[Archived] Paul Ince Gone

[The Prof.]

Nobody has a safe job here. There's always the chance new owners will want to bring their own people in.

The whole board really should take responsibility for the Ince appointment. Failing to hire Ten Cate was a massive disappointment to me and it still hurts.

Nobody has a safe job anywhere VJ.

[67splitscreen]

Nobody has a safe job here. There's always the chance new owners will want to bring their own people in.

The whole board really should take responsibility for the Ince appointment. Failing to hire Ten Cate was a massive disappointment to me and it still hurts.

Will you never give it a rest with your speculative comments about new owners/takeovers in every post you make.

I thought watching Rovers was boring.

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

Does anybody (apart from Waggy) believe that Rovers would have stayed up if this clueless bugger had stayed in charge?

I'm personally convinced that if Paul Ince had remained in charge for the full season then Rovers would by now have been relegated to the Championship. Like West Brom I believe that we would have been relegated before the final day of the season. I can't prove this assertion, but I can look at various evidence.

For a start, Ryan Nelsen seems to share my view too. As Nelsen said recently: "We were a sinking ship before Sam Allardyce came. The board got it right. We were in trouble and if they hadn't moved we would have been in serious trouble."

Under Ince Rovers were rudderless, leaderless and clueless. Or a sinking ship as Ryan Nelsen says. Unless action is taken, a sinking ship continues to sink further until it reaches the bottom.

As John Williams said when he sacked Ince in December: "Three wins in 17 league games has seen a squad, which finished seventh last season, fall to 19th position. We are in real danger of becoming detached from the pack."

Ince had been on a disastrous run of six consecutive league defeats prior to his sacking. Three wins in 17 games is pitiful and clearly if that form had continued for the rest of the season then we would have been relegated by now.

I firmly believe that Mr Williams should have taken decisive action much earlier, when it became clear that Ince was wrecking our football club. I was strongly opposed to the former MK Dons manager taking over at Ewood Park and I became increasingly concerned in the opening few months of his reign. I believe that the board should have recognised that we were in danger of relegation sooner than they did - a key moment being the embarrassing shambles at home to Sunderland in November when we lost 2-1.

The alarm bells should have been ringing loud and clear for the board, but instead Ince was allowed to limp along for another month, creating further damage, before he was finally put out of his misery after the debacle away to Wigan.

Martin Olsson said a few months ago that Ince was too inexperienced as a manager, that the team were desperately lacking in confidence under Ince and after Sam Allardyce took charge the communication at the club was immediately improved.

"Ince needed to learn more because he was new to the game," said Olsson. Indeed. But sadly Ince's failure was all too predictable from the start. He was given an opportunity to manage in the world's richest league without having the required coaching qualifications and he choose backroom staff from League Two and a part-time Defence coach in Nigel Winterburn who was more interested in appearing on Sky and talking about Arsenal.

Paul Ince thought he could strengthen his squad by signing his pal Robbie Fowler - an ageing unfit striker who has been past his best for several years. Ince had a large streak of arrogance running through him where he refused to acknowledge his mistakes and failings. Nothing that he ever did was wrong, according to himself.

Ince's arrogance and lack of communication skills compounded his inexperience and lack of qualifications. In essence, the whole package from Ince was a complete disaster for Blackburn Rovers and I would like Mr Williams to conduct a full and thorough review of the season in the summer and acknowledge the huge mistakes that the board made last summer.

Fortunately, much to my great relief, we managed to get away with it this season and stay up despite the disastrous mistakes that were made up until December. Let's hope that lessons have been learned during this painful season.

I'm convinced that if the Rovers board had listened to twits in the media like Oliver Holt and BBC pundits like Mark Lawrenson and Alan Shearer who were urging Rovers to keep faith with Ince, then we'd be facing Championship football by now. We'd be facing up to the prospect of playing the likes of Peterborough, Plymouth and Doncaster in the Championship.

I'd be interested to know if there are any board members other than Waggy who continue to believe that given more time Ince would have turned things around. Is Waggy in a minority of one, or are there others out there who are prepared to come out of the closet and state their continued admiration for Paul Ince?

[1864roverite]

I totally and wholeheartedly agree.

Ince nearly ruined my club and for that I despise him just as much as those claret and blue mongs from down the m65

[RibbleValleyRover]

I think we would have been relegated months ago if Ince was still in charge. Under Ince in 17 games we conceded 34 goals (average of 2 goals per game) this meant that in order to take three points from a game we had to score at least 3 goals, impossible with the amount of injuries and serious lack of creativity in the side.

