Next Blackburn Manager Odds: Names in the frame to replace the departed John Eustace

Blackburn Rovers are searching for a new manager following the departure of John Eustace, who has taken up the vacancy at fellow Championship side Derby County.

EFL pundit Gab Sutton has analysed the next Blackburn Rovers manager odds and had his say on 11 different candidates.

1. Gary O’Neil

Gary O’Neil kept Bournemouth up with relative comfort in 15th in 2022-23, inheriting a team that had just been thumped 9-0 by Liverpool, after which Scott Parker said he felt they went into the season unprepared, prior to being sacked.

Having become the second English coach to defeat Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, O’Neil clearly showed some potential in his time with the Cherries, before a stint at Wolverhampton Wanderers in which he probably found himself with the wrong group of players.

However, O’Neil has shown admirable adaptability at an advanced level in his career so far, and might be able to build something with the culture Eustace has already built.

2. Steve Cooper 

Steve Cooper would be an attractive appointment for any Championship club, having led Swansea to successive Play-Off finishes at that level, as well as steering Nottingham Forest to promotion via that route, despite inheriting a team that had taken one point from their first seven under Chris Hughton in 2020-21.

The Welshman’s excellent work in youth football, including winning the Under-17s World Cup with England in 2017, means he has high-end contacts in the game, more so than Eustace, but is also fantastic, like his would be predecessor, at bringing people together with fantastic people skills and leadership qualities.

The only question is whether Cooper would be willing to throw himself into a club that’s short in terms of infrastructure, at a level at which he’s already proven himself.

3. Damien Duff 

Damien Duff would bring a sentimental appeal to Ewood Park, having thrilled natives with dazzling wing play in the late nineties and early noughties, before the Irishman’s move to Chelsea.

The 45-year-old is doing a great job as a manager, too, guiding Shelbourne last year to their first League of Ireland title since 2006.

Work across the waters is fairly low-profile, though, so Duff might favour a move to the Championship to bring his career to life. 

4. Ryan Lowe

One way in which the Blackburn job might suit Ryan Lowe is in the sense that he’s somebody who seems to want to run the club and not just manage the team, showing a lust for operational autonomy.

In many jobs, that impulse might hold Lowe back - or limit his chances of getting it in the first place - but Rovers don’t seem to have much in the way of internal staff and infrastructure, so a club that has a slapdash approach to that side of the operation may look at a hands-on manager as a way of killing two birds with one stone.

Plus, Lowe’s record certainly stacks up on paper, having won promotions from League Two with Bury and Plymouth Argyle, and delivered competitive results on a bottom six budget with Preston North End. 

5. Rob Edwards

Having looked full of life, positivity and radiance for much of his tenure at Luton, becoming something of a hit with the ladies despite his happily married status, Rob Edwards looked uncharacteristically drained by the end.

So, having left Kenilworth Road, it seems plausible that he’s keen to enjoy some time to rest and recuperate before throwing himself into his next challenge.

And, if he was to go back in now, he may not want to go into a job whereby, unlike at Forest Green and Luton, where he had good football people around him like Richard Hughes and Mick Harford respectively, he’d have to take on more work on his own.

6. Lee Carsley

The remit at Blackburn is going to turn a lot of candidates off, especially ones who see themselves as more of a coach than a manager.

Lee Carsley seems to be very much in that category, because none of his jobs since retiring as a player at Coventry in 2011 have required much administrative work outside the training fields.

Carsley wouldn’t suit Blackburn, and Blackburn wouldn’t suit Carsley. 

7. Russell Martin

If Blackburn were to drastically change their playing style going into the last third of a season, it would be curtains for their Play-Off chances.

Having been among the favourites for relegation before the season due to a measly budget and off-field woes, the only reason they currently have a sniff is because they’ve had a manager who knows how to adapt to what he has to work with.

Russell Martin has proven time and time again that he simply won’t do that.

It’s one thing to employ an extreme, possession-heavy style of play at this level when you’ve got Taylor Harwood-Bellis at the back, but asking Danny Batth to play that way would be a recipe for disaster. 

8. Neil Harris 

It’s hard to see Neil Harris getting another Championship job, unless it’s with Millwall.

Whereas his stock as a Millwall manager is very high, based on his numerous achievements with the Lions, his objective stock as a football manager is much lower.

So, part of the reason he’s been able to achieve so much there is because he had a legendary status, initially from his playing days, that meant the whole club bought into what he wanted to do and he created a siege mentality, making the Den a place clubs feared visiting.

You put Harris in a completely different part of the country, where he’s not known, loved and understood in the same way, the buy-in will be more compromised and therefore his methods will likely be far less effective.

9. Sean Dyche 

If he takes this job, that pub in Burnley will have to be renamed “The Real Douche”!

Objectively, Sea Dyche would be a great appointment, and fans would probably revel in a Clarets legend being lured to the dark side more than they’d dislike his previous long-lasting association.

The 53-year-old has managed in the Premier League in 10 different seasons, and only been relegated in his first, 2014-15 with Burnley when they didn’t have the players to compete at that level.

In seven of those cases, he at least kept his team up, as well as qualifying for Europe with Burnley in 2017-18 and leading them to a top half finish two years later.

In the other two cases, he was sacked, once with eight games to play at Turf Moor and favourable fixtures to come with the team 18th, and January of this season, with Everton outside the relegation zone.

That sort of record is going to appeal enormously to Premier League clubs, especially those that are in trouble, so he might hold out for an opportunity at that level, as opposed to running the risk of lowering his stock in the Championship. 

10. Jon Brady

Although Jon Brady is a highly collaborative person who wants to lean on other people, and will invite a variety of perspectives into decision-making processes, at Northampton he had to do a lot himself - and did so extremely successfully.

In fact, many Cobblers fans see the Aussie as one of the best managers they’ve had in, in some cases, 50+ years of following the club - which results, and attendance records, back up.

Brady’s adaptability is perhaps his biggest strength, and he’s willing to throw himself into any challenge that comes his way, be it operationally or strategically.

The 50-year-old suffered injury crises in his stint at Sixfields due to a questionable sports science regime and, for example, in the second half of the promotion-winning season his side were without 10-15 players at a time.

However, because Brady showed excellent tactical adaptability, whilst fostering a culture in which everyone battled through in adversity, they managed to get over the line - and achieve a midtable League One finish on a bottom-end budget in 2023-24.

Brady’s out of possession work is respected highly among other managers in these leagues, and if he can pair himself with a specialist in-possession coach in his next job, ideally somebody with more of an elite coaching background, he could achieve something special.

11. Richie Wellens 

Richie Wellens’ stock has only been heightened by his Leyton Orient side producing a competitive performance against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, falling to an honourable 2-1 defeat.

The Mancunian has done transformative work at Brisbane Road, leading Orient to the League Two title in 2022-23, a top half finish in their first season up, and now a Play-Off charge in League One, all on a relatively low budget.

Wellens’ teams strike a nice balance between being aggressive and front-footed, playing good football, but also having a defensive steel that enables them to grind out results.

Sure enough, this season, the O’s have recorded a whopping 14 clean sheets - the joint-most in League One.