The leading scorer in the Championship is Sammie Szmodics. Blackburn will worry that he might not return this summer.
With 20 league goals this season and 26 goals overall in all competitions, the 28-year-old attacker leads the Championship in scoring.
Other teams will surely be taking notice of such figures.
In the FA Cup fifth round replay last week, Szmodics scored a goal against Newcastle, and his performance is likely what attracted the attention of teams looking to sign him this summer.
The 2024–2025 season will be extremely difficult for the team if and when he leaves Ewood Park, especially with head coach John Eustace under a lot of pressure to make trades.
With Jon Dahl Tomasson’s departure a month ago, Blackburn has already experienced a great deal of unease this year. A fascinating disclosure was made a few days ago by the new manager of the Sweden national team.
He stated to the Swedish publication Fotboll Skankalen: “The circumstances at Blackburn were challenging.
“They were making budget cuts.
“I signed for a project that was no longer there.”
With this being the case, it’s unlikely that Eustace will be backed heavily in the transfer market this summer, even if Blackburn lost their star man.
Replacing that many goals a season would be difficult enough if Eustace had big money to spend, but it will be even harder in their current predicament.
On February 24, following Blackburn’s 1-1 draw with Norwich City at home, Eustace singled out Szmodics and complimented his dedication to the cause.
The Lancashire Telegraph was informed by the Rovers manager that “I think it’s important that we give Sammie Szmodics a special message too.” His wife delivered birth this morning, and he didn’t get any sleep last night—he was at the hospital till two in the morning. When kickoff arrived at 2:00 PM, he declared he was prepared. He gave a fantastic performance today.”
That demonstrates Szmodics’s significance as well as how contagious his attitude is among the team members. He offers much more to the table than just objectives.
Between now and the end of the season, Blackburn needs that.
Beyond that, it’s likely they’ll lose him and that would be a huge blow for them.
Just look at Middlesbrough as an example. Boro finished fourth last season before they lost Chuba Akpom (the Championship’s top scorer in 2022/23 with 28 goals) to Ajax in the summer.
Michael Carrick’s side are now huge play-off outsiders heading into the run-in.
Losing Szmodics will have a similar effect on Blackburn next season, but the loss will not be one that sees them dragged from near the top to mid-table – it will be one that drags them, in the worst case scenario, into League One.
It’s been a dismal 2024 for Blackburn so far really and the frightening thing is that it could still get worse with Szmodics leaving.
