Blackburn Rovers' decision to sign Keith Andrews, the captain of MK Dons, for a fee which could rise to £1million will, I assume, be greeted with hilarious incredulity by fans of Hull City who watched the Irishman's one season with the Tigers.
Andrews had been a long-serving occasional midfielder for Wolves when Peter Taylor picked him up for free to add some experience of the second level to a team which had been newly-promoted and was rather raw.
His knowledge of the division made him fairly untypical an acquisition for Taylor, who had always made a point of purchasing for the future rather than seek short-term gratification, unless the situation was serious enough to demand it.
Andrews was vying with Stuart Green for a place in the centre of the field alongside Ian Ashbee. However, a season-long injury to Ashbee put paid to that theory, a disappointment confounded further when Andrews suffered an injury himself which rendered him unavailable for two months. During the absence of both, Green and John Welsh managed to keep things ticking over with bite and creativity.
Eventually Andrews came back and became the Ashbee figure rather than the probing, pace-controlling architect of the game. This is why Hull City fans never saw Andrews' best work, and why he was rather bemoaned for the rest of the season.
Andrews was very much a 'square ball' type of holding player. He was neat, he rarely did something daft with the ball, but by the same token few of his passes were anything more than possession retainers. This was fine, but Ashbee had crunching tackles and leadership qualities which Andrews didn't seem able to replicate. The Tigers fans, missing Ashbee as the team struggled a little, were underwhelmed.
City survived with a degree of comfort, which was the remit, and Taylor left for Crystal Palace. Upon the arrival of Phil Parkinson as his replacement, Andrews was deemed surplus to requirements, with Ashbee's prognosis good and Dean Marney's arrival. MK Dons offered him a way out and Parkinson took it without asking for a fee. Andrews left with barely a whimper and with no goals to his name from 24 League starts. In fact, I can only remember him ever having one shot
Andrews has, undoubtedly, flourished in a creative role at the Dons. Promotion, plus captaining the team to the Football League Trophy, has made him unquestionably the most admired player by opposition fans and neutrals alike in the lower divisions but it is still something of a shock that Paul Ince, his old gaffer at Milton Keynes, has decided that this 27 year old semi-journeyman will fit into his plans for Blackburn's midfield. There is no doubt, judging by the evidence of Blackburn's performance versus the Tigers last week, that the Rovers midfield needs some reinforcements adding, but recruiting a lower division skipper isn't necessarily the most obvious method of filling the gaps.
That said, Ince knows the player well from being his team-mate at Wolves and his manager at MK Dons and clearly trusts his own judgement. I can't imagine Blackburn dancing in the streets over it, and I certainly imagine Tigers fans passing a few chortles upon hearing the news, but ultimately maybe this is the opportunity Andrews has been waiting for; previously his talents have been misrepresented by either not playing enough, playing out of position or having to carry a team. Now he's in the company of Premier League class and style, he may just prove inspired by it, and an inspired signing as a result.
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