[Archived] Blackburn Rovers v Stoke City

[roversWASmylife]

Well what a load of rubbish that was. Thought the West Ham game was bad but that took the biscuit.

Going to try and stick to the game will post my views relating to the club in other topics etc. We never looked threatening to be honest to score against Stoke, no creativity, passion, drive or determination whatsoever. I'll always except if we get beat by the better team if we've given our all but today we didn't.

From the word go we were second to nearly every ball and nowhere near the second balls. The midfield were a shambles. Said it before Pedersen has had a decent season chipped in with a few goals but he's not a central midfield. He's not a ballwinner which is what we're missing, today we needed a player in the middle to get hold of the game, nobody did. Dunn was poor, tries to be too clever at times.

Kalinic, bless him. Works had and tirelessly runs, holds the ball up but was he really going to have a chance today? Mame Diouf did ok, had half a chance. We played into Stoke's hands, lumping the ball up Kalinic wasn't strong enough against the centre backs.

We could sit here and moan all day. However, no passion or much effort. No idea what's going on behind the scenes but there didn't seem to be any focus, Stoke's first goal somebody went to sleep with Huth and their second was always going to come as we tried to commit forward.

Shocking overall. Kean needs to get a grip quickly but I've got a feeling he hasn't got the backing of the players.

[47er]

Wasn't suggesting that at all. I just don't believe they decision to sack him when they did had anything to do with upcoming fixtures. It was more of a case of keeping him out of January transfer business if you ask me

If they'd kept Sam and bought nobody we'd have finished higher up than we will now. Sam could have completed his contract with the dignity he deserved and Venkys could have had from now till summer to suss out a new manager, new targets could have been signed and "bedded in" in time for next season.

Orderly, sensible and effective. But they knew better.

[roversWASmylife]

You will find most of them wanted rid of Sams style too.

I sit in N02 - alot of N01 were very negative towards Big Sam, now he's gone its the Owners fault & Sam is a legend type stuff....its something the Geordies are good at being like that, not usually our fans!

To be honest my thoughts of Big Sam were that he wasn't really liked but he wasn't really disliked either. The football under Big Sam wasn't brilliant but we got results. All be it we've only had two games under Kean but both performances have been awful.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

If they'd kept Sam and bought nobody we'd have finished higher up than we will now. Sam could have completed his contract with the dignity he deserved and Venkys could have had from now till summer to suss out a new manager, new targets could have been signed and "bedded in" in time for next season.

Orderly, sensible and effective. But they knew better.

That's just way too simplistic and sensible thinking for our new owners to comprehend 47er.Give the dears some time,we might be in the 3rd division before it finally clicks.

[deftangel]

Stoke bullied us today in an effective manner, assisted somewhat by the referee. They were a lot better at imposing themselves physically at the extremes of the laws of the game and getting away with it. It's not pretty but they're good at it and with the players we had out, we were a bit lightweight. Under Sam we'd never have won this game given the circumstances though but would probably have got a draw. (that said set piece defending has been shocking all season). I don't think it's worth looking back on his regime through rose-tinted spectacles.

The same has to be said about Kean. Having had a whole week with the team he didn't step up and demonstrate any indications that he is especially capable. Team setup and (lack of) substitutions left a lot to be desired. A back three is an idea to try when our three best central defenders are fit and with someone quicker than Salgado. Having a midfield would help too. This doesn't mean he's a write off, yet but he's definitely not found his feet and we do not have a whole lot of time to allow him to do so. He needs a result, and some players quickly. The problem as I see it is that he won't get any players for at least 2 games, the injury list is horrific and I can't see us winning any of the next 3 (with West Brom next up possibly being the best chance).

If we lose 3-4 on the trot I don't think his position will be tenable but who we bring in at that point is anyone's guess. The nightmare scenario would be that he resigns admitting he's not cut out for it.

