[Archived] Champions League

[jodrell]

From what I remember the first season we were about sixth and top three scorers but got the reputation as being boring from the press. Then some of the players didn't like his Continental type of training (Twice a day) and things went down hill from there.

[ewoodpo]

We did finish high in the league that season as we even played in Europe the season we went down.

[ewoodpo]

From Wiki

In the 1997 close season, Hodgson was tempted by Jack Walker to replace Ray Harford at Blackburn Rovers.Rovers had finished 13th under Harford the previous season - only 2 seasons after winning the title - and had been in danger of relegation; Walker wanted Rovers to challenge consistently for European football. In the 1997/98 season - his first season in charge - Blackburn finished 6th, qualifying for the UEFA cup and appeared to be in the ascendancy. However, Hodgson's second season with Blackburn would prove to be disastrous, both for the club and for his personal reputation within English football. Hodgson spent £20m in the summer of 1998 to strengthen the Rovers side[8]. A succession of poor buys - notably the £7.5m Kevin Davies - coupled with injuries and dressing room unrest led to a disastrous start to the season. He was sacked in December 1998 with Rovers at the bottom of the league table.[9] His final game was a home defeat to Southampton.[9][10]

So do you blame the players or him or were they all to blame.

[BlueWhiteDynamite]

i'd say blame was with all parties concerned.. Roy wasn't and still isnt a bad manager and at the same time the squad had just finished in europe a few months before. roy made some bad buys but also it appeared the existing players didnt want to change to his new style of management/training.

[philipl]

Roy Hodgson was a failure at Rovers, at Fulham he has worked miracles . They are now in a European semi and for the past couple of seasons they have been steady in the league. Prior to coming to us he was a big news even being touted as a future England manager what went wrong at Ewood ?

The impression I always got was Hodgson had an ego problem at Ewood. I think he admitted as much in later years.

Two abiding memories were of the Rovers playing the most exciting football since the Jim Smith era and the worst set of transfer dealings in the club's history.

[ewoodpo]

The impression I always got was Hodgson had an ego problem at Ewood. I think he admitted as much in later years.

Two abiding memories were of the Rovers playing the most exciting football since the Jim Smith era and the worst set of transfer dealings in the club's history.

Jim Smith was before my time therefore can't comment on that I'm from the Don Mckay era. We did play some good football in that first season with Roy. I think what it was his way of thinking was a step ahead for the era. His way of coaching worked in Italy really well and Italian football was booming at the time. The premeirship was still growing when he came to us.

If he was managing us now we would be in a better position than we are now. I'm not knocking Sam but to me Roy is a much better manager than the big man.

[jodrell]

Interesting blog and interview on Barca.

Messi, Cruyff and my trip to Barca

[Hughesy]

3-1 Inter at the moment...has the trip taken its toll or is it simply Mourinho the super tactician!?

[Eddie]

Who's this Messi guy? Haven't seen him...

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Please God let Barcelona win. I don't want the "Jose to Man Utd" headlines for the rest of the season.

[alexanders]

Mourinho is the special one.

[Exiled_Rover]

Happy for Jose Mourinho, he's an entertaining character.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Excellent win for Inter. I'm looking forward to seeing Barca at the Nou Camp going for the win. Should be an even better game now.

[neekoy]

Cracker from Inter, if Mourinho can pull this off then he has to go down as one the greatest managers of the modern era

[Silencio]

From what I remember the first season we were about sixth and top three scorers but got the reputation as being boring from the press. Then some of the players didn't like his Continental type of training (Twice a day) and things went down hill from there.

I don't remember that being our reputation at all at the time. We got very good write ups and deservedly so. Sutton and Gallacher were excellent playing up front together. Roy's problems were his (and Jack's) transfer dealings. Valery, Dailly and Blake were nowhere near good enough and Davies was awful. It's pretty well known that Roy never wanted Davies but Jack did and Roy used to bully the fat little @#/? on the training ground because of this.

Always heard his training was excellent but some of the players didn't like training so often. I would say that the issue was with the players if that was the case.

[Eddie]

Cracker from Inter, if Mourinho can pull this off then he has to go down as one the greatest managers of the modern era

Hm, I'm not sure that it is THAT amazing of an achievement.

[alexanders]

It is. He will be the first manager to win Champions League with 3 different clubs!

[Eddie]

...who would the second club have been?

[alexanders]

Porto, Chelsea and Internazionale? am I wrong?

[Eddie]

Chelsea never won it.

[alexanders]

Then I apologize. Maybe he was the first ever manager to be in the Champions League semifinal with 3 different teams. Anyhow it is a great achievement and he is the special one. I miss the character Mourinho in the EPL.

[Eddie]

That's quite possible, but then quite a few of the great managers haven't been to three clubs, so it's a bit of a nothing statistic.

[Hughesy]

Inter have 1 foot in the champs league final, 1 point off the top of Seria A & into the coppa italia final - potential for a treble! Not bad!

Lets not forget that Inter where FAR from favourites to win the champs league this year. He has also done the business with Porto!

I really hope he comes back to the EPL - he's good for our game!

[DeadlyDirk]

No doubt Mourinho has done well but my friend, being a bitter Chelsea fan actually wonders if he is as good as people make out. As I said it's mainly him being bitter but he did raise a few interesting points.

Winning the champions league with Porto was perhaps his finest achievement but they played Monaco in the final and Man Utd were the only real top side they knocked out, I'd argue Lyon were a pretty good side too but still I guess it was one of the easier routes by avoiding some of the bigger teams. He also compared his domestic achievements to the equivalent of the SPL, I don't watch much Portugese football to comment but admittedly Sporting Lisbon and Benfica are the only other sides you hear of frequently, not sure about the rest of the standard of the league.

With Chelsea he basically bought the title when others were not spending anywhere near the amounts they were, Ranieri was not far away before he took over and he already inherited a very talented squad. As soon as the money slowed down the results took a turn for the worse.

Again at Inter he inherited a very talented squad, a team that has previously won 3 Serie A titles in a row where the manager was only sacked due to his champions league failings.

His final point was quite comical as he compared his style of play to Allardyces, relying on ensuring the team was hard to beat, well discplined and organised and set out with a specific gameplan. In a lot of ways that's not untrue, if only Allardyce had the same charisma!

It certainly would be interesting to see just how well Mourinho would do if he was at a struggling club or a club without resources to build his own team. I do miss his character though and I hope we see him back in the premiership as he certainly made it more interesting. With Mourinho's success record though I doubt we'll ever see him at a struggling club, he could pretty much pick and choose his next club from any of the top teams if he showed an interest. I'm not saying I agree that he is over rated but I do believe that his results with Chelsea especially were largely due to Roman playing fantasy football, still Man City have proved that money doesn't guarantee success, however money and Mourinho probably does!

I think it's funny that some people say Man Utd would never take him as the next manager because his style of football isn't attractive enough, they wouldn't give a sh*t as long as they were winning things!

[Ewood and I Would]

I don't watch much Portugese football to comment but admittedly Sporting Lisbon and Benfica are the only other sides you hear of frequently, not sure about the rest of the standard of the league.

Well Mourinho must have done well seeing as he was managing the "unheard of" Porto then...