Mark Atkins: Premier League winner to play-off heartache with Wolves

It’s not an exhaustive list, but there have been a few.

Darren Ferguson, Paul Ince and Denis Irwin from Manchester United.  Oleg Luzhny and Jeremie Aliadiere – on loan - from Arsenal.

And, from Blackburn Rovers, Robbie Slater, another who moved to Molineux on loan, Bobby Mimms – who served as goalkeeper coach at Wolves - and Mark Atkins.   Blackburn also had Tim Flowers, who did it in reverse, starting his career at Wolves and going on to become a Premier League winner, just as Joleon Lescott did with Manchester City.

It is 30 years since the team from the East Lancashire town delivered one of the more romantic tales of the Premier League era, wrestling the title away from Manchester United’s dominance to become champions of England for the first time in 81 years.

As a similar forerunner to the remarkable title triumph achieved by Leicester 21 years later – the two are still the only non ‘Big 5’ representatives to have claimed the trophy – Blackburn had been in the Championship very recently prior to top-flight success, but had flown on the crest of the Jack Walker wave.

The Blackburn-born businessman and industrialist bankrolled a major investment into the Rovers squad, bringing in the likes of Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton, and, with Kenny Dalglish as manager, eventually it paid dividends.

For Atkins, nicknamed ‘Super Atko’ as a result of his substantial contribution during the season, the title win would actually prove to be his last Blackburn stand prior to joining Wolves.

“After getting promoted, we’d finished fourth and then second in the topflight so I wouldn’t say it was a surprise that we were in contention,” he recalls.

“Of course, it was still one of those fairytales that can happen in football, not just for the team but for me as well.

“When I first moved to the club, it was from Scunthorpe in the Fourth Division, so it was a big step up, especially as Blackburn had been in the Championship play-offs so were at the top end of the division.

“I got straight in the team, played 60 games in my first season and it all went on from there.

“As soon as Jack Walker got involved, I think we knew something special was going to happen.

“He was so passionate about the football club and wanted to take it to where it actually got to in the end – so all credit to him for that.

“Kenny coming in changed things, and then bringing in such top players, it was like a different world.

“It raised the standards massively, and meant that those of us already there had to improve, and that was the one thing I always remember about Kenny.

“If you played well, whoever you were, and however much you had cost, he would keep you in the team.

“He was very loyal to players who did what he wanted them to, and I always knew I had to give 100 per cent in each and every game and training session to keep myself out there.”

On this week three decades ago, Atkins scored in successive games in crucial wins against Sheffield Wednesday and Wimbledon.

As a box-to-box midfielder, hugely effective at both ends of the pitch, his total of six goals for that 1994/95 season made him third top scorer behind Shearer (37) and Sutton (15).

And, this Wolves week now back in the present, prompts plenty of happy memories from Atkins’ career.

First of all, for obvious reasons, last weekend’s FA Cup tie between Blackburn and Wolves, for which he was part of the BBC Lancashire commentary team.

Then, this weekend, Sunday’s trip to Anfield, the venue where Rovers clinched the Premier League despite defeat, as the chasing Manchester United failed to win at West Ham.

As mentioned, it was only a few months after Atkins picked up his Premier League medal that he moved to Wolves, for £1million, in September of 1995.

But his flirtations with all things Wolves weren’t confined just to the four years spent at Molineux as a player.