[DE.]

No doubt that Ince would have taken us down. He didn't have a clue, and the players sussed this out almost immediately. I very much doubt they respected Ince in the same way the MK Dons players did, and if the players don't respect the manager you are as good as finished.

Whilst the board probably should have sacked Ince sooner, they got enough grief from the media for sacking him when they did. If it had been any earlier the bad publicity would have unfortunately gone through the roof. In terms of building enough evidence to prove Ince needed to go (1 win in 13, the Wigan debacle) the board had their excuses ready to those who cried foul over their actions. They're just lucky appointing Ince in the first place didn't take us down.

This season could have been a lot, lot worse. Thank goodness for Big Sam, and Sunderland's decision not to appoint him when they had the chance.

[Amo]

I believe Waggy's argument is that we can't PROVE the team would have continued to sink under Ince. But the burden of proof rests with the positive argument, and Ince's tenure at the club was relegation form.

Ince's idea of improving the squad was Keith Andrews, Robbie Fowler, Willy Gueret, and Zak Whitbread. Whereas Allardyce used a short space of time, and limited resources, to pull in a proven PL midfielder and a French international left-back. We're back in safe hands.

[philipl]

Wow, an under-powered, under-stated post from ASEF!

Ince got off very lightly there.

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

I must be going soft these days Philip....

Reading my post again, it seems almost kind and benevolent towards Ince given the massive damage that he inflicted on our football club.

I didn't mention Ince's apparent tardiness and his chronic lack of self-discipline which meant he was allegedly even late for the meeting in December where he was eventually sacked.

I mentioned Ince's arrogance, but didn't touch upon the utter contempt that Ince clearly felt for our football club as a player. His appointment at Ewood was a horrendous mistake and I would like John Williams to apologise in the summer for making such a terrible blunder last year.

As we are giving each other compliments today Philip, I think you got it spot on back in December when you said:

3 points out of 33 and 2 of those achieved by injury time equalisers.

That is now a worse rate of points accumulation than Derby County managed last season.

I should have mentioned that in my previous post, as it's further clear evidence of the truly shocking run of results that Ince was responsible for. It's clear to me that we were heading for humiliation, disaster and relegation under Ince.

[DE.]

I think it's a good thing, in many ways, we appointed Ince instead of Shearer.

Obviously, there's no guarentee Shearer would have had as bad of a time as Ince. However, it's likely it would have followed a similar pattern. Shearer had even less managerial experience than Ince, after all. Perhaps he would have been more successful, but IF he'd done as badly as Ince, it would have been a lot harder for the board to sack him.

Ince's appointment was generally greeted with either apathy or anger. There wasn't much positiveness coming from the appointment - older fans had not forgotten his disparaging comments about us in '94, and everybody knew what a tit he was as a player- therefore by December the fans couldn't wait to see Ince go. Shearer, on the other hand, would have had the support of the crowd when he was appointed, and I wonder if as many would have been calling for his sacking as were Ince, assuming we were in the same situation? Possibly not, meaning Shearer may have been given more time, and we would have nosedived even further.

Of course, Shearer could have been a huge success, who knows? It's just interesting and a little scary to wonder what would have happened had Big Al somehow accepted the offer to take up the reigns last summer.

[stuwilky]

Has he gone yet?

[Kelbo]

Paul Ince in fairness did a great job in the lower leagues and earned the right to manage higher up the pyramid, however, I feel that his mistake was he was not prepared to learn and failed to put the right people alongside him.

JW has been criticised on appointing Ince as a manager, I criticise JW only for accepting Inces choice of a backroom staff who were not of the neccessary standards for a premiership club full of International Footballers and quite clearly this is what should have been seen and Inces appointment should have been based upon his choice of staff.

Matthias was never going to hack it and a number 2 should be the guy to bounce Ideas off and get a responce, Clough/Taylor

Fergusen/Kidd - Dalglish /Harford etc.

Enter Big Sam, experienced, set his targets and achieved them, at Bolton he set targets throughout the season (Hughes did that at Rovers) brought in sports sciences etc. Immediately we were a tighter outfit and began to pickup points.

Oliver Holt should hang his stupid head, retire and put to graze in a field somewhere for his comments on the sacking of Ince show his total lack of football kowledge and business acumen.

Gentlemen, as a club and as a team e move onwards and upwards.

[Stuart]

I think the hope was that Shearer would have brought Newell with him. That alone might have injected a much needed feelgood factor to the club, which in turn may have created a wave for the club to ride on. Ince on the other hand brought a completely archaic backroom team which would have likely alienated the team from the get-go. Particularly following Hughes futuristic methods.

