Tyrhys Dolan insists Blackburn Rovers remains close to his heart but again hinted he will look to climb the English pyramid with a move away this summer.
The 23-year-old is out of contract at Ewood Park and looks as though he will be moving on this summer. A host of clubs have been linked with Dolan whilst Rovers will do their best to keep him at the club.
He is away on holiday at the moment with his future to be decided on his return. Dolan will assess his options as a free agent which will undoubtedly make him more attractive to other suitors.
Rovers would be due a compensation fee if Dolan does depart. Whilst no decision has been made, he suggested that a move elsewhere could be on the cards.
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“I’m very grateful to Blackburn,” Dolan told The Times in a wide-ranging interview, centred on the death of his close friend Jeremy Wisten.
"I’ve been through some of the worst as well as the best times in my life while being there. The club means so much to me. I made my professional debut for them and they helped me so much when Jeremy died.
“But it’s a short career and I’ve always wanted to play at the top level, and at this point, I’m a free agent with the belief in myself to perform anywhere."
Dolan recalls his big breakthrough at Rovers, having been released by Preston North End. With no Under-21s team at Deepdale, it was first team or bust and Rovers took advantage.
“Tony Mowbray was the manager and he said ‘Who’s that over there’, and the academy manager told him they’d just signed me,” Dolan said.
“He said ‘I’ll bring him up with us and see how he does’, and I never looked back. Some of the older players said they couldn’t believe I’d been released by Preston.”
Dolan is driven by the memory of Wisten, who was his best friend growing up. Sadly, the teenager took his own life in 2020. That shocked Dolan and inspired him to become an ambassador for Go Again, a mental health sports charity for children and adults.
Throughout his time at Rovers, the winger has been key in the club's community programmes around mental health. It is something he has spoken about openly.
“If I score a goal Jeremy’s mum will message me straight away,” he said.
“And the mates I have who are no longer footballers, who are now doing normal jobs, will come to watch me play. Jeremy was buzzing for me when I made my first-team debut for Blackburn. He was the first to message me. He was so happy for me that I’d made it.
“Sometimes I get that survivor’s guilt; where you’ve made it but you really want your best friends to have made it with you. They’re watching you living your dream but it was their dream too.
"They love to support me, and I really appreciate that. But sometimes I don’t even like speaking about it, as sad as that is, because I don’t want to glorify it too much. I just know how much it would have meant to them to be a footballer too.”
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