Ipswich Town agreement that nearly backfired is now paying off for Blackburn Rovers | OneFootball

Lewis Travis has returned from his spell at Portman Road looking like a player rejuvenated

This year's January transfer window started in some seemingly strange circumstances for Blackburn Rovers.

Going into the turn of the year, the Ewood Park club had lost six and won just one of their last seven league games, a run that had started to see them slip down the Championship table.

In that time, the club's then head coach, Jon Dahl Tomasson, had regularly called for more experience to be added to the squad in the market.

It did, therefore, seem like something of a surprise when, just five days into the window, captain Lewis Travis was allowed to leave Blackburn, to join Ipswich Town on loan for the rest of the season.

Admittedly, the midfielder had found game time limited under Tomasson during that campaign, and even when he had played, he had not always been in his preferred position in the centre of the park.

Even so, as captain, Travis was one of the more senior figures in the squad, and with well over 200 senior appearances to his name, did offer some of the experience Tomasson wanted.

All of that meant that the decision to send the midfielder on loan, especially to a club much further up the Championship table, seemed like a strange one.

Indeed, that move to sanction the temporary departure of Travis to Portman Road, is one that would very nearly backfire at Ewood Park, in the second-half of last season.

Blackburn were almost relegated without Lewis Travis

While the Rovers captain left temporarily early on in the window, the final hours before the deadline saw the club sanction another high-profile exit from their midfield, this time permanently.

That came in the form of Adam Wharton, who was sold to Crystal Palace in what was a club record sale for the Ewood Park outfit.

Meanwhile, just days after the market had closed, Tomasson departed his role as head coach of Blackburn, to be replaced by John Eustace.

With Eustace, someone whose much more pragmatic style many sensed would have suited Travis, the irony of the captain's departure was increased by that change so soon after his departure.

In the absence of both him and Wharton, Rovers would struggle to find a suitable option to play alongside the ever-reliable Sondre Tronstad in the centre of midfield.

The likes of John Buckley - himself back from a loan spell with Sheffield Wednesday in the first-half of the campaign - Yasin Ayari and even winger Andrew Moran, were tried in that role.

However, none really managed to provide the same sort of physical presence and leadership that could be offered by Travis in that role.

Indeed, in fairness, to those players, such a job is simply not one that suits their individual range of attributes.

As a result, for quite some time, it looked as though the decision to allow Travis to leave for Ipswich on a temporary basis had backfired for Blackburn.

With Eustace unable to get the control he wanted in the centre of the park, the club were also unable to find the results they needed to drag themselves out of the relegation battle.

Instead, it was only a smash and grab 2-0 win away at Leicester City - who had already been crowned champions - on the final day of the season, that ensured they avoided the drop into League One.

Had they not managed to secure survival, frustration around the Travis deal would have been added to by the fact that, at the same time, he was playing a bit-part in Ipswich's own promotion.

But having managed to get away with the decision to loan Travis out for that period, it now looks as though Blackburn are reaping the rewards of doing so in the current campaign.

Lewis Travis thriving at Ewood Park this season

After returning to Lancashire in the summer, there was plenty more speculation around the future of the midfielder this summer.

Championship rivals Stoke City and Hull City were both linked with moves for the midfielder, who would ultimately stay at Blackburn.

That has certainly paid off, with that period he spent with a group of Premier League-bound players at Ipswich now seemingly bringing the best out of Travis.

The 27-year-old has been playing some of his best football since finally getting the chance to play under Eustace at Ewood Park.

He has been covering an incredible amount of ground from a defensive perspective, winning a long string of tackles and cutting out numerous passes forward to protect the defence behind him.

In doing so, he and Tronstad now look to have established a near undroppable partnership in the centre of the park for Blackburn.

In attack as well, Travis also looks to be a much-improved player, which has proved important amid the need to spread goals around after Sammie Szmodics' own move to Ipswich.

Having scored just three times in 127 appearances in all competitions in the three previous seasons, he has already found the net twice in just 16 outings during the current campaign.

His forward passing has also seems to have noticeably got better, with the best evidence coming in Saturday's 3-1 win for Blackburn at Cardiff City.

Travis played an integral role in the 41-pass move leading up to Andi Weimann's opening goal in that win, and was then the one who supplied the pass from which the ball was put in the net.

It was also his spectacular defence splitting pass that allowed Harry Pickering the simplest of tasks to put the ball on the plate for Weimann to get his and Rovers' second in that goal.

As a result, it seems that at both ends of the pitch, Travis is now producing some of his very best performances for his side, at a time when they need him to most, to avoid a repeat of last season.

With that in mind, while it looked a bad move at the time, the way things have played out recently, means the decision to loan their captain to Ipswich, may now be vindicated for Blackburn.