[Lancs Rover]

Thought Kean's interview on Radio 5 after today's match was interesting. Showed an insight into how he sees the game and maybe why we are so limited across the pitch. His comment that Rovers knew all about how often Stoke had scored just after half-time this season showed a real lack of imagination. Son of Sam. He went for the percentage game. Stop Stoke scoring quickly in the second half and we might be all right. Slavishly playing a game of football by statistics is surely going to end in disaster. It's not the stats that blew me over, it was a manager's blind faith in them. Then Stoke score in injury time. Creating new stats for their next opponents. We need to play football not crush the life out of our players like Dunny.

[beerwins]

You will find most of them wanted rid of Sams style too.

I sit in N02 - alot of N01 were very negative towards Big Sam, now he's gone its the Owners fault & Sam is a legend type stuff....its something the Geordies are good at being like that, not usually our fans!

It's simple really, they just dont know who to blame and someone has to get it in the neck.

The only thing that will lighten the mood and get the fans back on their side are results, I dont see where they are going to come from with Kean in charge.

Now we can all say he has only had 2 matches and a handfull of training sessions but the most important thing when a new manager comes in is how the players react.

The players have reacted really bad, they have played with no fire, no desire and looked totally clueless. Over Christmas is always one of the worst times a player can have, the younger players want to go out and party it up and the older ones want to be with their families, none of them want to be on the training ground at -10 degrees and that is when you need a good manager to get them focused and fired up for what they get paid for.

A good owner would have understood this, a good owner would'nt have sacked an experienced manager at this time in the season and a good manager would never have gone to clarify his own position by jumping on a plane and leaving his players at this time in the year, it sets a bad example.

John Williams should have been the one on the plane to discuss manager's with the owners not the coach, you cant blame the guy for nearly walking.

Strange times at Ewood and very worrying.

[BRFC1995]

Well what a load of rubbish that was. Thought the West Ham game was bad but that took the biscuit.

Going to try and stick to the game will post my views relating to the club in other topics etc. We never looked threatening to be honest to score against Stoke, no creativity, passion, drive or determination whatsoever. I'll always except if we get beat by the better team if we've given our all but today we didn't.

From the word go we were second to nearly every ball and nowhere near the second balls. The midfield were a shambles. Said it before Pedersen has had a decent season chipped in with a few goals but he's not a central midfield. He's not a ballwinner which is what we're missing, today we needed a player in the middle to get hold of the game, nobody did. Dunn was poor, tries to be too clever at times.

Kalinic, bless him. Works had and tirelessly runs, holds the ball up but was he really going to have a chance today? Mame Diouf did ok, had half a chance. We played into Stoke's hands, lumping the ball up Kalinic wasn't strong enough against the centre backs.

We could sit here and moan all day. However, no passion or much effort. No idea what's going on behind the scenes but there didn't seem to be any focus, Stoke's first goal somebody went to sleep with Huth and their second was always going to come as we tried to commit forward.

Shocking overall. Kean needs to get a grip quickly but I've got a feeling he hasn't got the backing of the players.

agree with that totally it should'nt matter i guess if everyone is professional as they should be about things but i can quite imagine most of the players on hearing kean is in charge thinking..'seriously this guy', who the hell was the chairman venkys said they had been talking too about another manager a few weeks ago that seemingly came to nothing.......or was it bullshit to start with

i think this would be realistic for us...just change the names to suit

[colin]

God that was bloody awful.

I thought that Kean might have had a bit of an idea of how to play against Stoke - let's face it they are fairly predictable.

But we tried to out-Stoke Stoke and we were never going to manage that.

As the phrase goes "Never argue with an idiot, they drag you down to your level and beat you with experiance."

[deftangel]

Thought Kean's interview on Radio 5 after today's match was interesting. Showed an insight into how he sees the game and maybe why we are so limited across the pitch. His comment that Rovers knew all about how often Stoke had scored just after half-time this season showed a real lack of imagination. Son of Sam. He went for the percentage game. Stop Stoke scoring quickly in the second half and we might be all right. Slavishly playing a game of football by statistics is surely going to end in disaster. It's not the stats that blew me over, it was a manager's blind faith in them. Then Stoke score in injury time. Creating new stats for their next opponents. We need to play football not crush the life out of our players like Dunny.

