[Archived] To The Board And Fans Of Rovers.

[Darth Paul]

Look at Stoke, Fulham and Birmingham's squads - there aren't many players from any of them that I would swap for of ours. Yet they are all doing better than us - significantly so in Brum's case. So if our players are on the whole superior, why are we not up and around Brum?

The problem is not the players, it's the system they are being asked to play, and the often baffling team and tactical selections being made by the manager.

I would get rid ASAP if it was up to me, because as a club we are going nowhere with BFS at the helm. From the murmurs of discontent from several people round me in the Bburn End I'm not alone in this view.

However, I'm pretty sure that it's as much a financial decision as a football one - could we afford to sack him?

Correct the club are going nowhere, ie under Allardyce it might not be great but we will be staying in the Premiership. We can't afford to gamble by getting rid of Sam, some of the posts on this board at the moment are unbelievable. It is December for Gods sake and we are a couple of points adrift of Birmingham etc, so what, season ends in May. We are a lot closer to Liverpool than we were this time last season...does this mean we have improved?

Believe me the murmurs of discontent from the Blackburn End are no barometer of anything at all. I sit there and the murmurs are from the same clowns who have been moaning for the past ten years. The so called "discontent" hasn't increased any from what I am aware of. I love sitting in the BBE but some of the people around me have seriously slow wheels turning in their heads, that is all...

If some of you lot had your way we would change managers three or four times a season...

[thenodrog]

In my humble opinion the time has come for a change. Having been to virtually every home game this season it is becoming increasingly evident that the team is short of ideas and the fault of this has to lie with the management. We are a club who is short of money and we have had to sell our best players over recent seasons to stay solvent, which, has of course, weakened our position. However this is in no way an excuse for the insipid fare served up week on week. All that we the fans ask is that the players we have at our disposal, who are capable of being a match for the vast majority of teams in the Premier League, try their hearts out every minute of every match. Today is a prime example: at times we were as good as Spurs who are an expensively (some £200m more than our squad) assembled team; for the most part we were flat and resorted to Big Sam's normal modus operandi, ye olde big hoof up to a target man.

Given that within (approximately) half an hour it is likely that a manager who had us playing *as a team*, trying hard, was shrewd in the transfer market, and brought us the sort of success which is the upper limit of what we can expect without a benefactor on the scale of Uncle Jack, now would be a good, albeit brave time, to thank Big Sam for doing the job he was employed to do (saving us from the Ince/Relegation farce) but let him know that it is time for the club to try and move forwards. Said moving forward is precisely what we don't look like doing under the current regime, and we have a (just) strong enough squad to be able to be relatively comfortable in a weak league this season. That said we are in now way assured of being outside of what will more than likely be a seven or eight team relegation battle come the end of the season if things don't change.

Though there cannot possibly any clarity as to the club's financial position it is clear the Premier League survival is a must, and we have to look toward cheap players who will be saleable at a profit. We need a manager with a reputation for playing *successful football* to attract these players who will either want to reignite a faltering career (eg Santa Cruz), or to showcase their skills in one of the most competitive leagues in the world- such as Samba and hopefully N'Zonzi. Unfortunately I do not believe Big Sam is that man. He is clearly an innovative coach when it comes to training but he is tactically lacking and is too wary of making a change to his system. Furthermore the fear is that we might lose our better footballing players because they don't fit Big Sam's mould- who would really rather see the ball drilled up towards an isolated Roberts than us playing through the midfield using the (admittedly frustratingly enigmatic) McCarthy and Dunny. We seem to have begun using our midfield as a first line of defence than an attacking option, it is too often bypassed.

It has been a pleasure all season to see Ewood as full as it has often been and credit to that must go to the board, however the growing sense of dissatisfaction is palpable. Our home record over the last 12 months is good, and this has done us many favours, but the football has not been. Though we have never been a club who plays the greatest of football, all we ask is that we try and give every team a game. I'd rather see us lose through a lack of quality than through a lack of effort.

