Blackburn Rovers are looking for a new manager this summer after Michael O’Neill elected to stay with Northern Ireland rather than return to club management permanently.

It was a gut-punch of a choice for Blackburn to make, especially because Rovers had shown signs of being a team capable of placing comfortably in mid-table under the Northern Irishman, winning five, drawing five, and losing five of the 15 league games he oversaw.

Nonetheless, the attention is now on who is available to take over and lead the team into the 2026/27 season. Coincidentally, one of Blackburn’s most successful managers has become available again this summer.

Indeed, Mark Hughes left Carlisle United in the National League on Thursday, despite amassing 95 points in the fifth-tier campaign.

It may have been 18 years since the 62-year-old managed in the Ewood Park dugout, but many Blackburn fans believe the club’s decline began when Hughes left for Manchester City in June 2008, and he remains a popular figure at the club as a result of the brilliant four years he helped oversee.

Blackburn Rovers fan pundit does not want Mark Hughes to be the next manager.

During Hughes’ tenure at Ewood Park, Blackburn finished in the top ten of the Premier League three times, including a sixth-place performance in the 2005/06 season, which earned them European nights in East Lancashire.

He also helped the club to the domestic cup semi-finals for the third year in a row, as well as the EFL Cup quarter-finals in his final season.

Motgan Gamst Pedersen, Benni McCarthy, and Roque Santa Cruz were cult legends at Rovers under Mark Hughes, and many Blackburn fans still remember those days, especially now that the team is struggling in the Championship.

FLW’s Rovers fan commentator, Simon Middlehurst, is opposed to bringing the 62-year-old back to Ewood Park, despite his availability after leaving Carlisle.

To be honest, I wouldn’t want him back,” Middlehurst said.”Nothing against Mark Hughes; he was an excellent manager for Blackburn.”He put together some pretty good squads, and we had a great time with him as manager. The players he brought in, European Night, and so on.

“But, the game is a lot different now; time has moved on since the last time Hughes was at Blackburn, and, to be honest, we shouldn’t be looking at old managers to come in.”The group needs to move forward, and we need to start recruiting new members. Going after Mark Hughes… I don’t think that’s the path ahead for us.”

Mark Hughes would not be as popular an appointment as you would have expected at Blackburn Rovers this summer.

Sentiment aside, if Blackburn hired a 62-year-old manager who had recently left a fifth-tier club, there would be some fury at Ewood Park. As a result, just because Hughes is a popular character at Ewood Park does not guarantee he will be a popular appointment.

As Middlehurst pointed out, the game has evolved significantly since the Welshman was in charge of Blackburn, and it has changed even more when he last managed near the top of the Football League, with Southampton, in 2018.

Next season’s Championship campaign is expected to be one of the most competitive in the division’s history, which means there is little space for error or you risk getting demoted. Rovers flirted with that menace last season and will not do so again next year.

Bringing Hughes back, while initially positive, is likely to sour fast owing to poor performances and poor results if he is found to be out of his depth, and the 62-year-old’s good reputation at Ewood Park will also suffer.

So, in the end, neither party would benefit from the hire, and Blackburn would be much better off seeking elsewhere for their future manager.