Theo Bair is drawing notice in the Championship this summer. Based on the previous season, Blackburn Rovers will have a lot of work to do during the summer transfer window.
After a promising start to the season, the Ewood Park club quickly plummeted down the Championship table, and only a win over champions Leicester City on the last day kept them from relegation.
Sammie Szmodics, the division’s Golden Boot winner, contributed significantly to this, scoring 27 league goals. Indeed, behind the 28-year-old, Arnor Sigurdsson and Tyrhys Dolan were the club’s second biggest scorers in the league this season, with only five goals each in the Championship.
As interest in Szmodics began to grow,
A new supplier of goals, who can lead the line from a centre forward position that Blackburn has failed to fill in recent years, appears to be an apparent priority for the club this summer. Now it appears that targets for the role at Ewood Park are already being identified.
Blackburn Rovers linked with a Motherwell attacker.
Last week, The Daily Mail reported that Rovers are interested in signing Motherwell striker Theo Bair this summer.
Bair has had a great first season at Fir Park, scoring 15 goals and giving six assists in 40 appearances across all competitions for the club.
That looks to have piqued the interest of several Championship clubs, with Blackburn and Bristol City reported to be leading the battle to sign the 24-year-old. Obviously, the fact that other clubs are interested in the Canadian international will make it more difficult for the Ewood Park club to sign him.
However, one could argue that Blackburn may have a significant advantage in the race to sign Bair this summer.
Blackburn Rovers has two players that Motherwell want.
Rovers and Motherwell have already done enough of business in the last year or so.
Georgie Gent, a left-back, moved from Ewood Park to the Scottish Premiership on a season-long loan last summer.
He was followed there in the January transfer window by striker Jack Vale, who joined Motherwell on loan from Blackburn.
Both went on to enjoy successful times at Fir Park, and Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell recently stated that he would like to keep the duo with the club once their loan periods ended. That, in turn, might benefit Blackburn if they pursue a deal to sign Bair this summer.
Rovers have something to offer Motherwell, either permanently or on loan, through Vale and Gent.
As a result, that may encourage them to do a deal with the Ewood Park club ahead of those other interested parties, given the boost they can give their own playing squad in doing so.
Indeed, with Vale himself operating as a striker, it would also help provide Motherwell with something of an immediate solution, in filling the void that would be left by Bair. Not only could that help Blackburn to move ahead of others in the race to reach an agreement with the Fir Park club for his signing, giving them one or both of Vale and Gent could also reduce the prive they have to pay to complete the signing of Bair himself.
Given the need to strengthen in several areas this summer, and the fact that it remains to be seen if they will again be working on a budget in the window, saving some of those funds that might otherwise be spent on the striker, could be vital in other ways as well. With that in mind, it appears that if Blackburn wants to recruit Bair this summer, they must take advantage of Kettlewell’s recent statements against two of its own players, Vale and Gent.
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