The club and fans have every right to be hugely proud of our achievements over the last twenty years but to maintain the club's proud position and tradition we need a change of leadership, now. Modern football is a cut-throat game and it is time for Big Sam to be given a painting of a Spitfire and shuffled off to do what he does elsewhere.

Thank you all for taking time to read this, and I look forward to reading your opinions, as well as a change in the near future.

Quite a good post and one thats attracted a good few brownie points already I see.

You'll appreciate em no doubt when you eventually wake up in the real world.

Correct the club are going nowhere, ie under Allardyce it might not be great but we will be staying in the Premiership.

Do you know something we don't Paul?

[broadsword]

He is clearly an innovative coach when it comes to training but ...

With respect I don't think that assertion is borne out by events on the pitch. Unless by "innovative" you mean being the only manager who gets his players to kick the ball from one end of the training pitch to the other every single session?

I don't know what the master-plan is, but I do know it's a bit strange to spend every penny more or less on bringing in strikers and get rid of the one (admittedly veteran) play-maker who can deliver a decent attacking ball and not replace them.

Inevitably we're going to keep hold of him unless our financial position (such as it is) becomes threatened. So I guess time will whether Sam really is an expert. At least we're now in a semi-final (admittedly we've only had to beat one decent team to get there). But I can't say I'm filled with hope for the future. Resigned to duff football, more like.

[Darth Paul]

Do you know something we don't Paul?

Ha, sadly not Theno, but looking at the sides around us, and the personnel we have, I think it is majorly pessimistic to think otherwise...

[thenodrog]

With respect I don't think that assertion is borne out by events on the pitch. Unless by "innovative" you mean being the only manager who gets his players to kick the ball from one end of the training pitch to the other every single session?

Bryan we have by common consent on here two of the worst wingers on current form in the entire Prem. We have our two most creative and probably first choice midfield players on the injury list..... yet again. So can from your ivory tower please outline how exactly you would get the ball to the attackers if you were in charge? Off you go.

[broadsword]

Yeah, and Allardyce bought one of them!

It's not a question of what I would do, it's a question of the situation Allardyce has put us in. Clearly he's happy to have a predominantly route one strategy, because his sole focus was on getting strikers in, to the exclusion of a ball-player.

PS: Someone in an ivory tower is concerned with intellectual puruits far removed from every day life. What's that got to with slating poor play? I hardly think those who'd like to see a bit of football played are existing in a rarefied academic atmosphere.

[Stuart]

I created a thread some time ago which, whilst in hindsight was badly timed and badly titled, was designed as a pre-emptive strike to the rumblings against the manager in the match thread.

The point of that thread was to get people to have a think about who is out there that is better than Sam and would be prepared to come here. (Particularly someone proven).

The fact is there are about two options: Souness and Curbishley. If we got back the Souness who first came in, maybe he would shake the place up but without having £8m or so to go out and buy an Andy Cole (who with PL inflation would be about £12m nowadays), I don't see what else he could do. And the Souness which left us had lost the plot. Curbishley would do no better than Sam.

Secondly, I'd take back his backroom staff, as they could work miracles with injured players, but Hughes is not coming back any time soon.

Sacking Sam now is Premier League suicide, paying off I*** and Co crippled us in terms of funds - which is why we still have many of the players we have, living on former reputations, because they can't afford to be replaced.

I know it was cold yesterday but the fans need to start getting behind the team more rather than moaning about the manager. Our problem is lack of finances, pure and simple. Even with Sky money, we are barely covering wages.

By the way, I got some serious crap over that thread, at a time when the minus rep button was still operable. You are probably fortunate that it is now gone.

I wonder if the mods will close this thread too? Or has the MB appetite for such discussion suddenly changed following back-to-back defeats - or do people really think that Hughes being out of work makes one iota of difference to our choice of replacements?

[Miker]

Look at Stoke, Fulham and Birmingham's squads - there aren't many players from any of them that I would swap for of ours. Yet they are all doing better than us - significantly so in Brum's case. So if our players are on the whole superior, why are we not up and around Brum?

Sam has not had enough time to fully integrate the team and build the sort of team he wants, unlike the other teams you mentioned who have built a very solid base and team unity.