Fat Sam's football philosophy was based heavily on percentages (i.e. put the ball in this area x tmes, we'll score). I would prefer Kean worried more about why we haven't been able to defend set pieces all season.

[tony gale's mic]

Tony, my original statement:

"Thats what you call giving a bloke a chance. Kean has had TWO matches, probably about a weeks worth of training sessions with the players and is missing SEVEN first 11 players but people are asking for his head already... come on guys at least give him 3 games...FFS.

That was dire, rubbish, poor (add in any other adjectives that you wish to use), however the mass over reaction is ridiculous, two weeks ago it was Anti Sam, now he is seen as a Messiah and the chosen one who would have guided us through the realms of the premier league... the two worst players on the pitch today? Kalinic and Givet, combined cost of over £10 million- spent by... The Messiah.

We need an overhaul and as I have consistently said, the date to jusge the owners and the manager will be February 1st, after the window has closed and Kean has had a fair crack at the whip."

At which you point you said my head was in the sand. Highlighted a few bits which would suggest a balanced point of view, as opposed to:

"It's not too late to admit you're were wrong, but if you keep on trying to defend the indefensible you'll start to make yourself look very silly indeed."

It has been TWO games. Is that long enough?

To answer your questions:

1."Was Sam's football worse than under Ince? Was it worse than the last days of Hodgson? Was it worse than under Kidd? Sams football is a lot worse than under all the names that you mention. (Maybe we should have a poll to confirm)

2. "Last season we were 13th in the league in terms of away record. Not great but acceptable given the circumstances. Same position this season too. That's not really diabolical." Under Sam we have had our WORST goal difference EVER in the PL, TWICE. This season we are well on our way to that again. 7-1 was our WORST defeat in PL HISTORY, smashed records did the Messiah, that is why its diabolical- facts for you.

3. Givet - arguably a success.- Really? He cost nearly £4 million pounds, aged 28, how much do you think you could sell him for? He has been one of the worst players for Rovers and the biggest let down, for the money he is a flop.

4. Kalinic - looked promising but would definitely class as a flop. But £6 million hardly guarantees you a good PL striker. I bet for every 6 million (or less) striker which has been a success in this league, I can name you far more that have been flops. So... a flop? Took you a while to get there. The irony that I talk "cack" is obviously lost on you

5. Chimbonda - only a bit over a million, has done poorly but again £1.5 million isn't much to spend on a full back is it? Umm Yes it is! He cost £1.5 million which is the THIRD biggest sum that Sam spent and he played him at LEFT back.

6.So yeah, he had 3 signings over a million. EHD cost over £1 million too and for the large part has been a flop.

7. £1 million is absolutely no money in the Premier League. Do you actually follow Blackburn Rovers FC? If you did then you would know that £1 million is a LOT of money for us and we could not afford to throw it away.

Sam signed THREE right backs, one to play at LEFT back, when everyone could see that we were short in central midfield. He also signed a £6 million pound striker who cannot play up front by himself... to play up front by himself. So what are we left with? A lot of over paid, over the hill football players, a squad that is massively unbalanced and a crippling wage bill, thank god we have kids who can actually play a bit.

Finally we all have opinions on here, just because mine differs from yours does not mean that I am wrong or you are right.

But your opinion is based on things which patently aren't true. Therefore you are wrong. Try and point out any holes as big as this in what I'm saying.

1. Your opinion is that Sam's football was worse than under the likes of Ince and Kidd? You honestly think people were entertained more by watching us getting tanked at home regularly and us getting relegated than watching us under Sam?

You think people enjoyed their football more and that a poll would show that people preferred Ince and Kidd's football to Sam's?

That's rubbish. If you set up a poll (since thats what you recommended) asking people that, people would say they preferred the football Sam's era of us doing well in the Premier League, than the football which saw us getting relegated.

