[Archived] Nickos Thread

[John]

To be fair, Bentley did say that when Hughes left, it made his decision easier to leave. I think it would have been very unlikely, but we could have maybe kept him for one more season, if Hughes stayed (if manager & club really put their foot down).

All if, buts and maybes though.

On Warnock, gutted if its true. He is (or was) a very committed player who will only improve.

Don't really know what to think at the moment.....

[Ricky]

I think its only right for us to be pushing the Andrews price down. He's only got a year left on his contract so there's no reason to pay big money for him. We hold all the cards in this deal. The player wants to join and he's out of contract in 9 months time, surely those things can be used to push the price down.

[den]

Bentley knew he was going to leave well before ince got here. i find it hard to believe that hughes would have been able to keep him. people are just giving ince a hard time on here for no reason.

Hughes and John Williams had told Bentley that he would have to stay another year. Williams also told the fans that he would back Ince in keeping the best players here, just as he had done with Hughes. Does no-one remember that?

As much as people want to protect Ince, it WAS his decision.

Having said all that I have over the last hour or so, it is a retrievable position. He has to get a squad together that can, at the least, survive this season. Can't see any signs of that at the moment, but it could all change overnight.

[mjs]

The club is on a downward slope and I'm not sure Ince knows what to do about it.

Totally agree.

He has even admitted himself that it has been tough since he took over. It seems clear to me that hasn't taken control and is looking to be out of his depth.

[Gav]

Totally agree.

He has even admitted himself that it has been tough since he took over. It seems clear to me that hasn't taken control and is looking to be out of his depth.

Spot on, you'll be called a doom and gloom merchant but you can't ignore what’s going on in front of yer face.

Never thought I’d say this, but at this moment in time I wish we'd have had Fat Sam in charge because he's much more experienced at this level and could deal with player unrest, not sure Ince has the temperament or ability.

[LeChuck]

Never thought I’d say this, but at this moment in time I wish we'd have had Fat Sam in charge because he's much more experienced at this level and could deal with player unrest

Even more than that, I'd say it's one of his biggest strengths.

I'm not sure many managers could play Diouf and Anelka in the same team and have a hard-working, never-say-die ethic throughout.

[mark1875]

of course all these comments about "ince out his depth", "meltdown", "downward spiral" have all come about cos warnock has "allegedly" requested a transfer. i wont believe he has done until it becomes more official. there is only ssn carrying this story - nobody else is!

[DingleBaiter]

Spot on, you'll be called a doom and gloom merchant but you can't ignore what’s going on in front of yer face.

Never thought I’d say this, but at this moment in time I wish we'd have had Fat Sam in charge because he's much more experienced at this level and could deal with player unrest, not sure Ince has the temperament or ability.

Wash your fingers !

Sam would handle the unrest just like he did at Newcastle you mean? Or just bring in more tenuous past-it stars on big wages. Everyone quotes his transfer coups, not many mention the churn he experienced, possibly similar to Spurs in terms of big squads/few performances/heavy spending in/out. Not to mention the massive backroom staff, iffy business dealings, irksome attitude, a stated dislike of Blackburn Rovers, a childish, bullying, aggressive petulant manner & most of all some really dodgy clothes.

I'd suggest Big Sam is actually more experienced at lower levels, or certainly outside the Premiership (in terms of time served as a manager). However, if you was comparing him to managing at this level in comparison to Ince then it's a pretty obvious statement is it not? Ince hasn't yet actually managed in the Premiership competitively, strictly speaking. So for all of Sam's maturity, how come he threw his toys out of the pram that Friday when he was told he wasn't getting the job? Do we need someone so childish?

I've decided - all the pitchforkers have bet heavily on Ince beating Coppell's record as shortest Prem manager (citation/clarification needed) of 32 days.

[Eddie]

It makes me sad to see the club in such shambles at the moment. I only hope that we come out of it on the right side and all of this doesn't put us off making the improvements to the first team that we have to make.

[trs]

Pathetic. Either Rovers think he's good enough, - in which case £2m for a Prem midfielder is nothing, or they don't.

Exactly! For crying out loud, he's now supposed to be an attacking midfielder with an invalubale bonus of scoring goals.

Is this kind of player not worth 10million plus to a premier lge team?

Why not the likes of Mendes or Koumas?