I'm not sure how we can expect team unity, when the fans can't be united in support of the team and manager themselves. How about instead of whinging like we're 5 years old, we go and fully support the team regardless of result for more than two games in a row and see what happens. The fans aren't helping at all by putting unnecessary pressure on players after every game we don't win.

The manager hasn't been shown any faith since he took over, so before we criticse, let's look at ourselves and see what we can do to spur the team on. Football is about the fans and at the moment, it seems like the majority of fans don't give two ######. They're just waiting for us to (Please don't use that word again) up, so they can say "I told you so".

Honestly, the reactions after Spurs sickened me. It's a joke if you call yourself fans and criticise that performance. Personally, I demanded more after Brum. I'm sure others did too. We got it at Spurs, the players looked like they wanted it and threw everything at Spurs. We lost, but the negative reactions were uncalled for.

[American]

Sam has not had enough time to fully integrate the team and build the sort of team he wants, unlike the other teams you mentioned who have built a very solid base and team unity.

I'm not an overreactor, never been a fan (and am happy with some of the things he's done), but don't think he should be let go.

This being said, that is a joke. He's had 2 windows - if he hadn't spent money on Salgado when he didn't need to, maybe he could have bought another midfielder? There has been enough of a turnover, including getting rid of players he wasn't happy with, that this is his team now.

[BRFC4Life]

The most disappointing things this season in my opinion: -

1. Spending £6m on Kalinic. Nothing against the player but given our limited transfer funds, any major money purchase should be on established proven quality players who can come straight into the 1st team. We cant afford to replace santa cruz with a young player who might come good in the next couple of seasons. The lack of goals over the last 6 games shows that we need goalscorers now, one goal in the stoke, liverpool and hulls games would have seen us 6 points better off and looking up the table rather than down. If kalinic does come good and prove to be a quality striker next year or the year after then great but what happens if the lack of goals costs us our premiership place until then?

2. not repacing tugay and relying on dunn. Until the stoke game, we were all thinking that maybe dunn's injury problems over the last 4/5 years had ended. However the fact he has now been missing for about 5 games shows that maybe it isnt. The lack of creativity since he's been out shows our over reliance on one midfielder to create the chances we need. If our strikers need more than one chance to score (yesterdays McCarthy's chance being our one and only clear cut chance of the game) then we need to be doing more in the middle of the park.

3. Our youth academy. Teams with little in the way of transfer funds need to be bringing through their own young players to come into the team, become good/great players and then (if needs be) sell them on at a large profit to boost the transfer kitty (not a great prospect but until someone with loads of money buys us its the reality we have to face). The academy has given our 1st team squad nothing over the last few years (Matty D being the exception i guess, never going to make it for rovers in the premiership but at least we got a few £m for him).

As bad as the run we're on at the moment is, we're still the same team thats done ok(ish) in parts so far this season. I'm hoping its just a blip and we can start picking up the points over the next few games and doing well in the semi final. If the bad run continues and we look like dropping into the bottom 3 again, we'll all start thinking abit more seriously if a change is needed but as has already been pointed out, getting rid of sam will cost us alot of money which will be needed for new players. I'd offload diouf and pederson in january, pray fulham (or any other team on the entire planet) come back in for andrews and put whatever money we get back into the transfer fund.

[Hasta]

Surely all the people running around shouting we are completely doomed are snapping up the 8/1 available on relegation.

Whilst I was gutted and worried coming off the ground yesterday, I had nothing like the gloomy feeling that I had when we let City equalise in the last minute over Christmas last year when we were still joint-bottom of the league.

[thenodrog]

I'd offload diouf and pederson in january, pray fulham (or any other team on the entire planet) come back in for andrews and put whatever money we get back into the transfer fund.

How?

[tomphil]

Sam said when he took the job, If I remember right, that he'd only be here a few years. If he stepped down in the Summer having guided us to a comfortable mid-table finish I think everyone would be happy - provided a replacement who could take us forward was available.

