The previous season had ended on a high with a sixth placed finish clinched in style with a 4-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane.
Then things started to happen thanks to Roman Abramovich taking over at Chelsea. The Russian's wealth meant the London club had no problem meeting the A$32 million release clause in the contract of Damian Duff, Blackburn's best attacking player.
Nobody had imagined that this would happen a year earlier when it was inserted after the Irish winger's starring role at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and it was a big blow. Then another player, David Dunn, who had also come up through the ranks, left for Birmingham in another big money move.
The news then that Rovers were leading the chase for Brett Emerton was welcome.
Newcastle had an offer of AUS$15 million rejected by Feyenoord the year before, shortly after the Rotterdam club had won the UEFA Cup, but in 2003 Emerton had just a year left on his contract. The price then was reduced to around $4 million.
Tottenham and Middlesbrough also wanted the Aussie - in the kind of transfer chase that you don’t get so much these days - but with Blackburn, and then-coach Graeme Souness, happy to offer the player his preferred right midfield spot, he chose Ewood Park.
Then followed perhaps the second best debut of any Blackburn Rovers player in living memory, with Alan Shearer’s two world-class strikes in his first appearance in the famous blue and white shirt back in 1992 hard to dislodge from the number one spot.
Emerton's first appearance came on the opening day of the 2003-04 Premier League season at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers and it has entered into legend.
Rovers ended up 5-1 winners on a day when the new season seemed full of possibility. Emerton was the standout player in a standout team performance.
His goal, a beautiful strike from outside the area, was just the icing on a very appetising cake - intelligent, incisive and incredible.
“His debut was terrific and that goal really seemed to signify that we had signed a world-class player,” Ian Herbert, Blackburn Rovers columnist at the Accrington Observer, told The World Game. “I was right behind the line of the goal and it was obviously going in from the moment it left his boot.”
Full of running, intelligence and the ability to score wonderful goals, Rovers had a new star.
If there was any downside to the performance it was that Emerton had set the standard so high, it was going to be a struggle to maintain it, as Herbert explains.
"He never quite lived up to that early promise but he was an excellent addition to the squad, his versatility in particular proving to be a real asset.”
Emerton grew into a solid, respected and consistent player at Blackburn. In 2006, Middlesbrough came calling but Emerton decided to stay. Rovers boss at the time Mark Hughes was a happy man.
“He's a player who gives me a lot of options,” said the soon-to-be Manchester City coach. “He is very versatile in that he can play wide, at full-back and he can make breaks from the centre of the park.
"He has the ability to carry the ball from one end of the field to the other, and that's why other teams have coveted him this summer."
In his eight years and almost 300 appearances, Emerton was a consistent and valued member of the club that held its own in the Premier League. His final season ended with a vital goal in the final game, also against Wolverhampton.
“On balance, he was a really strong signing and pretty much universally popular," said Herbert. "He always gave his all but his debut was so good there was a lingering disappointment that he never bettered that first game.
"He chipped in with some very handy goals - Wolves away to keep us up - and was a handy right-back when required.”
So highly was Emerton thought of by the club that by the time he was ready to leave in 2011, he was allowed a free transfer back home to join Sydney FC.
“When he left there was a sense that it had run its course," Herbert said. "But he will be fondly remembered by all Rovers fans and very warmly remembered by some, me amongst them.”
