February. Former Birmingham City boss John Eustace was the man appointed to steer the club to safety, a task he firmly achieved.
Nevertheless, it was quite a few games until Rovers found their feet under the new boss. It took 11 matches before his side came away with three points after an emphatic 5-1 victory over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on the first day of April.
However, Blackburn Rovers ended the season relatively well, earning further victories over Leeds United at Elland Road and eventually champions Leicester City at the King Power Stadium. The latter result secured the club’s survival in England’s second tier for at least another year.
While Eustace will be hoping to avoid another gruelling relegation battle ahead of next season, Blackburn may be forced to crack on without the Championship’s top goalscorer Sammie Szmodics who has been linked with clubs in the Premier League. The Republic of Ireland international bagged 27 goals and recorded four assists in the previous campaign and was directly involved in 52% of the side’s league goals.
The Grosvenor Sport Supercomputer has calculated the likelihood of Blackburn’s league finish last season and it makes for tough reading for supporters. The model is “created by a specifically curated code, works as a probability model to predict the outcome of every single Championship match and then simulates every fixture 1,000 times.”
The Supercomputer has tipped the former Premier League champions to go down in 22nd place by six points – Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth Argyle being the team above them. Meanwhile, it has also predicted Rovers to be joined by Cardiff City and newly-promoted side Oxford United.
Writer’s View
If Szmodics does leave Ewood Park this summer, Blackburn Rovers could really struggle once more in the Championship next season. The Irishman accounted for a significant number of the team’s goals in the previous campaign and, without him, certainly wouldn’t have avoided the drop. His brace against Leicester on the final day is proof of this.
However, Supercomputers work on current data. If Rovers manage to strengthen the squad over the summer using money gained from Szmodics’ potential sale and Wharton’s departure back in January, perhaps their odds of survival will drastically increase.
