While the January transfer deadline may have passed at 11pm on Tuesday night, the outcome of the window is still very much up in the air at Blackburn Rovers.

According to reports, the Ewood Park club are still waiting to receive confirmation from the EFL, that deals to sign Nottingham Forest midfielder Lewis O'Brien on loan with an option to buy, and 19-year-old Ethan Brierley from Rochdale, were completed in time.

Prior to that, Rovers had completed just one signing in the market, with winger Sorba Thomas arriving on loan from Huddersfield Town until the end of the season.

In terms of outgoings, on-loan Leicester forward George Hirst was recalled by his parent club, while winger Dilan Markanday has moved to Scottish Premiership side Aberdeen on loan for the remainder of the campaign.

With Jon Dahl Tomasson's side currently fifth in the Championship table, it will certainly be interesting to see what impact that business has on the club's push for promotion to the Premier League.

So with that in mind, we've taken a look at two things we learnt about Blackburn from the January transfer window, right here.

They need to start moving more quickly in transfer windows

Back in the summer, Rovers were the last Championship team to make a senior signing in the transfer window, which left them playing catch up to get their business done in the final days of the market.

That was put down to the change of first-team management, with Tomasson replacing Tony Mowbray, and the appointment of a new Director of Football Gregg Broughton, only being confirmed in the summer, and Tomasson did suggest that the club would be better prepared this time around.

However, the fact it took them until day 25 of the window to make their first, and so far only signing, does not exactly back that up, while the fact that those deals for O'Brien and Brierley went in so late, could prove costly to their promotion push if they are judged not to have been completed in time.

As a result, you feel that this is something Rovers need to learn from, to avoid these sort of situations arising and causing yet more problems for them, in future transfer windows.

 

 

They struggle to sign centre forwards

Even if those deals for O'Brien and Brierley are completed, the fact both players are midfielders means the window will close, without Blackburn signing a centre forward.

That means that since the departure of then top scorer Adam Armstrong in the summer of 2021, Blackburn have signed just one senior forward, in the form of the aforementioned and now departed Hirst, who failed to make an impact during his stint at Ewood Park.

As a result, Rovers now find themselves once again short on centre forward options, having seen interest in the likes of Joe Gelhardt, Deniz Undav and Ibrahima Kone fail to materialise into a deal over the course of the month.

It seems therefore, that with Bradley Dack (four) the only Blackburn player to have scored more than once since the World Cup break, this struggle for signings feels like a growing concern around Ewood Park, especially with Ben Brereton-Diaz seemingly coming towards the end of his Rovers career.