The Real Rovers and their indomitable SAS

Written by Debojyoti Chakraborty on October 23, 2018

1994-5 Premier League season was full of drama. Not only it unveiled one of the most unlikely winners, it also started the theory of buying success. Or at least that is what the general consensus was. But what was the real story behind Blackburn Rovers’ title winning campaign. As part of our new series “Hunting in Pairs”, Debojyoti Chakraborty presents to you their story and the tale of their iconic striking partners hunting in pairs here at Goalden Times.

The Visionary

Growing up in the 1990s had its own virtues. The world was free of internet, television was a big deal for most middle class families in India and even if they had one, there was very little in it for the kids of the house. Naturally youngsters got sucked into the boring habit of reading – not the online versions, but reading those hand-held books. And I was a voracious reader. So that’s how one day I bumped onto this legendary comic strip Roy of the Rovers. A few years later, when I came across the football club Blackburn Rovers, I assumed that this was the club Melchester Rovers (full name of the club from the comic) was based upon. However, it’s not true. The story of Blackburn Rovers is far more intriguing. After all, Truth is stranger than fiction, isn’t it?

The comic strip had started way back in 1954. It was around the same time, a Blackburn-born lad Jack Walker was taking over the mantle of his family business following his father’s death. He did not do too badly at that. In fact, he did great. And slowly, Jack built on his humble origins and made Walkersteel, his father’s sheet metal company, a colossal in the steel industry with thousands of employees and huge profitability. But before becoming a successful business tycoon, Jack was a football lover first. Having been born and brought up in Lancashire, the young Jack used to cheer for the local club Blackburn Rovers from the terraces of Ewood Park.

So, the supporter took over from the astute businessman when Jack donated building materials worth about £12 million for the new Riverside Stand at Ewood Park in 1988, in order to upgrade its seating capacity to 30,000. It was also rumoured that he sponsored some eminent footballers at that time. It was around this period that Jack sensed something was wrong with the high-flying steel industry and sold his Walkersteel for a record £360 million. Soon, steel industry went into the slump of 1990’s recession, and Jack officially took over the Blackburn Rovers with a deep pocket. The businessman gave way to a die-hard supporter who would go on a spending spree without thinking about return. He was only driven by his infatuation to turn this once famous club into the greatest and most prosperous England has ever seen.

The Jack Walker-era began with the appointment of the famous Kenny Dalglish as manager in October 1991. By the end of that season, Rovers secured promotion ending their 26 years of drought from the top flight. Thus they became one of the founding members of the FA Premier League by participating in its inaugural edition. Jack Walker’s first objective was complete. Now it was time to bolster the squad for the top-flight football in England. And boy, did they strengthen their squad!

The Hero

Alan Shearer was from Newcastle, about 150 miles away from Lancashire. But such was his talent, that he was making headlines all over the national football circuit even while in his teens. In early April, 1988, Shearer bagged a hat-trick against Arsenal in his full debut match for Southampton en-route a 4-2 win. Shearer was a good few months short of eighteen at that time and thus became the youngest ever to score a hat-trick in the top-flight football breaking Jimmy Greaves’ 30-year–old record. That performance alone was enough for him to be rewarded with his first professional contract for the next season. By the end of the season 1990-91, Shearer had become a fan favourite was voted Player of the Year by the club supporters.

The next season Shearer earned his maiden senior English call up and duly obliged by scoring in his debut. A strong season made it evident that Shearer will be pounced upon by bigger clubs soon. Title rivals Manchester United and Liverpool were firm favourites to land this precious jewel. But instead, it was Blackburn Rovers who splashed a British record of £4.05 million^[1] to sign Shearer in July, 1992. Shearer was a month shy of his 22^nd birthday. His best years were yet to come.

Shearer’s arrival showcased Jack Walker’s financial muscles. It also established the fact that Walker was ready to go to any distance to fulfil his dream. Walker was now the bully everyone (i.e. every other club) was afraid of. But Shearer’s first season was marred by injuries after snapping his right anterior cruciate ligament in a match against Leeds United in December 1992. Nonetheless, the signs were still ominous as he netted sixteen goals in 21 games in the truncated season.^[2] Dalglish led the team to a very creditable fourth spot finish in the league table that season. Shearer regained his full fitness in the next season and banged in goals for fun. He finished the league campaign with 31 goals from 40 games and was named the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year.^[2]

Off the field, Jack Walker continued to splash the cash to bring in quality players. But the elusive Premier League glory still eluded him as Blackburn Rovers finished some way off the eventual champions Manchester United. Something more was needed to turn the tables.

