Blackburn Rovers, on Friday, announced the departure of club captain and youth academy graduate, Lewis Travis, who swapped East Lancashire for Suffolk, joining promotion-chasing Ipswich Town in a loan deal, until the remainder of the campaign.
Travis, who is a popular member of the squad amongst teammates and fans alike, has found opportunities hard to come by as a club captain would usually expect due to the summer arrival of Sondre Tronstad and the continued emergence of Adam Wharton among other midfielders within the squad. As a result of his drastic result in playing time, after the opening weeks of the campaign, Travis decided to seek pastures new in a bid to earn more time on the pitch. Despite Rovers receiving bids for the 26-year-old during the summer, the midfielder remained at Ewood Park and continued to be a key member of the team, which led to this transfer being a surprise for many supporters.
After departing Liverpool’s academy as a teenager, Rovers snapped up Travis, who successfully managed to progress through Rovers’ youth ranks, to the top of the tree, in order to captain the club where he has spent most of his career. Having emerged as a bit-part player during the League One season, then-manager Tony Mowbray proved incredibly impressed by the then-20-year-old’s tenacity, work-rate and no-nonsense attitude in the middle of the park as he played and learnt his craft alongside Richie Smallwood and Corry Evans – two players of similar ilk.
Since Rovers returned to the second tier, Travis has been a mainstay throughout all of the Championship seasons, as he continued to grow as a player, both technically and mentally as he began to further understand the role and took over from his aforementioned predecessors to make the midfield his own, as Rovers continued to grow under Tony Mowbray, before the boss’ departure in the summer of 2022.
Despite Mowbray’s departure from Ewood Park, Travis, who had made a combined 133 out of a possible 184 Championship appearances – with injury during the opening phase of 2020-21 reducing his tally – managed to do enough during the summer of 2022 to impress new boss, Jon Dahl Tomasson, who even awarded him with the freshly vacant captaincy, following the departure of Darragh Lenihan.
The midfield dynamo’s fine consistency continued as the new Head Coach began to evolve Rovers’ style of play, as the captain missed all but seven games in all competitions throughout 2022-23, as Rovers ended the campaign in heartbreak, missing out on an FA Cup Semi-Final and a place in the top-six for the first-time since relegation, being pipped by a point as Tony Mowbray’s Sunderland sneaked in on the final day.
2023-24 has been patchy for Travis, with him finding consistent first-team football hard to find as Rovers entered the winter months. Despite playing in the first 12 games of the league season – including twice in the Carabao Cup – he only clocked up 90 minutes in five of those Championship games. Despite playing in a sporadic number of games since, the skipper found it hard to get into a struggling team during the festive period and will be hoping to kickstart his career at Portman Road.
As Rovers struggle for form, Championship experience, squad depth and financial security, despite Jon Dahl Tomasson suggesting that the move has been motivated due to Rovers’ financial needs to balance their books and Rovers’ website suggesting that the club ‘looks forward’ to welcoming Travis back into the fold, in the summer; it is a wonder whether Lewis Travis will return to Ewood Park in the summer, ahead of the 2024-25 season, or whether he has already played his last game in East Lancashire?
The tough-tackler departs Ewood Park with a total of 224 games under his belt in all competitions for the first-team, as well as six goals and 11 assists.
Good Luck, Skip! ©️?