[Paul Mellelieu]

This period reminds me most of the Harford period; Dalglish/Shearer leaving was the end of an era and we know what happened next; Hughes leaving, along with the two players and backroom staff, if anything, has created a worse situation than that in the mid-90s for Ince to walk into. The problem is as Philipl set out is that Ince does not have either the backroom team, or recent high-level experience. (Being "pensioner" is not barrier to doing well at this level; ask United fans).

When Ince was about to appointed, there was a bit of a delay - a couple of days or so. I speculated at the time that the hold up might be linked to John Williams wanting clear and convincing proposals about his support team. And maybe we are experiencing some of those issues now.

Ince, with Williams' support needs to be clear: no-one leaves, stop the chatter, you need to fight for your place in the first eleven.

The most worrying aspect is the club's inability to sign new players, despite having a healthy balance sheet. That seems to me to be the biggest issue right now.

[ABBEY]

I am a long time seaon ticket holder but passive viewer of this board. However, we are now at the point where someone has to show some real leadership at the club and get a grip. How the senior management of the club deals with the pressing issues of retention and recruitment over the next week or so, will determine how the the seaon pans out and where we will be playing next year.

Failure to get a grip now could result in us going into meltdown.

probly one of the truest posts ever........

if warnock has put one in then he can f off for me.....if he hasnt then carry on ,all will be clear.

[wandel77]

Now I must say something, this silly season is one of the worst I have ever seen.

Yes we sold Bentley because he wanted to, Friedel went because of the money. We have shipped of some really bad players when the contracts ended.

We have got a "talented" player from Chile, and we got in my view a great successor to super Brad in Poul Robinson.

Then I’m wondering what Ince can’t see, but all of us can see !

We need a central defender with pace and skills, we need a defensive midfielder who can tackle and a attacking right wing lot of pace and skills.

We are now 4 days form kick off, and the only thing we are talking about is a League 1 Player !! WTF is going on here, there are players here in Denmark who is better than Mr. Andrews and we could get them for around £ 100 - 500 K.

I’m afraid these thing we are seeing at the moment, is the same thing we went through in the 1998/99 season 10 years ago. and we all know what happened that year.

So please Mr. Ince get your act together and sign some proven players.

[trs]

of course all these comments about "ince out his depth", "meltdown", "downward spiral" have all come about cos warnock has "allegedly" requested a transfer. i wont believe he has done until it becomes more official. there is only ssn carrying this story - nobody else is!

Rovers had the chance to deny it today t' radio lancs but said "NO COMMENT"

[alexanders]

Would it helped if they denied it ?

I have to say I agree with the Dane. We have shipped out some bad players, we got a nice fee for Bentley and replaced a 37 yr old with a 28 yr old with national caps for £1m. We also added a fast and creative attacking midfielder.

IF only we had 2 good signings before kick off this would be a terrific transfer window.

[mark1875]

Rovers had the chance to deny it today t' radio lancs but said "NO COMMENT"

they denied it yesterday, maybe they r fed up of denying it?

[1864roverite]

Got to take the same view as den on this one, something seems very wrong at the club. The worse thing about it is the deafening silence from within the walls at Ewood.

I am asking myself why JW is not in the media, he is a good communicator and we have always seen him making comments when the going gets tough around Ewood Park. At this moment he is invisible.

I am also wondering whether or not there are thoughts of have they (the board) made a serious misjudgement in employing Paul Ince as manager of a well established premiership club. With hughes at the ehlm the club clearly had direction although I would say that since January the goodship Ewood was well and truly off course for a while. Now with Ince, it seems there is unparalelled mayhem at the club, something akin to the sad reign of Brian Kidd.

I expected to lose Bentley and have no problem with his sale. I didnt expect to see Brad leave in a million years. Now all we hear is Nelsen kicking off, Warnock asking for a transfer and wanting to go to Newcastle, RSC wanting to go to City (Only God knows why), Benni wanting out to Sunderland of all places and Ince making a mayhem in the incoming transfer market by searching the lower legaues instead of signing the likes of Annan who clearly wants to play for the club ! I havent even mentioned the Samba affair, not selling The Axe to Stoke or the joke training and mutiny !!

So, what are we to believe ? Are we falling apart at the seems ? Is the dream over ? Is the club preparing itself for lower league football ? Have we seen the end of Premiership football at Ewood ? Are we Derby in disguise ?

So many questions and so few answers.

Hughes leaves and the club is ripped apart, the heart and soul has disappeared, the teamwork ethic doesnt appear to be the same.