The Differential

When this story was unfolding, there was another young lad honing his skills about hundred odd miles south of Ewood Park. The lad was Chris Sutton who was vying his trades at Norwich City. He made his debut in May, 1991 at the age of eighteen and had a very successful next season where he made 21 appearances. He made it count in the 1992-93 season though. He made 38 appearances, scored in crucial times, finished the season with eight goals – second highest for the club. Norwich were leading the table for most of the season but eventually gave in to finish the first ever Premier League campaign in the third place.

Sutton the goal scorer emerged in the following season. He bagged 25 goals, became the joint third highest goal scorer in the league (Shearer had finished in second place with 31 goals); that too playing for a team which had finished in the mid table at twelfth place. Naturally, he was declared Norwich’s Player of the Season in 1994-95. Sutton’s stocks were rising as bigger clubs were taking a keen interest in him. None so more than Jack Walker though. He had analysed that his defence was nearly as impressive as that of Manchester United’s. But Blackburn needed more goals to make a case for themselves. Jack went for Chris. And soon Chris Sutton became the most expensive player in the English football history after switching over to Blackburn Rovers for £6.7 million ^[1].

SAS

In his first season at Blackburn Rovers, these two strikers – one from north and the other from south – complemented each other to the core. Shearer had someone to share the burden of scoring goals and Sutton could flourish in the biggest platform possible playing with quality players all around him. The striking duo formed a strong partnership which was lovingly nicknamed as SAS (Shearer and Sutton) by the fans.

Shearer was the true personification of an English centre-forward – a classic working-class sporting hero who can emulate the romance of Roy of the Rovers. Just like Roy, Shearer was also leading the charge for the title win for an outcast Blackburn Rovers. Strongly built, good in the air and venomous with his volleys –Shearer was a formidable force for his opponents and a true comrade for his teammates. Like a typical English centre forward, he was able to hold on to the ball through sheer strength and thus provide opportunities for his teammates. Add this muscularity to his aerial prowess and he would be quite a handful in the air with his 6” frame. But there was a touch of panache at whatever he did. His game was a mix of class and power. In his budding years, Shearer used to play as a midfielder as he wanted more of the ball. That is when he had developed a great first touch. He was very soft with the ball and could read the game brilliantly. With age, he could not be involved so much in the link up play due to loss of pace and stamina. So he relied more on his goal scoring instincts and played primarily as the focal point of attack. But more than anything else, Shearer was a master at sniffing opportunities and always managed to get into the right place at the right time. Give him half a yard, and more often than not, he will be seen celebrating a goal the next second.

On the other hand, Sutton was more versatile compared to his striking partner. He could play in the midfield, preferably in the number 10 role with almost the same effectiveness. Besides, Sutton was prolific in the air. He was perhaps the first one to combine subtlety with power in the air as he scored many goals with glancing headers, especially from dead ball situations. Sutton, the all-rounder, actually started as a defender in his early days. His defensive awareness was called upon more than once and he had come out with flying colours every time. Most notably, later in his career, with Celtic he put up a defensive masterclass against arch rivals Rangers in a 1-0 league match win in 2003. If only he could curve out his temper on the field, he could have achieved much more on a professional level, but that’s for another day.

Shearer continued his brilliant goal scoring form as he again grabbed the Golden Boot with 34 goals, eleven more than his closest rival. Sutton, too, chipped in with valuable contributions and finished the league campaign with fifteen goals. This was another great attribute of Sutton – he could play second fiddle with aplomb. And with different leads he could form a potent partnership, more on that later. Another very important cog to the success of SAS was the width provided by home-grown Jasson Wilcox and Stuart Ripley. They sure lacked the pace of natural wingers but they were masters of trickery to create half a yard of space and deliver killer crosses for Shearer and Sutton to net 49 of Rovers’ 80 league goals.