There are a lot of ifs, buts and maybes though - most of which have been stated before and Shearer's management may meant Rovers had the kind of season that Hull are having but once again, whether Ince or Shearer had been in charge we couldn't afford to drop down a division.

Whilst he was arrogant, inept and was out of his depth, I don't hate Ince. In fact his very presence at this club may have provided the powers that be with enough of a scare to avoid making the same mistake again and failing to invest in the team.

I guess we'll find out this summer...

The worst thing is how unserious he appears to conduct himself. If he had taken us down to the Championship I could well see him having a laugh about Rovers with his media pals when no-one's looking.

Coincidentally if you type Ince into your phone using predictive text, the default word is 'goad'.

[rog of the rovers]

I think Rovers did everything right with Ince.

They gambled and gave him a shot (just like they did with Hughesy)

They weren't trigger happy, he went at the right time

They appointed the right man to get us out of trouble in Big Sam

[John]

Seeing the name Paul Ince still makes me shudder.

[Amo]

I think Rovers did everything right with Ince.

They gambled and gave him a shot (just like they did with Hughesy)

They weren't trigger happy, he went at the right time

They appointed the right man to get us out of trouble in Big Sam

Can you really compare the two?

One managed PL players at international level against top-class opposition.

One managed MK Dons in Division 3.

[BuckyRover]

Can you really compare the two?

One managed PL players at international level against top-class opposition.

One managed MK Dons in Division 3.

The fact they were both chosen by the same chief executive presumably with a similar selection process, means that they are definitely comparable.

We shouldn't wholly criticise as we should remember that it was this methodology that meant we chose Hughes in the first place.

It was all a bad dream and now we are in a good position. Onward and upward, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger...etc.etc.

[thenodrog]

[ince's arrogance and lack of communication skills compounded his inexperience and lack of qualifications. In essence, the whole package from Ince was a complete disaster for Blackburn Rovers and I would like Mr Williams to conduct a full and thorough review of the season in the summer and acknowledge the huge mistakes that the board made last summer.

I'm afraid John Williams scares me now. He's done OK until last year but what on earth was behind his thinking in considering either Shearer or Ince to manage BRFC as his first and second choice appointment? Neither of em had any experience nor any qualifications nor any redeeming managerial qualities. Would JW appoint an unqualified solicitor, accountant or a doctor to work for the club on the same basis? How about an unqualified groundsman or physio? It just beggars belief given the fact that to appoint unqualified people is outside Prem rules and we had to seek special permission to do so.

The whole issue needs proper answers if JW is to retain the confidence of the board , the Walker trust, the staff and the supporters. This entire issue has left his reputation well and truly tarnished.

[Amo]

The fact they were both chosen by the same chief executive presumably with a similar selection process, means that they are definitely comparable.

We shouldn't wholly criticise as we should remember that it was this methodology that meant we chose Hughes in the first place.

The only similarity between them is the Sir Alex protégé cliché. If they examined the context of the individuals, instead of that basic connection they wouldn't have made such a glaring error.

[BuckyRover]

I suggest it was to do with money.

Also, could you please entertain me as to why picking the wrong man once in four attempts has left his reputation well and truly tarnished. A director at work said to me it's not the mistakes you make it's how you deal with them afterwards.

I think in that respect he has done very well.

[BuckyRover]

The only similarity between them is the Sir Alex protégé cliché. If they examined the context of the individuals, instead of that basic connection they wouldn't have made such a glaring error.

Were you not happy with the Souness, Hughes and Allardyce appointments?

[Amo]

Were you not happy with the Souness, Hughes and Allardyce appointments?

Why do you ask?

[Florida Rover]

if you have enough stomach listen to these blowhards going on and on.(and their comments on Allardyce at the end)

video from skysports dec 14 2008

[broadsword]

Has he gone yet?

:laugh:

i think you're safe now, stupot.

The name "Paul Ince" still gives me the shivers. The name "Ray Matthias" (aka "Mr Mensa") gives me a cold sweat.

If we never cross paths with that geezer again it will be too soon. Way too soon.

definitely one of teh most surreal episodes in this club's history.

Mamma, fetch me papa's shotgun, there's a fly on Ince's nose.

[Amo]

Bucky - why did you ask me if I was satisfied with Hughes, Souness and Allardyce? What does that have to do with the board failing to differentiate between Hughes & Ince's circumstances?