[Archived] Sam Allardyce

[T4E]

But both of those are decreases on the prior couple of seasons under Hughes.

Of course, but I dont think anyone would argue that Allardyce is an improvement on Hughes, would they?

[John]

Hughes said himself it was not sustainable to keep pulling rabbits out of the hat, hence why he left.

It was always going to be pretty unlikely anyone could replicate his achievements - anyone who thinks so is living in fantasy land, especially as the financial gap is getting greater.

[Tom]

Saturday could be huge for us, if West Ham win tonight and we start in the bottom 3 and Sam doesn't go all out for a win and set up as we did vs West Ham then something needs looking at.

[thenodrog]

Saturday could be huge for us, if West Ham win tonight and we start in the bottom 3 and Sam doesn't go all out for a win and set up as we did vs West Ham then something needs looking at.

The biggest prob with that was that SA imbalanced the side by picking Julie to play on the right and all he did was keep going narrow leaving a huge empty space on the right and crowding N'Zonzi and Grella. First 45 mins the midfield was a disorganised rabble. SA and Julie to blame for not beating WHU that day.

[Tom]

Thing is Theno there is no reason to pick Keith now we have Emerton, Reid and NZonzi to play there or Grella if fit or Dunny and play Benni with Di Santo or Kalinic but we know that wont happen.

Sam has as near to a full squad as we can hope for so any excuses coming from him would be invalid.

I think we'll win this one, the pitchforks and torches will be out if we fail to though.

[47er]

But both of those are decreases on the prior couple of seasons under Hughes.

At the very least, we should expect to finish better than Wigan and Bolton, and be pushing for a top 12 position, not be worried about the relegation places.

Who says we won't finish above Wigan and Bolton? The season has some way to run.

[Amo]

Saturday could be huge for us, if West Ham win tonight and we start in the bottom 3 and Sam doesn't go all out for a win and set up as we did vs West Ham then something needs looking at.

Sam will go for the win, but not 'all out.' We don't have the players for a high tempo, gung-ho approach. Too many cloggers in midfield, not enough pace or penetration.

[FourLaneBlue]

But both of those are decreases on the prior couple of seasons under Hughes.

At the very least, we should expect to finish better than Wigan and Bolton, and be pushing for a top 12 position, not be worried about the relegation places.

In time. Not right away or necessarily this season but in time yes we should be .

[AggyBlue]

In time. Not right away or necessarily this season but in time yes we should be .

Why do you think we should expect to finish above Wigan and Bolton?

[thenodrog]

Why do you think we should expect to finish above Wigan and Bolton?

Exactly aggy. I'm interested to hear the reasoning behind your thinking for why that should be american / FLB.

[Eddie]

A few reasons:

1) I think we have a better squad.

2) Apart from last season we have finished higher than them most of the time.

3) We are the ones with the proven manager on 40k a week.

[roversmum]

A few reasons:

1) I think we have a better squad.

2) Apart from last season we have finished higher than them most of the time.

3) We are the ones with the proven manager on 40k a week.

Depends how many of them are left after the January sales...

[LeChuck]

In time. Not right away or necessarily this season but in time yes we should be .

Both are better funded than us though. The trust have completely cut us off with regards to investment, whereas Bolton and Wigan still have owners who are willing to put money into the club.

[Blue blood]

Both are better funded than us though. The trust have completely cut us off with regards to investment, whereas Bolton and Wigan still have owners who are willing to put money into the club.

True although Megson is not a good manager, in fact I think he's a pretty poor one, which to me cancels out their superior monetary situaiton.

For me the teams we definately should be above are:

Burnley, Hull, Portsmouth, Birmingham, Wolves, Bolton.

Teams we are on a par with:

West Ham, Wigan, Fulham and Stoke

Based on this I'd say we should finish somewhere between 14th and 9th.

People may say that we have less finances, especially compaired with the teams we're on a par with. Whilst that is true, we still have just as much prestige, a talented squad, good home backing, especially with the deals we have had on, and a manager who is meant to excel in the small club situation. This should be more than enough to hit in the 14th-9th bracket.

Now is not the time to get rid of Sam. The thing with Ince was that regardless of the results the performances and atmosphere around the place told a very worrying story. There was a consistency of negative occurances such as injuries, and in the performances even when we won there was some gaping holes that could be seen.