The season was a nail-biting affair. It was May 14, 1995 – the judgment day, final day of the season. Blackburn were leading the table by two points from Manchester United. But an inferior goal difference meant they had to beat Liverpool in an away game to secure the title. It was not going to be easy. And it turned out to be exactly like that – Blackburn Rovers lost the match by 2-1. But Manchester United did them a huge favour as they failed to capitalize on the table topper’s slip and could manage only a 1-1 draw at West Ham. Rovers had won the league, for the third time in their history, holding off the giants Manchester United by a single point! To think of it, it was even more challenging than today as every team had to play 42 matches in those days.

Throughout the gruelling league campaign, Rovers failed to score in only five games. ^[3] True, football is a game of eleven players and the hard work of the rest of the team was an integral part of their success, but eventually it was the striker duo’s prolific form that fired them to their long-awaited title.

The Lethal duo with the Premier League Trophy

The pair did not do much elsewhere though, both in domestic competitions and in the continental front. May be, it was Dalglish’s decision to prioritize the league which had evaded the club for 81 years. Whatever may be the case, it’s strange to justify such a strong team’s early exits from every knock-out tournament that season. To their credit, both Shearer and Sutton opened their account in continental competition in a 2-2 drawn match against Trelleborg of Sweden during exit from UEFA Cup (now known as Europa League) in the first round.

But the partnership did not last long. Sutton suffered a series of injuries and never really recovered the epoch of the title winning season. He made a mere thirteen appearances in the league next season and failed to score even a single time during his time on the pitch. In fact he scored only once in the whole season across competitions. Shearer though was in rampant form. He again bagged the Golden Boot award in the league finishing with 31 goals, this time from 35 games in an 20-team league (the first in history). Blackburn, the defending champions, ended up in a lacklustre seventh position in the league table.

For the second season running, the pair again failed to make any impact in Europe. As champions of England, Blackburn got to play in the Champions League this time round. But they failed to take a single point from their away matches and unceremoniously bowed out of the competition finishing at the bottom of their group. So, apart from Shearer’s personal honour, Blackburn finished the season on a dejected note.

The Separation

The mood at Ewood Park darkened even more the following summer with the departure of their most prized asset. Shearer had already gone past the century tally of goals in the Premier League era for the club. And that could not go unnoticed. So when his idol Kevin Keegan from his boyhood club Newcastle made a world record offer of £18.90 million, it was time to bid adieu to Blackburn.

That world record fee was justified by an astounding decade at St. James Park. Shearer went on to become a club legend scoring over 200 goals (highest in the club history) across competitions for Newcastle United. Shearer’s goal scoring wonders brought him numerous honours for both club and country. Quite simply, he is one of the best to have played in the Premier League – he still is the league’s highest ever goal scorer with 260 goals – and it would be very very difficult to imagine an all-time Premier League team without Shearer in it. But that title win with Blackburn Rovers remained his only league victory in his illustrious career.

Sutton remained in Blackburn for three more seasons. He did pretty well for the first two seasons when he topped the club’s goal scoring charts and even won the Golden Boot in 1997-98. During that season, he also got his maiden and only England call up. But regular injuries again crept up and he was a shadow of his former self in the 1998-99 season. Only 20 appearances across competitions and four goals – not exactly what Blackburn was expecting from their star forward. The club’s fortune also went down south and at the end of the season, Blackburn found themselves relegated from the top tier, just four seasons after being atop of it.

Sutton joined Chelsea to resurrect his career. The pressure of expectations, the hefty transfer price of £10 million, failure to adapt to a different style of play and series of recurring injuries – all contributed to a horrendous season for Sutton. A move to a less demanding Scottish League with Celtic looked like the right decision. And indeed, it proved to be the right one. Sutton found his mojo back in Scotland as he paired up with another prolific goal scorer – Henrik Larsson from Sweden. Sutton won four league titles and quite a few domestic cups with Celtic during his five-year spell. He won the PFA Scotland Players’ Player of the Year once and had a great continental record as well. Many of his memorable goals were indeed scored during this stint in the continental front. Celtic nearly won the UEFA Cup, losing it to Porto 3-2 after extra times in the final. Next season, Porto went on to lift the Champions League as well under the guidance of the same astute tactician – José Mourinho.

