A dark day

Crap manager Paul Ince is in talks with League One MK Dons, the club he left to join Rovers after the worst appointment in Rovers’ history since Brian Kidd.

Fair play to the lad. He left Rovers early on in his Premiership management career having proved he is a long way from having the qualities required to succeed at this level.

However, Pete Winkelman has obviously not let that cloud his vision of the man who led his side to promotion and the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in his only season as the club’s manager.

I quite like Pete Winkelman, he seems a nice chap when he’s interviewed and he obviously loves his football team.

The Rovers Return would like to wish Paul Ince all the best. Despite the bad memories of his time here at Ewood, he was clearly out of his depth, and I hope the MK Dons give him his chance of a return to management and, if he is successful again, he hangs around longer to get the experience he needs to succeed!

- But will he pay £40-million? Lancashire Telegraph

- Ince to take over at Norwich? Sky Sports

- Zoro decision soon Daily Mirror

- Huddersfield bid for Gallagher? Terrior Bites

- Legend Jansen in Carlisle bid to save his career Sky Sports

I’ll start from the end. Ie the match!

An absolutely terrific performance from a team bearing no resemblance to the one we saw every week under Paul Ince. Not in terms of the players on the pitch, who were largely the same as we’re used to seeing, but in terms of performance.

We looked a team with confidence, belief, passion and, probably most important of all, quality!

Whether this is a case of new manager syndrome is yet to be seen. But Allardyce has been welcomed by the fans, hopefully he’ll forgive us for the ridiculously fickle treatment we’ve given him, indeed, he was no good for us whatsoever back in the Summer! He also appears to have been welcomed by the players judging by this performance.

Not one player had a bad game and we dominated from start to finish. If you didn’t see the game then don’t believe Tony Pulis’ inexplicable comments on Sky Sports.

“We started really well and the stats say that they got in our box three times and scored three goals,”

The lying tosser, I don’t know which game he watched but it didn’t involve Blackburn or Stoke. We scored three goals, Benni could have hit a hattrick after his shot from the edge of the box hit the post and went wide, while Roberts had two one-on-ones with the keeper but somehow allowed Simonsen to save on both occasions.

This was a game we could have won by a much higher margin, unfortunately we didn’t take all our chances, but we took three!

On to this weeks events.

Paul Ince had to go. I stuck by him as long as I could. However, after all the talk following the Liverpool game about how we were getting behind the manager, player meetings at training and all that jazz, it seemed things could be looking up.

With a string of highly winnable games coming up, all the talk was of how we could get a few wins under our belt and turn the season around.

Twelve minutes into the game at the JJB it became apparent all that was complete bollocks!

Paul Ince had lost the dressing room. Fact. The players weren’t interested. They were more bothered about their Christmas piss up in Dublin, which showed even more their lack of support for the Guv’nor when all but two pissed off to the Irish capital (the two being Santa and Tugay) when their gaffer needed them most.

With Ince gone, the question of who would succeed was a difficult one. Fans were split over which of the seemingly mediocre options would be best suited to the Rovers. Souness was favourite, even though he was never approached. Williams wanted Allardyce all along and he got his man within 24 hours.

Allardyce is the right man for the job. He’s remembered too much for his unsuccessful spell at Newcastle. That job is a complete contrast to the one he has undertaken at Ewood and did so well previously at Wanky Wanderers.

With Newcastle he had to handle huge transfer budgets and ridiculously inflated expectations, brought on by a huge fan base desperate for their team to challenge at the highest level, which is just unrealistic.

At Rovers, he is presented with the humble task of keeping our club in the Premier League, effectively keeping it alive, on a meagre budget. Indications are, without the sale of a major player, the transfer budget will be between four and 10 million pounds!

To sum up. After Saturday’s performance I’m feeling confident we may have turned a corner. However, there is always that element of ‘new manager syndrome’, even Paul Ince won his first league game in charge.

The next five or six games are absolutely crucial!

However, it’s match day, and that undying enthusiasm and optimism that fills every football supporter on the day of a game has returned. Whether you’re Grimsby playing Real Madrid, or Rovers playing Wigan, you always believe your team will come up trumps!

Today is very much make or break for the Guv’nor. The game at Wigan sees us start a huge run of games, all of which are very much winnable!

Yes, we haven’t won in ten, but we must take heart from the fact that run included games against United, Chelsea, Aston Villa, a resurgent Tottenham and Portsmouth, then Liverpool last week. The Liverpool game could have been something of a turning point. We played with character and strength, the fans got behind the team and we controlled the game in periods, the game put beyond our reach as we went all out for the equaliser and got caught on the break.

The run we are about to embark on sees us play Wigan, Stoke, Sunderland, Man City, Fulham, Newcastle, Bolton and Middlesbrough.

With the exception of money bags City, these are all games we know we should win and will be disappointed not to. The City game would be nice to see us take a point!

On to today. I do believe a win is not essential. It is an away game and, although we should be looking to take all three points, a draw would do wonders for the team. Having lost six games on the bounce all it takes is for us to avoid defeat, get the confidence back up, and we can storm into next week’s game against Stoke with tvery chance of a solid victory.

Having said that, a win would be nice!

Wigan are a decent side. Heskey is always a threat, a player I’ve seen us being linked with in some quarters, as well as Zaki and Valencia who have both played well this season.

