Blackburn Rovers will regret letting Aston Villa seal bargain transfer agreement after Tony Mowbray snub | OneFootball

Back in 2018, Blackburn Rovers and Tony Mowbray had the chance to make a move for John McGinn and decided against it, which has proved to be a bad decision since then.

Going into the 2018/19 campaign, Mowbray had just got Blackburn promoted back into the Championship and was looking to build a squad capable enough of surviving the division, and maybe doing even more.

The previous Premier League Champions were desperate to secure themselves back in the second tier, whilst also wanting to build back to the big time.

With a massive transfer window ahead, one of the players he could have signed at the time was McGinn.

The Scottish midfielder had impressed for Hibernian in the Scottish League, and he had even played in a pre-season friendly against Blackburn, showcasing his abilities further.

Even though he was on the club's shortlist, the now Sunderland manager Mowbray explained why they didn't make the move for him, hence why Aston Villa managed to secure his signature.

Speaking to Lancashire Telegraph

"I know the people at Hibernian very, very well and there was a sense he was leaving. Celtic had been mooted a lot."

As well as heaping praise on him, Mowbray continued, as he said: "John fell into a category of where we were going to spend some of the money, how much on this position, and at the early part I didn’t really see central midfield as somewhere where we needed to spend a lot of money,

"I felt as though we were reasonably strong in that area of the pitch and wanted to spend it in other areas.

“John was on the radar, it’s good for him to come to England and test himself.

“It’s been a pretty common route to leave Edinburgh and go to Glasgow and the Old Firm but it was good for John McGinn to come to England and test himself in a league where he will get tested. I’m looking forward to seeing him.”

How successful has McGinn been for Aston Villa?

One of the biggest reasons why this transfer saga will hurt Blackburn fans is because of how much McGinn has excelled for The Villains since his move.

In his first season in the Championship, it could not have gone better as even though Steve Bruce was sacked after a poor start to the campaign, Dean Smith took over and McGinn was one of the most important players. This was emphasised by the fact he played 40 league games in the regular season, whilst scoring six goals and getting nine assists, as well as one more goal, which was the winning goal in the play-off final against Derby County.

He made the jump from the Championship to the Premier League harmlessly and carried on improving, as now overall, he has featured in the top division over 100 times. He remains part of Scotland's most successful generation of recent years, too, and is a stalwart for club and country.

The 29-year-old has now nailed down one of the most intriguing tactical positions for any side in the Premier League due to the left-wing and midfield hybrid role under Unai Emery, carrying the captain's armband too. No one really knows what Villa can go on to achieve in the league and Europe this year, but one of the main reasons why they can have such high hopes is due to the quality McGinn possesses.