Football that wins matches consistently is always better than football that loses matches consistently, the grey areas only come in when you get comparitive results. That's a fact, feel free to start a poll to disprove it.

2. Your opinion that we had a "diabolical" away record is only true if you think goal difference is more important than points scored, which again it's quite clearly not. Do you think title winning sides compare their goal difference with the second place side? Having the 13th best away record out of 20 is classed as being fairly average, although we had a few bad scores along the way.

Also another blatant lie you said was that our worst ever PL goal difference was under Sam. Yes Sam finished as our manager that season, but our total goal difference was -20. When Sam took over it was -17. So actually Paul Ince was responsible for our worst PL goal difference ever.

3. Givet being a success is an opinion based thing, however I'm hardly alone in thinking he's done a good job for us overall, even though there's been games where he's been poor. IMO you would certainly be in the minority with that opinion.

4. Funny how you didn't answer my other question. Kalinic was a flop but every signing must be judged on the money which was paid for it. 6 million is a fair amount of money and we've been spoiled at Rovers for having some recentish successful strikers who have cost less.

However the only way to judge this in a reasonably objective way is to look at other strikers signed for around that much. I bet I can name you more £5-7 million flops than you can name me successes, indicating while it was a flop signing, £6 million more often than not does not buy you a successful PL striker. You can try naming me all the £6 million and below strikers that have been successes in this league, and I can name far more 6 million and above strikers who have failed.

5. This is absurd. The fact that £1.5 million was Sam's THIRD biggest signing says a hell of a lot more about the money he's had to spend than anything else. Do you think £1.5 million is well above, or well below what the average PL club spends on a first team full back? Of course it's not very much to spend on a full back.

6. EHD cost a tiny bit over a million and for the money he spent he has been worth it. He played a good solid role in the turnaround under Sam which saved us from the drop, was diabolical last season granted but at the start of this season was producing very good performances for us most weeks. How many successful wingers can you remember in this league who were bought for a million?

7. It might be a lot of money for us but it doesn't change the calibre of player you can buy does it? It doesn't change the fact it's very difficult to sign Premier League quality for a million does it? Otherwise even the top teams would save their money and at least snap up bench strength quality for a million.

Sam had to work with a negative transfer budget. He had far less money to spend when most of the managers in this league. When you have the money that Steve Bruce, for example, has to spend you can splash out on a strikeforce of Darren Bent and one of the stars of the WC in Asamoah Gyan. I'll admit the right back thing was a bit puzzling and IMO he sold the wrong right back, but our first team under Sam was arguably no younger than was under Hughes.

We also managed to balance the books under Sam - the reason why so much money from the RSC/Warnock transfers went down the drain was to cover the wage bill that Hughes left us with (Sam had only been in charge half a year). He only got s fraction of the money back and still built a side which punched well above its weight and the money invested in us. Birmingham spend £20 million in summer '09 and outside the big 4, Everton, Spurs, City and Villa they were the only club who finished above us last season.

[den]

Spot on, I'm bored to tears of reading post's relating our present position and Sams sacking, If, like TCO said we had appointed a good manager a few days after the sacking of Sam and given him around 10 million in the window we may well have been climbing up the league and playing some better stuff.

Ha yeah, and if we could find someone better than him as well, then someone better than him, then s........?

The realists on here knew that to get someone better than Allardyce, for the club Rovers are, was nigh impossible.

Wrong owners, wrong sacking, wrong managerial replacement, wrong time.

[Martin]

Make no mistake. We are a shambles from top to bottom.

We have been comprehensively and deservedly beaten by Stoke City at home.

On top of this...

Our captain (perhaps former captain now) and best player wants to leave.

Our owners have sacked a manager who has acheived good results with a negative transfer budget.

Our owners have sacked a manager without a plan or strategy for replacement.

Our current Manager has no managerial experience.

Our current Manager is about to spend the first transfer budget we've had in years, with no previous experience of buying.

Our next two games are away from home.