Sacking the manager mid-season when we're really not doing all that badly would be crazy. Our problem is goals, and

1. there's no money available to sign a goalscoring striker, and

2. what we've got isn't capable of turning it round under a "better" manager

There WAS money available but its been spent on erm kalanic?salgado ? There can be money made available prob by selling Benni/Mgp and it will be spent on another tall lump to play up front probably.

[BRFC4Life]

How?

By accepting any reasonable offers that come in for them. If there aren't any then there's nothing we can do and they stay. It's all obviously ifs and buts at this stage regarding the january transfer window, just saying what i'd like/hope to happen.

[broadsword]

How?

Send 'em down to me. I'll get them over the Channel somehow.

One thing that is absolutely inexcusable is a lack of hunger. Very damaging to have people in teh club just there for their pay-cheque.

By accepting any reasonable offers that come in for them. If there aren't any then there's nothing we can do and they stay. It's all obviously ifs and buts at this stage regarding the january transfer window, just saying what i'd like/hope to happen.

I'd be amazed if we actually get an offer, let alone a reasonable one.

They're robbing the club blind, picking up their wages.

[Hughesy]

Pathetic post of the year goes to...........

Hermitstool where do you sit at Ewood?

[CrazyIvan]

Pathetic post of the year goes to...........

Hermitstool where do you sit at Ewood?

Agreed. Chris Kamara had it right this morning: - Just remember what happened to Newcastle,

Blackburn fans be happy with Sam!

I think that about sums up our situation. Keep the faith.

[Hughesy]

To me the team is far from perfect..however iv seen many encouraging signs this season.

19pts after 18 games isnt great but we could have also quite easily of picked up more points against Spurs, Liverpool, Stoke, West Ham & City.....had that happened we would be up around 6-8th now. We aint I know but the signs of improvement are there.

Sam is building his team bit by bit - its heading in the right direction...we are seeing some promising signs with a more youthful team. Yes we are still having the odd dismal performance (Everton & Brum) - but for me I see FAR more promising signs than negative ones.....

[CrazyIvan]

To be honest, right now the only thing we need to do is start scoring goals. That's the simplest and most basic thing but it stands up. Take our chances and we'll climb the league.

[S15]

Not true.

We also need to stop conceding 2-3 goals a game.

Add the two problems together and we're miles away from being a top half team.

[Hughesy]

Not true.

We also need to stop conceding 2-3 goals a game.

Add the two problems together and we're miles away from being a top half team.

Yesterday we conceded a dodgy goal that probably should of been a foul...the 2nd was purely because we were pushed forward

[S15]

As always excuses as to why we have conceded 2 goals.

'Dodgy this,' 'Probably that.'

Dodgy/inconsistance defence. End.

[Stuart Ripley]

Pathetic post of the year goes to...........

Hermitstool where do you sit at Ewood?

its so so sad that a club like ours appears to have divided fans, your pathetic for not getting behind sam

and the board. the team cannot be changed at the moment! have some bloody faith, we are a VERY SMALL CLUB

every season we stay up is a minor miracle. i do think that you're in the minority however and it is largely

internet folk that don't go to the games that complain...

DELETE THIS THREAD!!!

if you're that bothered start protesting after home games, then you'll see how pathetic you are!

[Mattyblue]

its so so sad that a club like ours appears to have divided fans, your pathetic for not getting behind sam

and the board. the team cannot be changed at the moment! have some bloody faith, we are a VERY SMALL CLUB

every season we stay up is a minor miracle. i do think that you're in the minority however and it is largely

internet folk that don't go to the games that complain...

DELETE THIS THREAD!!!

if you're that bothered start protesting after home games, then you'll see how pathetic you are!

We are not a very small club Timothy!

Whatever 'big club' 'small club' even means.

We just don't have the financial muscle to compete.

[Bobby G]

We are not so far off track.

We just cant score. Otherwise the majority of the time we are seeing decent attacking football.

We just need the right midfielder to be brought in and the board have to provide a bit of funds.

At this point, considering that Benni is starting regularly, we have to convince him to stay cause it will be suicide to sell him.