Rovers aren’t looking too bad. Dunn returns from injury in an addition to recent squads. Fowler needs to be absent from the squad altogether, get Roque and Benni upfront. Two men in attack. We don’t need to have five in midfield against Wigan!

Come on Rovers, and come on the fans! Get behind the team, including Paul Ince, if we win a couple of games here it’ll be a totally different story!

My prediction:

3-1 to Rovers!

Why do you think it is that Paul Ince is being written off as a manager only a few games into his first job in the Premier League?

Why do you think nobody’s cutting him the same kind of slack we cut Roy Keane, even though Keane’s spent 10 times as much money?

Why do you think Ince is characterised as a novice when he stands up for his team while other bosses doing the same are praised for their passion?

Why do you think nobody’s mentioning the fact that when he took over at Blackburn, he had to cope with the sale of his best player? Why do you think that, given his budget restrictions, few people are suggesting he’s not made such a bad start?

Why do you think when Tony Adams failed in his first chance in management, his second came in the Premier League?

Why do you think that when John Barnes failed in his first chance in management, his second came with Jamaica?

Why do you think it took 120 years for a top-flight club here to appoint a British black manager?

Why do you think people are calling for Ince’s head when he’s barely been in charge for 120 days?

Although, on reading the headline you start to wonder where the article could be going, the questions do raise a very good point!

A quick search for ‘Paul Ince’ in the group search function brings up several pages. Here’s a selection:

Paul Ince’s Blue & White Army – Mainly filled with people now bemoaning the manager

Paul Ince out and take Robbie Fowler with you – Can’t argue with Fowler. He has not set Ewood alight by any stretch of the imagination and is very much past it!

Get Paul Ince and Keith Andrews out of Blackburn Rovers NOW – I rate Keith Andrews. He was never given a chance when we signed him simply because he’s a lower league player but I like him and have seen a few change their minds, although some refuse to accept him.

sack paul ince – Aforementioned

GET PAUL INCE OUT OF BLACKBURN ROVERS NOW – Nuff said

Paul Ince for England Manager - Ironically only 52 members of this group at the time of writing!

Paul Ince – What a Bloody Joke – I certainly don’t find it funny

Paul Ince is a Wanker – Ince can breath easy on this it isn’t his own fans. Even Rovers most fickle supporters wouldn’t call the manager this severely! It’s a bunch of disgruntled Hammers, they’ve got long memories!

Similarly… I Hate Paul Ince is more West Ham muppets with nothing better to do!

Paul Ince Out of Blackburn Rovers, does paul ince know what he is doing? and Sack Paul Ince Before it’s too late are three more advocating his departure!

Then I discover the one and only group getting behind the current incumbent of the Ewood Park hotseat… GIVE PAUL INCE A CHANCE has 20 members (21 now as I have joined) giving the boss some support.

I urge more Rovers fans to get behind the manager for a change. When Southampton went down a few years ago the fans never stopped cheering and they fought all the way to the end.

If we end up in a relegation battle and we are as silent as we were against Sunderland, we will go down without so much as a whimper. It is time for Rovers fans to stand up and be counted!

Get to the ground. Sing your heart out and back the team and the manager, whoever it may be. Joining this Facebook group could be the first step in getting behind the boys!

COME ON YOU BLUES!

I have rejected my invitation as I do believe it’s too early to start talking about getting rid of the manager. Although he does need to make things happen soon or my mind could be changed.

It is groups like this that do my head in though, how about a group called ‘Get behind the manager and the team’ or ‘I’m going to the game this weekend’? I wonder how many Rovers fans would be able to join those groups?!

Scenario: Rovers are 1-0 down at half time.

Ince: “Second half we took the game to em and to be fair we were the only team who looked like getting back into the game.”

Well I certainly can’t think of anyone else who could get back into the game… The ballboy perhaps?

The opening day win at Everton echoed the Guvnor’s statements that team spirit is high and that there is no uprising within the Rovers ranks. Andre Ooijer’s last minute smash in from three yards confirmed maximum points at Goodison and things were looking up, especially with a visit from soon to be whipping boys Hull City in the following game.

Not the case Hull ground out a 1-1 draw in, what has to be said, was not the prettiest game of football the Premier League will see this season. A midweek hammering of Grimsby in the Carling Cup saw a debut goal from Carlos Villanueva. He has all the hallmarks of a future class player! It’s Everton again in the next round of the cup, drawn on Saturday, but this time at Ewood.

The trip to West Ham looks worse on paper than it really was. A crushing 4-1 defeat after we had a goal disallowed and a missed penalty. Derbyshire was NOT offside, whichever way ou look at it, and Rovers were caught on the break late in injury time as they tried to rescue a point. Unfortunately for us it was that bluddy Welshman Craig Bellamy who got West Ham’s third!

So after three games what can we say? Well I’m still not sure about Robinson… He was poor against Everton and doesn’t look 100% confident. We need that confidence back if he is ever going to look like the player he potentially could have been.

Villanueva needs more games. He ran the game against Grimsby, yes they are League Two, but he should still get a good chance after a performance like that!

Defence definitely looks as though it needs shoring up. We’ve shipped eight goals in three games. Not a good sign. Nigel Winterburn has been brought in as a specialist defensive coach, I think he should put some overtime in!

Arsenal next is going to be a difficult game. I don’t know how much Ince will resort to tactics like we are accustomed to, but the only way I can see us getting anything from it is stick one up front and overcrowd the midfield. Whinger will love that won’t he?