2009/10 to 2017/18

Blackburn Rovers spent three of the nine seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18 in the Premier League and five in the Championship, with one lower down. Their best finish was 10th, in 2009/10. They didn’t win a major trophy. Over those nine summers they paid £31.9m in transfer fees and took in £63.3m, a net profit of £31.4m. In 115.football they get City’s £900m instead.

Blackburn Rovers began this period as an established Premier League side, tenth in 2009/10, and ended it in League One. The fall came in two steps: 19th and relegation in 2011/12, then 21st in the Championship in 2016/17.

The sales tell part of the story. Roque Santa Cruz went to Manchester City for £17.5m in 2009 and Phil Jones to Manchester United for £17m in 2011, the summer before the drop. Jordan Rhodes, bought from Huddersfield for £8m in 2012, could not fire them back up, and Grant Hanley and Shane Duffy were sold in 2016, the season they went down again.

Blackburn won the Premier League in 1994/95, so a rich benefactor is not a new idea at Ewood Park. On 115.football the money arrives fifteen years later and on a far bigger scale. Keep Jones, build the defence around him, and 2011/12 never has to happen.