[Herbie6590]

My 10 year old nephew heard me whinging to my bro in law on the way home after today's game & said "So what would you do then if you were manager ?"......I have to say I was genuinely stumped !

What can be done in the January window to attract new players that will enhance the squad, fit in our budget, be enticed by working with Steve Kean, be happy to sign for a club evidently in turmoil & raise the spirits of the supporters ?

It's hard to believe that just a month ago we'd won 3 out of 4 & were looking forward to taking on a "struggling" Man U......

[chris]

My 10 year old nephew heard me whinging to my bro in law on the way home after today's game & said "So what would you do then if you were manager ?"......I have to say I was genuinely stumped !

[tony gale's mic]

Well stop telling people WHO DO GO on a regular basis that they're talking rubbish and cack, because being hold up in your bedroom listening to Merson doesn’t qualify you to do so.

:lol:

Is your tiny brain programmed to talk @#/??

I used to be a season ticket holder till circumstances stopped me, now I go to about 6 or 7 home games a season, but not for one minute would I think that qualified me more than someone who watched every game from thousands of miles away.

Just because you go every week it doesn't make you any more qualified to comment on things, other than what the atmosphere at the match was like, or what the pies in the concourse tasted like. One manager got results on a tiny budget with a ###### poor squad. We've now sacked him and going to see the horrible subsequent mess unfold in full, or going on average once a month like I do doesn't affect your perspective on things.

[adopted scouser]

Bad enough watching that shi*e today then getting stuck in my car in Oakdale for an hour and a half trying to get home.

We're in the sh*t lads, make no bones about it. We are championship fodder, Jack's dream is dead at the hands of Indian chicken farmers.

Dig out your videos of 1995 and feel nostalgic, it's over.

[imy9]

But your opinion is based on things which patently aren't true. Therefore you are wrong. Try and point out any holes as big as this in what I'm saying.

1. Your opinion is that Sam's football was worse than under the likes of Ince and Kidd? You honestly think people were entertained more by watching us getting tanked at home regularly and us getting relegated than watching us under Sam?

You think people enjoyed their football more and that a poll would show that people preferred Ince and Kidd's football to Sam's?

That's rubbish. If you set up a poll (since thats what you recommended) asking people that, people would say they preferred the football Sam's era of us doing well in the Premier League, than the football which saw us getting relegated.

YOU SAID WHO PLAYS THE BETTER FOOTBALL, NOT WHICH DO PEOPLE PREFER. I ENJOY WATCHING WIGAN PLAY, THEY PLAY SOME SUPER STUFF, BUT THEY LANGUISH IN THE BOTTOM 5 ON A REGULAR BASIS. MAYBE YOU NEEDED TO BE CLEARER.

Football that wins matches consistently is always better than football that loses matches consistently, the grey areas only come in when you get comparitive results. That's a fact, feel free to start a poll to disprove it.

I AGREE, HOWEVER...CONSISTENCY? ALL THE MANAGERS MENTIONED HAVE LOST MORE MATCHES THAN THEY HAVE WON.

2. Your opinion that we had a "diabolical" away record is only true if you think goal difference is more important than points scored, which again it's quite clearly not. Do you think title winning sides compare their goal difference with the second place side? Having the 13th best away record out of 20 is classed as being fairly average, although we had a few bad scores along the way.

WE WON TWO MATCHES AWAY LAST YEAR FROM 18, GETTING BATTERED IN THE PROCESS, THAT IS A FACT, WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE WORST RECORD AND 13TH? 3 POINTS?

Also another blatant lie you said was that our worst ever PL goal difference was under Sam. Yes Sam finished as our manager that season, but our total goal difference was -20. When Sam took over it was -17. So actually Paul Ince was responsible for our worst PL goal difference ever.

OK ILL REPHRASE IT. TAKING INTO ACCOUNT ALL FULL SEASONS IN THE PL, SAMS COMPLETE SEASON LAST YEAR WAS A RECORD, IN THAT IT WAS THE WORST IN OUR HISTORY- FACT.

