[Archived] Enough Is Enough

[47er]

Sorry but |i cannot blame JW. He did have the courage to try Ince, it failed and he was sacked. At the time Ince was worth a try - but in my view, should have been sacked earlier - but I think others stopped JW doing that - i think the trustees tied his hands on that subject. With regards to Sam he was, at the time. the right man to keep Rovers up - the players and the supporters believed in him - this all helped. The trust should have backed Mark Hughes a lot more -but JW is not the problem - he is just obeying orders from other people - the Walker trustees.

Yep--that's absolutely the case.

[ebenrocks]

ive been a big supporter of sam over the last couple of seasons, but enough is enough now and he has to go. I hope the board take note.

This club is being ruined, primarily by the manager who plays frankly disgusting football, which would be fine if it were winning us games, but it isnt, is it?

Secondly by the players who look like they frankly couldnt give a ###### and dont have a shread of talent between them

and Thirdly by our son of a bitch owners who couldnt care less about this club, provide nothing, despite the fact that they are worth around £150,000,000, and relegation would cost them dear. how stupid do you have to be. One thing's for sure, Jack would be turning in his grave if he saw how these @#/?s were treating his club.

Its time for us to put our foot down against the running of this club. Its US who fork out our hard earned money to keep it running, we put in far more than the cheapskate owners ever have anyway. And what do we get in return. A terribly managed team, of terrible players owned by terrible owners. Im sick of it, making the rich richer and getting nothing in return.

[super_arran]

JW did not want Sam, and is not his biggest fan.

and how do you know that?

[Hughesy]

and how do you know that?

His main supporter - is a member of the board....and wanted him before Ince.

[tcj_jones]

Is he your source at the club, Hughesy?

[Tris]

His main supporter - is a member of the board....and wanted him before Ince.

You are a total prick. This is like your "GAME'S OFF" post

[Miker]

However, I've had enough. This has to end, and if Sam won't change his ways then he has to leave. Nobody can claim to know what is going on behind the scenes, but judging from what we've seen on the pitch recently, the players have lost confidence in Sam's methods. If he has lost the dressing room, there is no way back.

I would like to say I agree with you here, but the fact that we didn't just collapse and die against Sunderland the previous game tells me that the players do care and do try to succeed under Sam. The same can be said against Chelsea in the quarter final.

But Sam persists in having the team aimlessly hoof balls up field most of the time. It is as predictable and uneffective as it is soul destroying for the fans.

I completely agree and think we should ditch the current tactics and stick to the standard 4-4-2 and put our faith in Kalinic and Di Santo up front. Maybe Sam will start doing this from now on? We just got Dunn back, so it's possible he wanted to revert back to the 4-5-1 that was quite effective before when Dunn was fit. Clearly it didn't work and I don't think we should be playing that formation.

The best example for us is Fulham who, as someone previously said, are very similar to us, but are a lot more organised. If we want to achieve any access in the league, we have to follow a similar model in the team, which means we need to be more organised at the back and more efficient with our chances (and play along the ground more often).

Agree or disagree, I think we miss Grella a lot. We need a player like him in the squad to give us stability at the back and a fulcrum for attacks up front. We either need him fit or get another midfielder in that can do his job. N'zonzi and Andrews are not good enough for the role.

[tony gale's mic]

You are a total prick. This is like your "GAME'S OFF" post

You've got a serious anger problem.

[super_arran]

His main supporter - is a member of the board....and wanted him before Ince.

Is that hand on heart the truth or just an assumption?

[JAL]

His main supporter - is a member of the board....and wanted him before Ince.

Explosive stuff Hughesy ! Spill the beans if you really do know more. Who is that man ?

[47er]

Joke of a manager, joke of a side and fast becoming a joke of a club.

Nice to see his ambition pre game saying he would take the point now. Play to draw in this league and you will get beat, espicially when you are such a poor outfit like us.

3 i would be happy with for 6months to save our skins

Curbs

McClaren

Laudrup

You'd be on here in no time getting stuck into them.No magic wand available I'm afraid.

[DE.]

I would like to say I agree with you here, but the fact that we didn't just collapse and die against Sunderland the previous game tells me that the players do care and do try to succeed under Sam. The same can be said against Chelsea in the quarter final.

Sunderland I'll give you... Chelsea was under MacDonald wasn't it?

The next couple of games will show whether Sam has really lost the dressing room or not. After the 'locked door' story tonight, the players are only going to react one of two ways. Each will have its own consequence.

[benhben]

Alan Shearer is after a new job in management. Mind he didnt make much difference at Newcastle. Love it if we got Hughes back, but thats never going to happen.

