Rovers revealed they were putting plans to redevelop the Walkersteel Stand, which included building a hotel, on hold but were continuing to press on with a lasting memorial to the late Jack Walker on this day in 2001.

Rather than improvement works to Ewood Park, club officials were concentrating on building a squad capable of Premiership survival.

Ewood bosses revealed details of the ambitious redevelopment plans in June 1998. Proposals included a new 15,000-seater super stand, incorporating a 100-bedroom hotel and an exhibition hall, which would have transformed Ewood into a 40,000 capacity stadium.

The project was due for completion in 2000, but Rovers’ subsequent relegation meant the scheme had to be shelved.

And despite promotion back to the top-flight, Rovers chief executive John Williams said: “For the time being at least, we’ve decided we would rather devote all the capital that’s available to the team because we think that’s right. Clearly, there’s a time when, commercially, we would want to redevelop the Riverside.”

But officials remained confident a specially commissioned bronze statue of Mr Walker, due to be erected in a memorial garden in front of the Blackburn End, would be in place for the start of the new season.

“It’s hard to think of anything which might be a fitting tribute to Jack, but this is probably as good as it gets in terms of the nature of the tribute,” Williams said.

On this day in 2008, Rovers gave Manchester City permission to speak to Mark Hughes about the vacant manager’s post at the Etihad.

City made a formal approach for Hughes following the sacking of Sven Goran Eriksson, and Rovers reluctantly sanctioned talks after Hughes made it clear to the board he wanted to speak with City.

More recently, today marks three years since Rovers appointed Mark Venus as assistant to Tony Mowbray as the club prepared for life in League One.

The pair had previously worked together at Hibs, West Brom, Celtic, Middlesbrough and Coventry.

In 2004, Rovers scotched reports they were set to blow their entire transfer kitty on Belgian defender Daniel van Buyten.

The Marseille defender, who made six appearances on loan at Manchester City in 2003/04 before injury struck, was looking for another club, and Rovers were linked with a £4m move.

Chief executive John Williams said: “It is true to say we made an initial enquiry about Daniel some two or three weeks ago. We were interested at that stage. However, an enquiry is all it was and we will not be taking it any further.”

Other transfer rumours included a link with Egyptian striker Mido in 2006, with Hughes considering him as an option to be a strike partner for Craig Bellamy.

Twelve months later, Rovers were desperate to keep hold of Benni McCarthy, with Jose Mourinho stepping up his pursuit of the South African who enjoyed a sensational first season in English football.

Juventus came calling for Graeme Le Saux in 1997, though Rovers were staying tight-lipped over a reported £6m bid from the Italian champions.

Reports from Italy said the unsettled England international was high on the Juventus hit-list and the European Cup finalists were reported to have made Le Saux one of their number one targets.

Le Saux was considering his future at Ewood Park and had been linked with a move to Arsenal.

In 2009 Rovers unveiled their first summer signing, with Elrio van Heerden agreeing a two-year deal at Ewood Park.

The South African international was a free agent after two and a half seasons at Club Brugge and signed a pre-contract agreement.

Meanwhile, that came at a time when Sam Allardyce insisted there would be “no mass exodus” despite Chris Samba being linked with a move to Manchester City, Stephen Warnock to Tottenham and Benni McCarthy to Spain.