I am confused. The season is only 3 days away and the pundits, bless their cotton socks, put us in the same sentence as Bolton of all teams as being the two options for the 3rd relegation spot.

its all going horribly wrong

[trs]

IF only we had 2 good signings before kick off this would be a terrific transfer window.

Your right there............and just think if our TOP players didn't want to leave it would be even better.

[ihateburnley]

Of course we're all assuming that it's all Ince's fault.

He may have found five players that he wants for instance, has handed the list to JW, and JW has not been able to fund/agree to/negotiate the deal. It's all too easy to jump on the manager's back, especially at such an early stage on a relatively unproven manager.

I don't know what Ince has done wrong really though. Bentley was going anyway, Friedel would have gone for that type of deal even if Hughes was still in charge, and Robinson was a good signing in terms of the fact that we probably didn't have the option of signing any goalkeeper that is better. Villanueva was a surprise - one that could pay off but won't hit us hard if it doesn't, he's made Dunn vice-captain which personally I don't have an opinion on but has made a lot of people happy, and he's strengthened in at least one area (right-back) that was NEEDED when perhaps that sometimes was one of Mark Hughes' downfalls.

Now I don't think I've missed anything. I mean, yes we have got Fowler in on trial and that is neither here nor there really - it's not going to make or break our season - it's just backup. We've been linked with Keith 'Public Enemy Number One' Andrews but that's all it is - a link. We may sign the guy we may not but it's not going to be massive money, and he may turn out to be a masterstoke for all we know!

Roll on Saturday!

[trs]

they denied it yesterday, maybe they r fed up of denying it?

Well I take my hat off to em because the so called transfer request has only surfaced today

[John]

Got to take the same view as den on this one, something seems very wrong at the club. The worse thing about it is the deafening silence from within the walls at Ewood.

I am asking myself why JW is not in the media, he is a good communicator and we have always seen him making comments when the going gets tough around Ewood Park. At this moment he is invisible.

I am also wondering whether or not there are thoughts of have they (the board) made a serious misjudgement in employing Paul Ince as manager of a well established premiership club. With hughes at the ehlm the club clearly had direction although I would say that since January the goodship Ewood was well and truly off course for a while. Now with Ince, it seems there is unparalelled mayhem at the club, something akin to the sad reign of Brian Kidd.

The only way was hopefully up when Hughes took over, but he seemed to gain control of the situation and respect of the players when he took over.

I know people will say don't blame Ince, don't be so negative etc, but all I am saying that I am very upset and worried about everything that is going on right now.

[neophox]

We're about to make a signing. Watch this space.

[briansol]

I have to laugh of myself. I refuse to watch Desperate Housewives with my girlfriend claiming I'm not into the drama and gossip. Then I find myself here pushing the refresh button to get the next fix of drama, gossip and anxiety.

The internet information overkill is getting to me. How I long for the days when I had to visit my grandfather to read his weekly football paper on what the actual transfers where in England. How simple it was, just plain facts. The buying club, the selling club and the amount.

Then there was just games, you just watch games and enjoy the football. I didn't know that Shearer and Sutton wasn't the best of pals, and I really didn't care because they were SAS and won us the league.

Now the whole football is ridiculous. You have pundits analyzing Ronaldo's choice of boots on whether he going to Madrid or not. You have players injured that suddenly get fit when they change clubs. You have players asking for transfers after declaring they are happy with the new manager, shady agents leaking stories to the press. Everything is allegedly, or we are in the understanding of. Where the world of plain facts go?

Do I need the drama? No. Am I hooked? Yes.

Somebody help me, I just want to go back to watching the games and only caring for the football!

[dennis the menace]

well my first post, for a couple of years..

as im from denmark, i havent got the slightest idea of this andrews guy.. but am i the only one wondering about the following.

if you have the possibility to buy a player, who is going to get the job done and even at a bargain price, then go for it. whether the price is 1.5 or 2, thats peanuts in the bigger scheme of things, if the manager feels he is strengthening the starting lineup.

to me there seems to be, a big cloud of uncerntainty regarding andrews capability, at the highest level..

so my question is, does this show a sufficient amount of belief in the deal and andrews level of talent..?

[brightonrover]

Is it just me or do some people on this board seem to be getting themselves into an awful tissy over something which no one really has any proper knowledge of?

Just calm down and see what unfolds. Getting in a panic at this stage isn't going to do anyone any good.

If we lose the first ten games then I'll be back on here fretting and questioning the employment of Ince myself but at this stage, it's just plain silly.