The 2016-17 season seems a distant memory, which will be the case as football never sleeps. As such, plans are afoot, most now in place, as far as Blackburn’s pre-season preparations are concerned ahead of the 2017-18 campaign.
It will be here before we know it and another tester for Rovers ahead of the 2017-18 League One season has seen a pre-season friendly against Sparta Prague announced as part of a training camp in Austria.
Blackburn will head to Austria for some pre-season warm weather training where we’ll also met the famous Czech side on Friday 14th July. The venue and kick off time are yet to be announced.
Of course, as with any pre-season friendly, the main thing to get from this is a challenge and the continuation of fitness being built up – a game such as this should tick all the relevant boxes.
This pre-season friendly will form the latest phase of boss Tony Mowbray’s preparations as he looks to guide Blackburn to success in the League One next season, ideally securing an instant Championship return.
Blackburn’s full pre-season schedule:
Barrow v Rovers, Furness Building Society Stadium, Saturday July 8th (kick-off 3pm)
Sparta Prague v Rovers, Friday July 14th (venue and kick-off TBC)
York City v Rovers, Bootham Crescent, Tuesday July 18th (kick-off 7.30pm)
Morecambe v Rovers, Globe Arena, Friday July 21st (kick-off 7.30pm)
Grimsby Town v Rovers, Blundell Park, Tuesday July 25th (kick-off 7.30pm)
Carlisle United v Rovers, Brunton Park, Friday July 28th (kick-off 7.45pm)
Don’t forget, the fixtures for the 2017-18 League One season will be announced at 9am on Wednesday June 21st.
Joe Grayson, Stefan Mols and Charley Doyle could all potentially be part of pre-season, in fact the 2017-18 campaign as the academy players have graduated into the first team, signing their first professional contracts.
Central defender Grayson, son of former Blackburn defender and current Preston boss Simon, Spanish central midfielder Mols and central defender Doyle are all 18 years old and have signed two year deals keeping them at Ewood Park until 2019.
All have managed U18 and/or U21 football for Blackburn and will hope to be given a chance to step into Mowbray’s first team squad in the not too distant future.
