Every player who left Blackburn Rovers to join John Eustace at Derby County after Lewis Travis transfer

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Derby County have confirmed the signing of Lewis Travis from Blackburn Rovers, marking the completion of the defensive midfielder’s messy Ewood Park exit.

Current Rams manager John Eustace left Blackburn for the Derbyshire club in February this year, ditching the former Premier League winners in their play-off pursuit to help County stave off relegation.

The 45-year-old has since stated Derby posed a better long-term project, highlighting having a much more open dialogue with the Rams hierarchy compared to those he worked with at Blackburn and Birmingham.

With the keys to Derby’s transfer war chest, Eustace has brought a number of his former Rovers stars to Pride Park – so much so that it’s been easy to lose track of just how many of them he’s reunited with. Now, the Rams have recruited his Blackburn captain Travis. If you have also forgotten who else has followed that path, don’t worry, EFL Analysis have made a comprehensive list for you to refer to…

Five former John Eustace Blackburn Rovers players are now at Derby County

Three players have joined Derby directly from Blackburn this summer. Danny Batth and Andi Weimann were the first to move across to Lancashire.

The pair joined on a free transfer following the expiration of their contracts and linked up with Eustace when the window opened.

Both Liverpool’s Owen Beck and Birmingham City’s Dion Sanderson joined Rovers on loan from their respective clubs last season, with the latter signing in January and reuniting with former manager Eustace for the third time in his career after their time together at St Andrew’s.

Now, the pair are back playing under Eustace after signing on loan from the same parent clubs as last term.

Travis ending his 10-year association with Blackburn for Derby marks the arrival of a fifth ex-Eustace Rovers player at Pride Park. The Blackburn skipper informed Valerien Ismael of his desire to join Derby a couple of weeks ago and has not been involved in games since.

Ex-Rovers player Ryan Nyambe is also at Derby, but surprisingly, he didn’t play under Eustace, leaving Ewood Park in 2022. Eustace is certainly getting the men he wants through the door at Derby, though.

John Eustace was frustrated by Blackburn Rovers’ recruitment

Blackburn’s reported limited recruitment and lack of financial backing from the owners, the Venkys, has been highlighted as one of the reasons Eustace left Ewood Park.

He appeared to be dissatisfied by his final January transfer window at the club, with him inferring he wasn’t involved in five of the six recruitments the club made at the time. Eustace left for Pride Park shortly after that.

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Ex-Barnsley and Watford boss Valerien Ismael arrived at Blackburn as Eustace’s permanent replacement in the same month on a three and a half year deal.

Rovers have made eight signings this summer, the most recent being Japanese forward Ryoya Morishita. Meanwhile, John Buckley headed for the exit after sealing a move to Saudi Arabia.

Eustace won’t face Ismael and his former side until November, but he did beat them 3-1 less than a month after his switch. In the meantime, Travis appears to be the final Rovers player he wishes to have in his squad moving forward.