[Archived] The Dawn Of A New Era

[Mattyblue]

What's the problem with having a thread open that looks over the whole farce from 2010... starting with the sacking of Samuel?

[K-Hod]

Because that's when it's been going on since. If there was anything more than people re-hashing and quoting old posts/previous views then it would be decent, but it's not good to read....

[Mattyblue]

As den said earlier, there's not a lot else to talk about.

No tickets, no players, no hope.

[Amo]

Remember Topman continually telling us Kalinic would be a far better player when the ball wasn't hit at him head high? That was rubbish as well.

So your idol made a £6m mistake there, I take it?

[John]

So your idol made a £6m mistake there, I take it?

And we still did well under him even with some poor signings - could have finished higher than 10th maybe....

[Amo]

And we still did well under him even with some poor signings - could have finished higher than 10th maybe....

Anti-football has no need for prolific strikers.

[MarkBRFC71]

You're right there. Keep condemning yourself with your continual drivel.

I wouldn't want to steal your crown Jimbo. Not that I'm anywhere approaching that level of idiocy.

Anyway, can we leave it now? I know you get a little kick from getting the last word in so I'm betting you just can't ....

As den said earlier, there's not a lot else to talk about.

No tickets, no players, no hope.

Amen to that. What happened to that rumoured second video of Kean?

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Your argument was that the players under Sam were capable of passing the ball better than what they did. There's no proof of that though is there? In fact that aspect of the game has deteriorated since we sacked him - suggesting to some people that this whole viewpoint that the players were capable of a more "entertaining game" had no base whatsoever. Remember Topman continually telling us Kalinic would be a far better player when the ball wasn't hit at him head high? That was rubbish as well.

Sam had to sell over £30m worth of players - and still improved us. It wasn't pretty a lot of the time, but neither was it hoofball all of the time. In all my time as a fan, the most entertaining teams were the teams with the most talented players. Under Hughes for instance, the football was dire until he signed the likes of Bentley, Bellamy, Santa Cruz and others. To suggest that Sam had a squad capable of even approaching that level of talent, is absurd.

You're right I don't have definitive proof but you are still highlighting Sam's abilities as a manager by comparing him with by far the worst I have ever seen. My argument was only that the vast majority of professional footballers can play in whatever system their manager tells them to. Neither have us have any real basis to this argument as the only manager we have had since Sam is the utter clown Kean so while admittedly I can't prove that "the players were capable of a more "entertaining game", neither really can you prove the opposite.

As for Kalinic, he is a support striker who relies on link up play with a fellow striker and therefore did not suit our system at all. Poor signing given the money and the fact that ALlardyce knew he would play him as a lone striker. But Givet, Salgado and Nzonzi were excellent signings. I can remember one instance at home to someone when I think we were 2-1 down and Kalinic and Roberts were paired up top together for about the last 10 minutes of the game and I was very impressed with their brief partnership.

"Improved us" from who? Ince?..... mightily glad he did but it shouldn't of been too hard for a half decent manager. I'm not personally anti-Sam just didn't agree with a lot of things about him.

[jim mk2]

I wouldn't want to steal your crown Jimbo. Not that I'm anywhere approaching that level of idiocy.

Anyway, can we leave it now? I know you get a little kick from getting the last word in so I'm betting you just can't ....

For once, I have to take my hat off to you. In the idiot stakes I admit you have me well and truly beaten.

Anyway, can we leave it now? I know you get a little kick from getting the last word in so I'm betting you just can't ....

[MarkBRFC71]

For once, I have to take my hat off to you. In the idiot stakes I admit you have me well and truly beaten.

Anyway, can we leave it now? I know you get a little kick from getting the last word in so I'm betting you just can't ....

[DE.]

His teams passed the ball well when the pressure was off and the game was won. His approach was safety first before then and we were none the worse for that.

Bolton probably did, but they had players who could.

The last time I was impressed by a Rovers team passing the ball was back when Hughes was still manager. Most of my memories of our team attempting any type of flowing pass & move since then are accompanied by the sound of bitter laughter.

