Utilising The Loan Market

The loan market can be a hit and miss area, it can also be a frustrating area to work in but Blackburn Rovers did have some success utilising it last season.

As a result Gary Bowyer is prepared to bring in loanees again this season.

We had success with Todd Kane, Michael Keane, Tom Cairney and Rudy Gestede last season (Cairney and Gestede signed up permanently in January). Luke Varney also ended the season with us before signing as a Free Agent this summer, so we showed that we enjoyed the loan system.

It’s also benefited us in allowing players to go out of Ewood Park to play some football to work in our favour in the future or to get them off our wage bill (or at least see others contribute to paying their wages!!) for a little while.

Sometimes I find it frustrating to think that you are helping to develop a player for someone else’s benefit, however, this is the joy of taking players on loan!!

Mostly we do this with the view to buying the player, and if a “flexible arrangement” is in place a try before you buy option isn’t necessarily a bad thing, on the odd occasion I think you have to accept a player isn’t ever going to sign as they are too highly rated at their parent club but I don’t see why we shouldn’t look to make the most of them for a season or so.

Bowyer is still on the lookout for players this summer (he told The Official Website), however, our Manager has quite rightly said that he doesn’t think that we need too much more to this squad. I’m in full agreement as I think we’re more of less there.

It would seem that the loan market could be the road that we go down for the final player or few that Bowyer is looking to bring to Ewood and I’m happy to do this for the right players that’ll be right for Rovers.