[Parsonblue]

We are now reaping the rewards of selling off our quality players over the past few seasons. At City tonight there were fans shouting "We want our Rovers back", sadly, we can't afford to bring them back! Friedel, Warnock, Bellamy, Santa Cruz, Bentley, Ooijer, Neill etc. have all left and have been replaced by inferior players. De Jong and Barry dominated in midfield as one would expect against the likes of the inexperienced N'Zonzi and the hapless Andrews. City had one player on the bench who cost more than the entire Rovers' team. That is the reason why we are struggling in this League. We no longer have the finances to compete with teams in the top half of this League.

Sam has not been as successful as I had hoped but, in all fairness, I'm not sure I could name a manager who would do any better with the present squad. We lack quality, skill and speed in far too many areas.

Tonight we had a goalkeeper who made a hash of a bread and butter cross. We had a City player - not one of the more skilful ones - who was allowed to run 70 yards with the ball without any Rovers' player bothering to challenge him. Then we had a throw in which we somehow managed to turn into a scoring opportunity for City.

At the end of the day we don't have the money to make a change of manager. Sacking Ince and his gang almost brought the club to its knees in financial terms. Nor do we have the money to strengthen a very average squad of players. Ultimately, Premier League football revolves around finance and we are simply the poor relations in this division. At this moment in time I would happily accept a heavy defeat against Villa for three points against Fulham.

We may not like it, but the reality of our situation is that finishing fourth from the bottom of the table is success when you look at the budget we are dealing with. It was the reason why Hughes left and it's the reason why replacing Sam would be difficult to replace. How many managers would put their reputation on the line managing our present squad and knowing that there was no money available to bring in new players?

[47er]

Absolute rubbish. Why should they pump money into your hobby / my hobby? It's not their bloody hobby.

We're paying the price for a sh1t manager who doesn't know how to use the talent on the books. Stop defending the indefensible.

[/quote

From a man who always defended Ince and attacked those of us who knew he was crap!You didn't come out with this stuff then did you?

The difference between the owners and fans like me is that they own the club. Doesn't that bring certain responsibilities with it?

Even looking at the financial angle should persuade them. They want to sell. If they continue to be outspent by the likes of Stoke we are going down sooner or later. Then the owners will be stuck with a club they can't get any money for. It doesn't make sense. One man is not responsible for this, its been coming for years. Wake up and look at the bigger picture.

[Tris]

After the 'locked door' story tonight, the players are only going to react one of two ways. Each will have its own consequence.

Hopefully the door was locked by the players, and they were crucifying the manager. He looked very very down when he finally showed up for interviews. In fact, he looked worse than I've ever seen him.

What will out will out, but the Hoilett not wanting to sign / Benni going public / Roberts unrest is the tip of the iceberg. Even Dunny hates the tactics, even as the main beneficiary (allegedly, of course )

[Tom]

Argh ###### internet made me lose my post.

TCO, to answer your post. I don't take any offence from what you've said, but don't disregard the fact that I pay for cable TV to watch the games and have an annual subscription to listen to them when I can't. The fact that I have to stay up til 2 or 4 in the morning, or get up at 7am on a weekend to watch the game is a huge inconvenience to me given I am a full time student doing a double degree, working 30 hours a week. It's not like I have nothing better to do with my nights and mornings than spend them watching us get hammered, but I do it anyway.

I feel just as violated as anyone else here when we lose and I completely agree, enough is enough, so sack him. Simply put, if you don't support a manager from the start, he is doomed to fail. I'm not defending the undefendable, I'm making a point of the fact that the people spouting off after our 2-0 loss to Man City at the start of the season have been calling for Sam's head after every loss since. I've commented on that fact for months now because it's impossible for anyone to work under those conditions. Some of the posters actually want us to fail, just because they want to see Sam fail. Give me a break

Good response, fair play my man.

Some fans have indeed been against Sam from the start but others including myself gave him a chance and in fact I defended him on this board many times earlier in his tenure and even after the Arsenal and Chelsea games this season.

Sam made a point about Megson that if the fans aren't behind you then you are buggered, luckily for Sam I expect many of the fans at Ewood still are behind him for now but the more vocal will be on messageboards making it seem like a majority.

If we were to go a goal down at any time on Sunday the fans may start to turn en masse, it could have happened vs Sunderland without Pedersens goal.

Villa and Fulham should be huge for us and Sam but even if we got soundly beaten on both occasions I think nothing would be done.

[Hughesy]

You are a total prick. This is like your "GAME'S OFF" post

Ah thanks - that makes 2 of us then! Im sure you have heard enough about Sam too considering your missus works at Rovers

Explosive stuff Hughesy ! Spill the beans if you really do know more. Who is that man ?

There are a few other board members on here who know all about it too. Sam has had many bust up's with JW in his time here.

Mattheman is his biggest fan and the main reason he got the job

[hermitstool]

So, i posted this a couple of weeks ago, and I stand by it:

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.

And I stand by what I said, our recent performance have gone from flat to abject and we are in serious danger of slipping out of this division. A change now could be just the tonic, and would certainly leave us no worse off.

Please, Mr Williams and the Trustees, accept that Big Sam has done his job but his tenure has run its course.

