Rovers’ final act of a relatively busy transfer window has seen centre-back Tyler Magloire depart the club on loan to Scottish Premier League side, Motherwell, for the rest of the campaign.
The 22-year old, who spent some time on loan at National League side, Hartlepool United at the start of this campaign, saw his loan spell at Victoria Park cut short due to injury, after racking up ten appearances and one goal to his name.
Magloire’s first of three career loan spells saw him rack up a short-lived spell at Rochdale at the start of last season. That switch proved rather unsuccessful as the defender battled injury with being out of favour under boss Brian Barry-Murphy, with a majority of his appearances coming in cup competitions rather than in the league. Those circumstances led to him being recalled by Rovers, six months later.
In terms of his Rovers stats, Magloire – whose deal expires in 2022 – has only featured twice for Tony Mowbray’s side with both games coming in the latter part of the 2018-19 season, when Rovers were depleted in the centre-back department. His senior debut came in Rovers’ 3-0 home win over Wigan Athletic, which at the time, ended a seven-game winless run. That debut was shortly followed up by a 4-2 humbling by Sheffield Wednesday, which brought Magloire back to earth with the realisation of difficult Championship-level football can be.
Barring his brief time at Hartlepool and his injury layoff, Magloire has only featured in one game for the under-23s of Rovers this season, which came in a 0-0 draw with West Ham United, in which he played the full 90 minutes. The defender was also on the bench in Rovers’ most recent game, which was a 1-0 home win over Luton Town at Ewood Park, on the Saturday just gone. Whilst the 22-year old impressed in Rovers’ final pre-season game, which was a 1-1 draw with Leicester City, both parties believe that a loan move away from the club will help the pacey defender gain the much needed experience at a relatively high level.
Despite a deal for Magloire taking longer than both parties would have probably liked, the Bradford-born defender moves north of the border with the expectation of shoring up their leaky defence, which has thus far conceded 36 goals from a possible 24 games, as The Steelmen currently occupy 10th place in the SPFL, which in comparison to last campaign – which was curtailed after 30 games – where they finished 3rd out of a possible 12 places, is a poor drop.
As Magloire moves into a critical crossroads in his career, given his age and his contractual situation, this loan move could prove to potentially be his audition for a future move if things eventually don’t work out at Rovers. Alternatively, if Tony Mowbray likes what he sees from the pacey defender during his spell playing against a better standard of opposition than Magloire previously did, the summer could potentially prove to be a revival in Tyler Magloire’s Blackburn Rovers career.
