TWENTY-FIVE years ago today Jack Walker announced Kenny Dalglish as Blackburn Rovers’ new manager to the astonishment of the football world.

Nothing was to be the same again.

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Bankrolled by Walker’s millions Dalglish led Rovers to promotion at the first attempt and then to the Premier League title within the space of four unforgettable seasons.

It was and remains one of the greatest stories ever told in English football.

And the player who ensured Dalglish’s Rovers reign got off to the perfect start has no doubt it was a story made possible by the events of a quarter of a century ago.

It is hard to say what caused bigger shockwaves.

Dalglish’s departure from Liverpool after 14 glittering years as player and manager or his arrival at Rovers a little under nine months later.

Hours after his shock unveiling the Scot watched on from the Ewood Park stands as his side ushered in the most exciting era in the club’s history with a 5-2 win over Plymouth Argyle.

Lancashire Telegraph:

Scoring twice that day was Simon Garner.

The striker’s reward was to be dropped for Dalglish’s first official match in charge, a 2-1 defeat at Swindon Town one week later.

It was a sign of things to come.

With his path to the starting line-up blocked by the first of the big money arrivals, Garner was allowed to leave Rovers at the end of the season.

But the club’s all-time leading marksman does not hold that against Dalglish. Far from it.

Instead he looks back on his short spell working with the man who restored Rovers to the summit of English football with fondness.

“We beat Plymouth 5-2, I scored twice, and I thought, ‘I think I’ll have done enough to impress the new manager,” remembers Garner, who scored 192 goals in 565 games in the famous blue and white halved shirt.

“But he only went and dropped me for the next game! I forgave him. How could I not? He was one of my goalscoring heroes. He was a great player.

“And when he took over the club he still had it. He was still quite young, he was only in his 40s. On a Friday in the five-a-side he was brilliant. He was still the business. It was just we could never finish until his team had won and he’d scored the winner!

“The players were all buzzing about his appointment. It was a massive story – and as much as a shock to the players as it was to the public. Nobody saw that one coming.

“It was down to Jack who said, ‘right, I want Dalglish, let’s get him in here, and I’ll let him spend what he wants’. Kenny must’ve thought, ‘I’m going to a Division Two side, there’s not as much pressure on me, and I can try and get them into the Premier League’. And that’s what he did.

“Jack had the money but I think he realised he needed a big name to make his dreams possible – and the thing about Kenny was when he came into the club players automatically wanted to sign for Blackburn Rovers.

“Before Kenny we had Don Mackay and I always remember he was interested in Mike Newell but Mike Newell wouldn’t sign for the club. But as soon as Dalglish took over Mike Newell signed for the club.

“Kenny just had this aura about him. Big names wanted to sign for him. Players were dropping down a division to sign for him.

“Obviously Jack was putting the money in but it was Kenny Dalglish who got those players in. I don’t think the club would have the success it had without Kenny.

“The manager we had before that couldn’t attract the big name players. So Jack had to go for a big name manager and they didn’t get much bigger than Kenny.”

Lancashire Telegraph:

Dalglish was joined at Rovers by the late Ray Harford, whose importance, according to Garner, should not be under-estimated.

“Ray was brilliant,” said the Lancashire Telegraph columnist.

“Kenny sat back and managed while Ray did all the coaching. Those two worked so well together and if we needed telling off, and Kenny had done it last time, he’d turn around to Ray and say, ‘right, it’s your time to give them a rollicking’.

“They were just the perfect team.”