Allardyce knew how to get the best out of a technically poor team - have said that for a long time. Whether he would have bought players to increase the technical side of our game we'll never know - I imagine that was the next step. He'd managed to mould us into a team of grafters with a dogged, generally winning ethic... next step was to get a modern day Jay Jay or Djorkaeff to move things forward. A huge shame he never got the chance to do that, but then even if Venky's hadn't arrived there was no guarantee the Trust would have released the funds necessary to move beyond what he'd already built.

[jim mk2]

Bolton probably did, but they had players who could.

The last time I was impressed by a Rovers team passing the ball was back when Hughes was still manager. Most of my memories of our team attempting any type of flowing pass & move since then are accompanied by the sound of bitter laughter.

Allardyce knew how to get the best out of a technically poor team - have said that for a long time. Whether he would have bought players to increase the technical side of our game we'll never know - I imagine that was the next step. He'd managed to mould us into a team of grafters with a dogged, generally winning ethic... next step was to get a modern day Jay Jay or Djorkaeff to move things forward. A huge shame he never got the chance to do that, but then even if Venky's hadn't arrived there was no guarantee the Trust would have released the funds necessary to move beyond what he'd already built.

Bitter laughter from whom ? I've never heard "bitter laughter" (can laughter be bitter ?) from Rovers fans because results and performances at Ewood were generally very good. Sure there were one or two morons moaning about "hoofball" - examples of them are in evident in this thread - but they were in a tiny minority and where I sit have largely disappeared over the past 6 months as the club has gone steadily downhill.

[DE.]

Bitter laughter from whom ? I've never heard "bitter laughter" (can laughter be bitter ?) from Rovers fans because results and performances at Ewood were generally very good. Sure there were one or two morons moaning about "hoofball" - examples of them are in evident in this thread - but they were in a tiny minority and where I sit have largely disappeared over the past 6 months as the club has gone steadily downhill.

Really? Thought bitter laughter was a fairly standard phrase.

To make it clear - I had no problem with the fact our team were technically poor and struggled to put three passes together. It didn't matter because more often than not we won matches, that's all that really mattered. I never thought Sam's football was "hoofball", it was just direct, and it needed to be with the type of players we had.

[Proudtobeblue&white]

When it all comes out, it's the person/agency that sold the "new" vision of Rovers to the family - we all know/suspect the culprits, I for one liked Sam in the main as he knew for the most part what he needed to achieve and how to achieve it - I was embarrassed by the Manure result, but knew we would win more than lose at home - we come back to clueless owners employing a chancer manager - brought it home to me when I read the guardian today and they were previewing the prospctive target buys for each PL club and WE were not there, and under any decent owners/ manager we should have been. No right to be there but we did have the infrastructure, now we have nothing - I for one could weap

[Amo]

Of course our passing & positional play would look poor under Allardyce. That's what happens when you don't practice at it. I expect most training sessions were spent seeing how many players Samba & Diouf could barge over in the penalty box before Pedersen wound up one of his Hail Mary throws.

[Mattyblue]

Of course our passing & positional play would look poor under Allardyce. That's what happens when you don't practice at it. I expect most training sessions were spent seeing how many players Samba & Diouf could barge over in the penalty box before Pedersen wound up one of his Hail Mary throws.

What a time it was.

[Amo]

A golden age.

[Silencio]

"Jol has been living off Hughes' legacy"......not at all, otherwise you could say that Hughes was just living off Hodgson's. He has made decent signings, like Dembele who is a quality player as well as leading Spurs to 2 fifth place finishes.

Dembele was a Hughes signing. Hughes wanted him and Diarra in his final months at Rovers. Allardyce also looked at him...

[Salgado Is A Hero]

My mistake......Porgrebynak then was a good signing after they were crying out for a goalscorer due to their other main strikers being Andy Johnson and Zamora

[47er]

So your idol made a £6m mistake there, I take it?

Well we did get the money back! That won't happen with Kean's signings.

