We have a very intriguing fixture in the opening weekend of the 2023/24 Championship season as Blackburn Rovers welcome West Bromwich Albion to Ewood Park.
Blackburn Rovers are coming into this season off the back of narrowly missing out on the play-off places last season, with only goal difference separating them in 7th and Sunderland in 6th.
As such, expectations for this season were high coming into the summer but some unfortunate off-field circumstances have poured cold water over those.
Blackburn's owners, The Venkeys, who are based in India, have been hit by a new tax law that means they're forced to pay a 20% tax on any sum of money invested overseas.
The Venkeys were already pumping a significant sum of money into the club each month to service losses, but this now means that the shoestring Championship budget Rovers had has now been peeled back even further.
All of this has led to much speculation regarding the future of manager Jon Dahl Tomasson, who impressed in his first season in English football, as the club are seemingly unable to provide him with the transfer targets he specifically requested.
Blackburn have at least managed to bring in a few faces on free agent and loan deals with Plymouth forward Niall Ennis joining on a free alongside Sondre Tronstad from Vitesse, and attacking midfielder Arnór Sigurðsson joining on loan from CSKA Moscow.
But Rovers have also been active in terms of departures with key goalscorer Ben Brereton Diaz joining Villarreal on a free transfer with Bradley Dack also leaving for Sunderland on a free.
The club still have some impressive talents in their ranks, most notably 19-year-old midfielder Adam Wharton who is being closely monitored by a number of Premier League clubs, and they'll likely have to hope their youth can meaningfully contribute this year if they are to make a real push for the play-offs.
Unless they can find some money to invest before the end of the window Rovers are likely on for a mid-table finish but they'll be competitive with most teams they face.
As far as this game is concerned they're a tough cookie to beat at home and took four point from West Brom last season, winning this fixture 2-1.
West Brom are entering this season in a similar vein to Blackburn minus the off-field circumstances.
Last season was an ultimately underwhelming one for The Baggies who entered the campaign as one of the favourites for promotion but ultimately had to settle for a 9th place finish.
Much of that owed to a poor start to the campaign under Steve Bruce, but while they showed a lot of promise in the early tenure of manager Carlos Corberán they ended up a mediocre, inconsistent outfit.
As a result there are still a number of question marks surrounding The Baggies coming into this campaign and it feels like their potential ceiling and potential floor are quite far apart.
In terms of transfers they've lost centre-back Dara O'Shea to Burnley which is a blow, but they've signed forward Josh Maja from Bordeaux and winger Jeremy Sarmiento on loan from Brighton.
As of now they're probably a pretty similar level on paper to what they were last season so much of their campaign will depend on if Corberán can extract more from his side this season than he managed last time around.
West Brom will be an interesting side to follow this campaign and we'll likely learn a lot about them in the early weeks of the season.
On paper they'll fancy their chances of a result here but Blackburn will be tough to turn over on their own patch.
For our Blackburn Rovers vs. West Brom prediction, we're going for a 1-1 draw.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of our previews, tips and offers for this weekend’s action.