3. Givet being a success is an opinion based thing, however I'm hardly alone in thinking he's done a good job for us overall, even though there's been games where he's been poor. IMO you would certainly be in the minority with that opinion.

ITS A MESSAGEBOARD...OPINIONS? THE QUESTION WAS HOW MUCH IS HE WORTH? WOULD WE GET OUR MONEY BACK? IF I HAD TO NAME THE WORST THREE PLAYERS THIS YEAR, HE WOULD BE IN THE TOP 3, EASILY.

4. Funny how you didn't answer my other question. Kalinic was a flop but every signing must be judged on the money which was paid for it. 6 million is a fair amount of money and we've been spoiled at Rovers for having some recentish successful strikers who have cost less.

SO BENJANI IS A SUCCESS THEN, HE SCORED ONE GOAL BUT WAS FREE. SO WAS BASTURK, HE WAS PAY AS YOU PLAY AND PLAYED HALF A GAME. YOUR RIGHT SAM IS A GENIUS. HAVE A LOOK AT THE CLUBS AROUND US, DOYLE COST £6 MILLION, RODELLEGA (DONT KNOW THE AMOUNT BUT LESS THAN £6 MILLION), CARLTON COLE- £2 MILLION, ZAMORA UNDER £6 MILLION, THOSE ARE THE TEAMS AROUND US, I BET I COULD NAME AT LEAST ONE PLAYER UNDER £6 MILLION WHO HAS BEEN A SUCCESS AT CLUBS IN THE BOTTOM HALF- SO HE WAS POOR VALUE FOR MONEY.

However the only way to judge this in a reasonably objective way is to look at other strikers signed for around that much. I bet I can name you more £5-7 million flops than you can name me successes, indicating while it was a flop signing, £6 million more often than not does not buy you a successful PL striker. You can try naming me all the £6 million and below strikers that have been successes in this league, and I can name far more 6 million and above strikers who have failed.

5. This is absurd. The fact that £1.5 million was Sam's THIRD biggest signing says a hell of a lot more about the money he's had to spend than anything else. Do you think £1.5 million is well above, or well below what the average PL club spends on a first team full back? Of course it's not very much to spend on a full back.

IS £1.5 MILLION A LOT OF MONEY FOR BLACKBURN ROVERS? IS IT A LOT TO BE SPENT ON A RIGHT BACK, TO PLAY AT LEFT BACK WHEN YOU HAVE PURCHASED TWO OTHER RIGHT BACKS BEFORE? ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU NEED A CENTRAL MIDFIELD PLAYER! TWO OF THE RIGHT BACKS ARE ON MORE THAN £30K A WEEK!

6. EHD cost a tiny bit over a million and for the money he spent he has been worth it. He played a good solid role in the turnaround under Sam which saved us from the drop, was diabolical last season granted but at the start of this season was producing very good performances for us most weeks. How many successful wingers can you remember in this league who were bought for a million?

BENTLEY, LARSSON, THERE ARE OTHERS, EHD IS ON £40K A WEEK, HE HAS COST US A LOT MORE THAN £1 MILLION. HE HAS PLAYED A DOZEN DECENT GAMES, WHAT ABOUT THE REST?

7. It might be a lot of money for us but it doesn't change the calibre of player you can buy does it? It doesn't change the fact it's very difficult to sign Premier League quality for a million does it? Otherwise even the top teams would save their money and at least snap up bench strength quality for a million.

HUGHES DID IT, BUT SAMS BIG MONEY SIGNINGS HAVE BEEN FLOPS, AS A CLUB WE LIVE AND DIE BY THE CHOICES THAT WE MAKE IN THE TRANSFER MARKET (WHICH IS WHY I AM PLEASED TO HEAR THE NEW OWNERS WANTING TO INVEST IN YOUTH), SAM HAS BOUGHT PLAYERS ON BIG CONTRACTS WHO WILL GIVE US NOTHING BACK IN RETURN WHEN THEY LEAVE.