[Silencio]

My mistake......Porgrebynak then was a good signing after they were crying out for a goalscorer due to their other main strikers being Andy Johnson and Zamora

True. Allardyce wanted him in January 2009 but we were short of funds...

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Maybe he shouldn't of bought Chimbonda then.......

[thenodrog]

For the last time (because the whole posthumous Sam love-in is almost as interminably dull as you), at the time, with the promise of investment, the strong links to better managers like Jol and O'Neill, and with no idea who Steve Kean was, sacking Sam seemed like a positive if perhaps ill-timed move.

"at the time, with the promise of investment"!!! You have learnt nothing have you? What one earth made you and others take that all sh1t at face value in the first place? Weeks before Allardyce was sacked that stupid cow had the press and media taking the p1ss out of our club with promise of a 5m pa 'investement' being enough to get us in the CL. And whilst many saw right through the lies you were gullible enough to swallow the lot hook, line and sinker..... and now 18 months later and relegated you still don't get it do you? There really is no hope for some.

[thenodrog]

Not true Gordon. I don't think you are right in saying that all young fans were spoilt by watching premier league football and will hate it lower down the leagues. if you look at most of the lower clubs, many of their fans, even fans of clubs that have been in the big league and are now down, fans genuinely enjoy going to matches. The football we watched, not just the style but the whole atmosphere where you knew what you'd get before you got there, was dreadful under Allardyce. It was sapping the spirit of many. Now I kept going because I felt that results were good enough and you are right about winning being the only thing that ultimately matters in terms of league position. However, you are talking about football as though it hasn't changed since the days of standing on the terraces - it has, and as in everything, the thing fans demand now is that football is entertaining as well as winning football. I rarely remember being entertained under allardyce. I do remember being entertained under Hughes and Souness, both men who also knew how to get a hard game won, but understood that football is more than just getting the science right. Fans were bored, not with the winning - fans love that- but with the whole atmosphere that suggested we were already dropping down and could never be trusted to play any kind of expansive game at any point just in case we conceded a goal , even if we were already well on top and there was little time left.

Now, I don't expect Barcelona style football from my team - I don't even particularly like Barcelona type football, finding it frustrating as another perfect pass goes in but nobody seems to want to take any risks. But you do want a sense of anticipation that what you will see will be a good contest, well fought with some flair and enthusiasm, and something other than an eventual one-nil scoreline to excite the crowd, because while it's nice to go home with that winning feeling, great even, football has to have more than that, not even every week, but enough of the time to bring folks back - you haven't struggled to fill your time whilst boycotting Kean's Ewood this year - many who wondered whether to go to matches under Allardyce probably had lots of other options on how to fill their time and would have eventually found those things more enjoyable.

Your opinions are easily disproved by the attendance figures gumboots.

Also Souness and Hughes enjoyed much more financial support than Allardyce received. The lack of such support only manifested itself on Hughes in the last season causing him to seek pastures new.

[MarkBRFC71]

"at the time, with the promise of investment"!!! You have learnt nothing have you? What one earth made you and others take that all sh1t at face value in the first place? Weeks before Allardyce was sacked that stupid cow had the press and media taking the p1ss out of our club with promise of a 5m pa 'investement' being enough to get us in the CL. And whilst many saw right through the lies you were gullible enough to swallow the lot hook, line and sinker..... and now 18 months later and relegated you still don't get it do you? There really is no hope for some.

£5m per season sounded a reasonable, believable investment; like everyone else I thought the CL talk embarrassingly naive though. Obviously time has shown us that they weren't all they seemed; nonetheless they deserved a chance and to not be written off immediately and condemned as 'slumdog millionaires' by our resident xenophobe from day one.

So which part of me saying I'd rather have kept Sam if Kean was the answer is "not getting it" then cock? Again, for the hard of learning like yourself, sacking Sam wasn't a bad decision in isolation - replacing him with, and stubbornly sticking with a no-mark coach, and removing the existing board without replacement are what killed us.