Gary Bowyer wants his Blackburn Rovers players to “write their names in lights” against Liverpool in Wednesday night’s FA Cup sixth-round replay, yet the manager knows he is already facing a battle to keep hold of his most prominent performers come the end of the season.
Forwards such as Jordan Rhodes and Rudy Gestede have already attracted the attention of Premier League clubs, and a club in Blackburn’s situation, subject to a Football League embargo and under severe pressure to make the books balance, are almost powerless to resist.
“If you ask me which players will still be here at the start of next season then the answer is I don’t know, it’s as simple as that,” Bowyer said. “What we do here is work with the players and focus on their development but I’m not stupid, I know that when you improve players and they get better they attract attention from bigger clubs. That’s how football works, and I don’t have a problem with it, but the embargo is making life difficult.
“We have been restricted to 24 players since January, and in summer there will be people out of contract and off the wage bill and we have to find a way to make us competitive again in the market. We are working ever so hard off the pitch, linking with the Football League and trying to find out what we can and can’t do. A lot of work has already gone into getting us into a position where people are talking positively about us, and a full house for this replay should prove that. We are now being talked about for football reasons and not for events off the field.”
Bowyer ridiculed the idea that Liverpool are going through some sort of crisis after losing their past two games and expects his players to have to work even harder at home than they did in the initial draw at Anfield.
“It is ludicrous that Liverpool are being written off after losing two games,” Bowyer said. “Did you see who they played? The talk prior to those two games was that Liverpool might be the best team in the Premier League, and deservedly so. Brendan Rodgers doesn’t need me to tell him what an incredible job he’s done there. Talk of a crisis is crazy.”
Liverpool will be missing Steven Gerrard, Martin Skrtel and Emre Can through suspension but Bowyer does not imagine that will level things up either. “Brendan will be wondering which internationals to bring in to replace them,” he joked. “We have so few players we will be wondering about having to play the kitman, who has a dodgy knee. With the quality of Liverpool’s squad, we are massively the underdogs going into this game.
“We have injuries, and we have the embargo on bringing players in that is hampering us. We are restricted to 24 players and we can’t even play John O’Sullivan who we have brought back from loan. He has only been with us six years! But because he wasn’t registered for the first game he cannot play in the replay. He can play in the semi, should we reach it, so that’s something.”
Bowyer puts a brave face on the difficulties he has been working under since the Football League imposed a transfer embargo for breaking financial fair play rules, though as his players proved in the 3-0 win at Leeds on Saturday confidence and performance appear unaffected. Blackburn are expecting a full house for the visit of Liverpool and Bowyer takes that as a sign the supporters are back behind the club.
“We have proved in earlier rounds that we have the confidence to take on and beat Premier League teams at Ewood,” he said. “We have worked very hard to get a group of players who care about the club again, and our fans recognise that. We took 6,000 to Anfield and they never shut up the whole game. All the players were talking about it afterwards.
“A full house at Ewood should be even better and I’d like to think the fans can get behind us and help us over the line in the way the Crystal Palace crowd did on Monday evening. We are expecting around 28,500 and it has been a long time since Ewood saw a crowd like that. We are determined to give it a right good go, and if the crowd plays its part too we might be able to pull off a shock.
“When you are a Championship team there is a romance about playing bigger opponents in the Cup. Someone has got to win on the night and we know we have to try to threaten their goal. We are looking for a Blackburn Rovers hero, hoping a matchwinner will come along and put his name in lights.”
Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2, probable): Steele; Henley, Baptiste, Kilgallon, Olsson; Cairney, Marshall, Evans, Williamson; Rhodes, Gestede.
Liverpool (probable, 3-4-3): Mignolet; Lovren, Touré, Sakho; Markovic, Henderson, Allen, Moreno; Sterling, Sturridge, Coutinho.
TV BT Sport, kick-off 7.45pm
