With seven senior players leaving and eight more coming in, it's fair to say that the anticipated squad overhaul at Blackburn Rovers went ahead as planned over the summer.

One of those making his departure from Ewood Park at the end of last season, was striker Dominic Samuel.

The 26-year-old, who was a regular feature for Rovers during his debut season with the club as they won League One promotion in 2017/18.

He was however, then hampered by injury during his subsequent two years in the Championship with Rovers, eventually leaving following the expiration of his contract, having made 59 appearances and scored ten goals in all competitions for the Lancashire club.

After his exit from Ewood Park, it had seemed as though Samuel was set to make a swift return to the Championship, with reports in early August suggesting that he was set to complete a move to newly-promoted Rotherham United.

But ultimately that deal never materialised, with subsequent updates days later revealing that the deal had fallen through, with some suggestions that another newly-promoted side in Coventry - where Samuel had previously spent time on loan in 2015 - were also interested.

Eventually however, Samuel did find his new home, with another club he had previously spent time on loan at, in the form of League One side Gillingham, who officially announced the move in late September, at which point manager Steve Evans claimed the club had beaten off interest from those newly-promoted Championship sides to secure his services.

 

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Having been handed the number nine shirt by his new club, Samuel initially enjoyed a strong start to life back at Gillingham, scoring twice on his second debut for the club to secure a 2-0 win at home to Blackpool.

Since then however, things have not gone as you imagine Samuel would have hoped for.

Despite featuring in nine more games for Gillingham, the striker has yet to add to his goal tally for the club, even dropping to the bench for the midweek win at Crewe, which brought an end to a five-game losing run for Evans'.

It seems therefore, that Samuel may be approaching a sticky period at Gillingham, but having already impressed at this level, and bounced back from some heavy injury blows during his career so far, he should be confident that that is a challenge he can overcome.