What makes it so frustrating this season is there is no consistency. One week we look like we're on the up - Villa and Wolves at home for just two examples, other times such as the abject surrenders to Chelsea and Arsenal (and even that was only for 20 mins) and the West Ham game make us look like relegation certs. It's really hard to judge exactly where we are at, because of this lack of consistency.

We all knew October was going to be tough. Hopefully by the end of November we'll have a clearer picture of where we are at as a team.

[waggy]

I WONDER how long kevin gallacher will be employed by the rovers now he's criticsed lardarse's football in the telewag lastnight

[thenodrog]

Both are better funded than us though. The trust have completely cut us off with regards to investment, whereas Bolton and Wigan still have owners who are willing to put money into the club.

Would you care to speculate why LeChuck when they are having to discount ST's to bribe people in the towns to turn out and support the club? Oil rich Ayrabs who have fallen into incredible wealth through the invention of the internal combustion engine and plastics are one thing but the reasons for intelligent, hard working people chucking good money after bad at footballers certainly baffles me.

I WONDER how long kevin gallacher will be employed by the rovers now he's criticsed lardarse's football in the telewag lastnight

Who cares he's on the radio more than Terry Wogan these days. But the diminutive Gallagher is hardly likely to be a fan of the style commonly referred to on here as 'hoofball' is he?

A few reasons:

1) I think we have a better squad.

2) Apart from last season we have finished higher than them most of the time.

3) We are the ones with the proven manager on 40k a week.

Thanks for that eddie but I had actually addressed the question toward FLB and American.

[ABBEY]

bottom three...expertly steered.

[American]

Exactly aggy. I'm interested to hear the reasoning behind your thinking for why that should be american / FLB.

Sorry, Gord, have to work for a living.

Sam inherited a squad 6 months after they finished 7th with only 2 main players having left (and one being replaced with a similar quality player).

We have similar crowds and revenue streams available.

We're allegedly a more attractive option to managers.

If the talk about the big 4 is always they are in a different financial to everyone else and we can't hope to compete, we should be finishing above the teams that are in the same financial league as us.

[FourLaneBlue]

Exactly aggy. I'm interested to hear the reasoning behind your thinking for why that should be american / FLB.

I think we have a better squad overall with more potential than the two of them, especially as Wigan have been seeing their best players leave, and we have a better manager who has taken a club like ours to 4 top-eight finishes in a row.

[Commondore]

Sorry, Gord, have to work for a living.

Sam inherited a squad 6 months after they finished 7th with only 2 main players having left (and one being replaced with a similar quality player).

We have similar crowds and revenue streams available.

We're allegedly a more attractive option to managers.

If the talk about the big 4 is always they are in a different financial to everyone else and we can't hope to compete, we should be finishing above the teams that are in the same financial league as us.

I'm not one of Allardyce's regular defenders, but it's a bit unfair to compare his results to Hughes based on the fact that they had a similar squad. Sparky's team was one on the heights of it´s powers, while players like Nelsen, Gamst Pedersen, Tugay and Reid are today far from the players they once were.

Losing Savage without finding a proper replacement was also a stunning blow, since not having him around exposed Tugay's tired legs. That meant we effectively lost our central midfield duo over one night.

[American]

One might argue that they aren't the players they were because they aren't as motivated as they were under Sparky.

[47er]

What makes it so frustrating this season is there is no consistency. One week we look like we're on the up - Villa and Wolves at home for just two examples, other times such as the abject surrenders to Chelsea and Arsenal (and even that was only for 20 mins) and the West Ham game make us look like relegation certs. It's really hard to judge exactly where we are at, because of this lack of consistency.

We all knew October was going to be tough. Hopefully by the end of November we'll have a clearer picture of where we are at as a team.

There is consistency of a sort--at least there is a pattern. We lose away and win at home!

[thenodrog]

One might argue that they aren't the players they were because they aren't as motivated as they were under Sparky.

I wouldn't argue with that. There was a stage when Hughes had em coming down he coach steps with their shoulders back and chests out ready to take on all comers.

Unfortunately American Mark Hughes wont be coming back ...... and the reason behind him going is still partially shrouded in mystery. We've heard JW's version of course but not the one from the horses mouth.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Sam talks about foreign players and the procedures involved in helping them to settle:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/blackburn_rovers/8344621.stm

[spencey7]

Last season after ten games the record was won 3, drawn 3, lost 4.

Followed by a run of won 0, drew 1, lost 6.

In other words, this is not the time to judge managers.

It's becoming apparent that there will never be an appropriate time to judge Sam Allardyce.

Ridiculous.