They are the only side to have won the English Premier League besides Manchester United or Arsenal. But Blackburn Rovers are already facing something the other champions are not - the threat of relegation. JAMIE REEVES reports.
The club motto is "arte et labore" - by art and labour - but Blackburn Rovers' last two league games saw them labour their way to back-to-back 0-4 defeats, with precious little evidence of any art whatsoever. It wasn't always like this.
Founder members of the Football League, Rovers won six FA Cups and two League titles but had won nothing of note since 1928. In stepped local-boy-made-good, multi-millionaire Jack Walker.
Jack cared passionately about Rovers, even if he did spend half the year on the Isle of Man to avoid British income taxes. With the tax he saved he decided to invest in bringing Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish in as manager and giving him a war-chest to spend on players.
Success followed swiftly. In 1992 the team was promoted to the newly-formed Premier League, in 1993 they finished in the top six, 1994 they were runners-up to Manchester United. The following year saw them take the title on the last day of the season despite losing to Liverpool, as United failed to bury West Ham. The team that Jack built had reached the top.
And what a team - Flowers in goal, Le Saux and Berg at the back, Sherwood in his prime at the heart of things, and Ripley and Wilcox giving width on both flanks. Up front it was Sutton and Shearer, feared by defences the length and breadth of the land: 49 goals between them, with Alan Shearer notching 34.
But perhaps the most influential player in that team was Colin Hendry - crucial interceptions, lunging tackles, goal-line clearances, even scoring important goals. Surely Blackburn were here to stay. But the pressure was too much for Kenny, so the following summer he moved aside and allowed Ray Harford to take over. Shearer was sold to Newcastle for a club record 15m. Harford lasted only two seasons, followed by Ray Hodgson, Brian Kidd and Tony Parks. Along the way Rovers were relegated to Division One.
Another ex-Liverpool legend, Graeme Souness, took over in 2000 and things began to pick up: promotion as runners-up in 2001 and League Cup winners the year after. But this wasn't the same sort of glamorous, attractive footballing team as the days of Sutton and Shearer. The best players had to be sold to balance the books - Damian Duff to Chelsea, David Dunne to Birmingham. Rovers were also buying players past their prime - Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke - or taking a punt on untried talent - Steven Reid and Vratislav Gresko.
Eventually an increasingly frustrated Souness decided that the grass looked appreciably greener at St. James Park, dealing with the bloated egos at Newcastle, rather than trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear at Ewood Park.
Enter Mark "Sparky" Hughes, formerly of Manchester United and Wales and a man of no little strength of character.
Hughes, with no previous experience of club management, had done a respectable job with the Welsh national team - a magnificent win over mighty Italy being followed by failure to qualify for a major championship again.
Hughes was not an "ex-Liverpool legend", in fact the faithful on the Kop knew him as 'The Arse', a reference to his amply proportioned derriere, which he used to great effect when shielding the ball. However, he was known as "The Ledge" at Manchester, short for 'Legend', so he was half-way to filling the boots of Dalglish and Souness.
Things have not, however, gone well for Sparky. The team have won only once under his stewardship and the last two matches have ended 0-4 (against Middlesbrough and Chelsea), as the team dropped to the foot of the table. Tugay, the Turkish international, is rumoured to be angling for a move back to Turkey to join Besiktas, suggesting that the atmosphere at the club has been poor since Souness jumped ship.
A look at the current line-up bears no comparison to the great days - Dickov and Bothroyd in place of Sutton and Shearer - I don't think so! The club has little money, although the chairman has been promising Hughes some money to spend in the January transfer period.
The summer signings included Djorkaeff, Matteo and Javier de Pedro, all on frees, while the big signing was Morten Pedersen (who?), for the sort of money that Dwight Yorke used to carry as small change.
There's no question that Hughes genuinely cares about this club. He played for them briefly, including a magnificent, battling performance in the League Cup Final success over Spurs. He is intending to have a winter shake-up - Gary Flitcroft possibly to Wigan, Paul Gallagher and Jansen also to drop a division. But who will he bring in?
The rumour is he wants Wes Brown from Manchester United. But will the injury-prone "orange one" solve his problems? Cardiff City star Danny Gabbidon is reputed to be the main target, but he is untried at this level.
So the club are bottom, they have no money for players, they have an untried manager - and no sugar daddy to bail them out. Relegation would cost a fortune and could put them into terminal decline.
However, there is good and bad news for the manager. Chief Executive John Williams told Radio Lancashire that the club are "delighted to get Mark and he has the respect of the players".
So there - the desired/dreaded vote of confidence from the boss which the cynics say always prefaces a fall. Meanwhile defender Lorenzo Amuroso could be out for two to three months with a heel injury. You decide which piece of news is good, and which is bad.
* Jamie Reeves is a football broadcaster and commentator for ESPN and writes exclusively for the Herald on Sunday.
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