Curwood Defends Blackburn's Chaotic Transfer Window

Blackburn Rovers’ new chief executive Steve Curwood has stepped into the firing line, defending a bruising summer transfer window while openly admitting what every supporter already feels.

“Everyone is frustrated.”

Four signings in. Seven players out. Three deadline-day deals collapsed. For a fanbase that expected a reset under a returning Tony Mowbray, it has not felt like progress.

Deals on the table – and snatched away

Curwood, speaking to BBC Radio Lancashire, insisted the club had not lacked ambition or backing, only fortune and timing.

“Deals were on the table,” he said. “Deals were agreed with players and clubs.”

Then came the sting. Other clubs stepped in late, offers were hijacked, and one overseas move dragged on until it died.

“We were gazumped at the last minute on a couple of deals, and one was a foreign one which took a bit more time than you would anticipate.”

BBC Radio Lancashire understands two of the failed moves involved Reo Hatate, who instead joined Burnley, and Brian De Keersmaecker, who went to Bristol City. Both would have added much-needed depth and quality. Both slipped away when Blackburn thought they were close.

Curwood pushed back at any suggestion the board had failed to support Mowbray.

“The investment has been there. There hasn't been a reluctance (from the board). There has been collaboration throughout the process. I think at the final hurdle we haven't been able to get them over the line.”

The admission that matters most to supporters came next.

“Yes – it's frustrating, we're frustrated, and Tony wanted that extra little bit of something which we haven't managed to do.”

Late appointment, tight timeline

The word Curwood kept coming back to was “chaotic”. Not as an excuse, but as a description of a window shaped by managerial uncertainty and awkward timing.

Michael O'Neill had steadied Blackburn last season, keeping them in the Championship while still juggling his role as Northern Ireland manager. When he turned down the permanent job in mid-May, Rovers had to pivot. They went back to a familiar face, reappointing Mowbray on 5 June.

By then, the clock was already ticking.

“Ideally your manager will be in by the start of May to work out where are we going for next year,” Curwood said. “So that timeline has been constrained somewhat, and then conflated by injuries.”

Rovers found themselves trapped between two strategies: move early and secure solid, if unspectacular, targets, or hold out for first-choice signings and accept the risk of missing out.

“If you want to do your deals early, maybe you can't go after the best players sometimes,” Curwood explained. “You've got to either wait and go for target number one with this risk, or cement one in the building because we know we can get him, like Jayden Fevrier for example.”

The club, he suggested, chose to back Mowbray’s selectiveness.

“We might highlight three or four targets, but Tony wants to make sure the people here want to be here and play for him.

“Was it the wrong thing to do to push for the specific players Tony wanted? These things happen when you try to be specific, but none of us want to just bring in just players to add bodies in the building.”

That stance will divide opinion. Some fans will applaud the refusal to panic-buy. Others will look at the thinness of the squad and see a gamble that could haunt the season.

Outgoings, balance and belief in the manager

Seven players left in the summer. With several incoming deals collapsing, that exodus looks bolder now than it did on paper. Curwood, though, does not see it as a mistake.

“You've got to allow the manager to make certain decisions,” he said. “The squad list was top-heavy. Certain players needed game-time, like George Pratt going to Bradford.”

Blackburn also rejected offers for Ryoya Morishita, Sean McLoughlin, Balasz Toth, Yuki Ohashi and Ryan Alebiosu. That resistance underlines another side of the window: this was not a fire sale. Rovers chose to protect key assets even as they struggled to add new ones.

The message is clear. Mowbray has been trusted to reshape the squad in his image, even if the execution this summer has been messy.

A whirlwind start – and a promise

Curwood himself is still finding his feet. He arrived from League Two side Fleetwood Town only two months ago and walked straight into a storm.

“It's been a whirlwind since I arrived – with a transfer window, an adminstrator going to another club, and a senior physiotherapist leaving,” the 54-year-old said.

He has framed the first three months in the job as a period of assessment and adjustment.

“The first 90 days will give me time to reflect and bring some of the processes this club need to improve where we are.

“We'll be in a very different position moving into the next window, and beyond that.”

That is the promise. Better structures. Cleaner processes. A calmer, more controlled market presence next time.

For now, though, Blackburn head into the heart of a Championship season with a squad that feels one or two players light, a manager who wanted “that extra little bit of something”, and a CEO asking for patience in the aftermath of a window he himself calls “chaotic”.

The question is not whether they meant to do more. It’s whether this squad, as it stands, can carry the weight of those missed deals until January.