Next Blackburn Rovers manager: Ex-West Brom & Barnsley boss ‘favourite’ ahead of Championship play-off winner

Blackburn Rovers look to be closing in on a replacement for John Eustace with the latest reports indicating the search has been narrowed down to the final two candidates.

David Lowe has taken charge of the last three games, with Blackburn beating West Brom and Plymouth Argyle before losing 3-0 at Swansea City last weekend. The Welsh club are also without a manager after sacking Luke Williams earlier this month.

Up next for Blackburn is the visit of Norwich City before they travel to Pride Park to face off against Eustace and his Derby side on March 8. Rovers remain in the Championship’s top six, one point behind West Brom in fifth with Coventry City one point behind them in seventh.

Next Blackburn Rovers manager latest

According to Alan Nixon, via his official patreon page, Valerien Ismael and David Wagner are the two leading candidates to take the reins at Ewood Park. Ismael first arrived in English football back in 1998 as he had a spell with Crystal Palace during his playing days. He took charge of Barnsley in 2020 and led the Yorkshire club to the play-offs before being snapped up by West Brom. However, he left the Baggies after just 31 games. He returned to the Championship with Watford but departed after 41 matches in March 2024.

Nixon reports that Ismael is the current favourite to be appointed and that he sits ahead of David Wagner, who is the other candidate. The German also has plenty of experience in the Championship. He won the play-offs with Huddersfield Town in 2017 as they beat Reading on penalties at Wembley. He took charge of 154 games with the Terriers as he kept them up in his first season in the Premier League.

He was most recently in charge at Norwich, but was sacked by the Canaries last May after they lost to Leeds United in the Championship play-off semi-finals. Ex-Wolves and Bournemouth manager Gary O’Neil had been linked to the vacancy but now appears out of the running.

Lowe reflects on Swansea loss

Interim boss Lowe said the Blackburn players were not happy with their display against Swansea and vowed to improve things for Norwich. He said: “The dressing room’s not very happy at all. The lads feel they should have produced a better performance but we unfortunately didn’t do that. We missed a couple of chances early on and then they managed to score first. It’s always difficult in the Championship when you concede first, but I’ve told them that we have to see this as a learning curve.”

He added: “It’s up to the lads to dust themselves down, pick themselves up and end this season really strongly to get a play-off place. Conceding two before half-time meant it was an uphill battle for us from that second goal. We’ll deal with the defeat and it’s a wake-up call for us because we have to be spot on in the Championship every week. If you’re not, you can easily get beat. We’ll get back going again on Monday and look to get a victory against Norwich on Saturday.”