[nicko]

A couple of points to consider.

1...who do you bring in? Look at the poverty of the candidates beig mentioned by the other Premier League club currently looking for a manager.

2...does sacking a manager not risk knocking you back even further in the bid to stay in the division?

Sorry if that is negative thinking, but it's realistic.

And Hughesy is right - Big Sam has some powerful allies who wanted him before Ince and made sure he got it last time. Don't underestimate that.

The bottom line, though, is that two poor home performances this week will see civil unrest and that usually changes opinions.

[cesus]

Sam will categorically NOT get sacked this season, I'm sorry as much as people want him to go it is not going to happen. Managers need to be paid off, which will come out of the transfer budget, which we don't have so the new manager would have to deal with the players we have now. The players we have are simply not good enough. Look at Newcastle last season brought in Shearer but had to deal with the same players that the previous manager had tried and failed to motivate/get the best out of. Sam's tactics are awful I will be the first to say that but we appear to have NO, NOTHING, ZILCH in the bank for squad improvement.

If you look at our team tonight could you say anybody could have got much more out of it? (I'm going for a non blue & white tinted view)

Robinson: I'm pretty sure concedes more than he saves.

Jacobsen: Steady but up against pace looks Sunday league.

Nelsen: Looks very poor this season, struggles for pace, timing, strength all major assests for a centre half.

Samba: I highly rate the big man but will he do what our top end players have done before and take the big new pay day as a sign to sulk and want out.

Givet: Same as Jacobsen, far too slow at Full Back but I do like him at centre back.

Emerton: Always get 100% but will this be an injury too far for the lung busting performances.

Andrews: Nobody can defend this Gent anymore, and I really really have tried.

N'Zonzi: Not premiership standard yet, works very hard but well he is a bargain basement 400k signing for the future so in no way should he have so much pressure on him now. The fitness of our "experienced" midfield may have hampered the development of this lad.

Pedersen: He has been living on the credit of the work he put in 3 seasons ago for far too long. The last few performances have been better.

Dunn: Our only "bright spark", just how long will it take to get the Dunny from earlier in the season.

Di Santo: He would score goals at Chelsea as he would get far more chances. We have seen he runs alot, tries hard but hasn't put away the very few decent chances we have given him.

Errrm, hopefully we will find abit of dough!

[PAFELL]

Is he your source at the club, Hughesy?

I do not recall Hughesy saying he has a 'source'at the club. as I am sure he does not - how I know will remain with me. But if he has said he has , then yes I will surely be corrected.

[trawdenblue]

I'm just sick and tired of watching this drivel week in, week out.

There used to be a time, not long ago, when we would give anybody a good game. Even if we lost, it wasn't for the lack of trying.

Now we're lucky to get a point against the likes of Hull and Wigan, and we just capitulate against the bigger boys.

Something is not right. I hope they've sorted it out in the dressing room.

[hermitstool]

A couple of points to consider.

1...who do you bring in? Look at the poverty of the candidates beig mentioned by the other Premier League club currently looking for a manager.

2...does sacking a manager not risk knocking you back even further in the bid to stay in the division?

Sorry if that is negative thinking, but it's realistic.

And Hughesy is right - Big Sam has some powerful allies who wanted him before Ince and made sure he got it last time. Don't underestimate that.

The bottom line, though, is that two poor home performances this week will see civil unrest and that usually changes opinions.

Firstly, Nicko can I thank you for your contribution to these boards, we all appreciate it a great deal and it is a pleasure to have contributions of the clarity and quality you provide.

1) There are managers available at the moment. In no order of preference, apart from the first one: Hughes; Curbishley; Hiddink; Laudrup; Peter Reid; David O'Dreary; George Graham; Southgate; Shearer; Newell; Tugay; Hendry. There are also a whole host of managers employed elsewhere who would either be worth a punt or a long shot: Eriksson (don't forget he has signed up once before... but then so did Crespo.... what could have been??!?!?), Tony 'Safehands' Parkes, Dalgleish, Grayson, Jol, Grant?

2) In my humble opinions the current performances could not be worse, so a change in management could not do us any damage.

Let's see what happens, we all want the best for our Rovers.

[Tom]

A couple of points to consider.

1...who do you bring in? Look at the poverty of the candidates beig mentioned by the other Premier League club currently looking for a manager.

2...does sacking a manager not risk knocking you back even further in the bid to stay in the division?

Sorry if that is negative thinking, but it's realistic.

And Hughesy is right - Big Sam has some powerful allies who wanted him before Ince and made sure he got it last time. Don't underestimate that.

The bottom line, though, is that two poor home performances this week will see civil unrest and that usually changes opinions.

Obviously these are the problems that have to be considered but if things don't improve then something has to change.

The only silver lining is Pompey look as good as down and Burnley are one bad decision away from being down as well.

2 losses this week and Mr Williams could have to make one of the hardest of his career.