Sutton returned to Premier League briefly but had to retire following an eye injury in 2006-07. He made a cameo appearance of half an hour though in 2012 for amateur club Wroxham, playing alongside his son Oliver.

Blackburn Rovers found themselves in a viscous downward spiral. In 2017, they became the first Premier League winner to be relegated in the third tier of English football, League One. They earned their promotion to Championship next year but they are still way behind their glory days.

Buying Success?

Pundits draw parallel of Blackburn’s success with modern inflated market syndrome where trophies presumably, can be bought. The narrative has gathered momentum with the influx of oil money in the European football market. But there is a stark contrast. Jack Walker invested without any thought of return, in a sentiment which was not guided by business, only out of passion and sheer love for his boyhood club. And moreover, a look at Blackburn’s title winning squad demolishes this “buying success” theory.

In the triumphant season, Dalglish won the Premier League Manager of the Year, while Shearer won PFA Players’ Player of the Year and was named in the PFA Team of the Year alongside teammates Graeme Le Saux, Collin Hendry and the skipper Tim Sherwood. Did you notice something? It’s true that Walker broke the transfer records for his front men, i.e. for the most precious element in a game of football – goals. He also brought in Tim Flowers in a record deal for a shot stopper. But he along with Dalglish also discovered some hidden gems, nurtured some home-grown talents and had an eye for some bargain buys. These acquisitions were smaller, but perhaps even shrewder. Unheard of young Norwegian defender Henning Berg, the centre back pairing of Hendry and Ian Pearce, midfielder Ripley, striker Kevin Gallacher and soon-to-be England left-back Le Saux – who was having a torrid time at his boyhood club Chelsea – were purchased for peanuts. Add Jason Wilcox and an armband-sporting Tim Sherwood into the midfield mixer, and Rovers actually had a team ready to compete for the Premier League. Yes, money was spent wherever needed (up front and under the bars) but the balancing act was there to be seen through rest of the squad. Blackburn’s 1994-95 Premier League-winning side reunited 20 years after their success

BlackBurn Rovers’ most favoured starting XI put together – or as the naysayers would love to call it, “bought” – by Jack stood at a whopping £14.7 million. But have a look at their competitors. Manchester United had Peter Schmeichel, Steve Bruce, Denis Irwin, Gary Pallister, Andrei Kanchelskis, Roy Keane, Paul Ince, Brian McClair, Ryan Giggs, Mark Hughes and Andy Cole. Not a moneyball team, eh! This ensemble cast was worth a whopping £19.33 million. ^[4] Perhaps it’s a bit unfair on United considering the fact that they took years to assemble this squad and a much fairer comparison would have been in terms of net transfer spend only for Rovers’ title winning season. Even on this basis, United’s expenditure was more than that of their title rivals. ^[5]

Even other clubs challenging for the crown were not lagging behind. Newcastle paid more than the entire defensive unit of Blackburn to bring in just one defender, Darren Peacock, from Queens Park Rangers. Liverpool were even more aggressive as they bought Phil Babb and John Scales for more than double the amount for Rovers’ entire back four. Leeds United acquired the services of midfielder Carlton Palmer for £2.6 million, an amount which was enough to buy the entire Rovers midfield.

So it’s quite obvious that Blackburn Rovers splashed the cash, but so did others. What sets them apart is Jack Walker’s determination and Kenny Dalglish’s astute forays in the transfer market to unearth some hidden jewels. Dalglish was fundamental in instilling a fighting spirit among his troop. Their shape and organization on the field was a lesson for other teams. The players also filled in for each other. It will be fair to say that the season was a collective zenith of a lot of individuals who played as a team and punched above their weights. One perfect example would be right back Mark Atkins who was initially bought from Scunthorpe United for a paltry £45,000. But he made David Batty’s spot his own in the central midfield once the latter got injured quite early in the season. Atkins went on to make 30 league appearances during the title-winning campaign grabbing six goals.

Blackburn Rovers’ rise to fame is a story that can give Rovers of Roy a good run for its money. Dalglish inherited a middle-class club lingering in the bottom half of the old Second Division. He then won promotion to the new Premier League at his first attempt. Rovers did not look back and after finishing fourth and then runners-up the next season, the SAS duo finally landed their holy grail in 1994-95. Truly, fiction cannot even come close to that!