Sam had to work with a negative transfer budget. He had far less money to spend when most of the managers in this league. When you have the money that Steve Bruce, for example, has to spend you can splash out on a strikeforce of Darren Bent and one of the stars of the WC in Asamoah Gyan. I'll admit the right back thing was a bit puzzling and IMO he sold the wrong right back, but our first team under Sam was arguably no younger than was under Hughes.

HUGHES BOUGHT US BELLAMY (26), BENTLEY (22), RSC (25), BENNI (28) SAMBA (22), WARNOCK (25) PLAYERS WITH RESALE, WE MADE MONEY ON ALL OF THEM, HOW MANY OF SAMS? NZONZI?

We also managed to balance the books under Sam - the reason why so much money from the RSC/Warnock transfers went down the drain was to cover the wage bill that Hughes left us with (Sam had only been in charge half a year). He only got s fraction of the money back and still built a side which punched well above its weight and the money invested in us. Birmingham spend £20 million in summer '09 and outside the big 4, Everton, Spurs, City and Villa they were the only club who finished above us last season.

HUGHES LEFT US WITH A SQUAD OF TALENTED PLAYERS, THE WAGE BILL IS/WAS DRAINED BY PURCHASING THREE RIGHT BACKS AND OTHER POINTLESS SIGNINGS LIKE LINGANZI, GOULON, ETC, THEY ARE ON TWO/THREE YEAR DEALS, WILL THEY MAKE IT? DOUBT IT.

So to end this, you have your opinion, I have mine, I would rather you not shove your opinion down my throat.

[Scotty]

Utter rubbish today. No creativity, no ideas and no quality. We made Stoke look good - something that I didn't really think was possible. We had nothing up front, were overrun in midfield, and over-powered in defence.

Big Sam got the best out of a poor squad and frequently managed to paper over the cracks. Well, the cracks are well and truly exposed now. Make no mistake, we're deep in a relegation battle and, unless we can add some quality players to the team in January, it's a battle I can't see us winning.

The new owners have shown nothing, absolutley nothing, to suggest that they are in any way competent. They've sacked our manager at possibly the worst possible time in the season. They've replaced him with a complete novice who already is starting to look out of his depth. They've de-stabilised the most stable board room in the Premier League. And they have come out with bullshit statement after bullshit statement that has made us a laughing stock.

How the (Please don't use that word again) has this happened?

[benhben]

I was originally quite optimistic when Sam was sacked that the board knew what they were doing and had a masterplan.

It is clear however the club is in dissaray. The players haven't a clue what's going on, and with one of the poorer squads in the league we cant afford to have our players performing at anything less than 100%. We are on the bring of going into freefall.

I feel sorry for Steve Kean. Its unfair on him to expect him to be a brilliant manager straight away. This is probably the most important part of the season which can make or break a teams season. To throw him in here is unfair on him aswel as the club.

As for January what decent players are going to sign for a club in such turmoil and for a manager that in all likeliness will be replaced at the end of the season?

Were the trust screwed over by Venkys false promises or did they just not care and took the money and ran?

Depressing.

[tony gale's mic]

So to end this, you have your opinion, I have mine, I would rather you not shove your opinion down my throat.

You'd rather I didn't pick the 3 foot wide holes in your post.

That's absolutely fine...

[Amo]

I feel sorry for Steve Kean. Its unfair on him to expect him to be a brilliant manager straight away. This is probably the most important part of the season which can make or break a teams season. To throw him in here is unfair on him aswel as the club.

Honest question: Did he HAVE to take the job?

[cn174]

OK ILL REPHRASE IT. TAKING INTO ACCOUNT ALL FULL SEASONS IN THE PL, SAMS COMPLETE SEASON LAST YEAR WAS A RECORD, IN THAT IT WAS THE WORST IN OUR HISTORY- FACT

Equal worst with 1999 when we got relegated. FACT!

Showing that goal difference is far less than important than points.

[roversam]

Make no mistake. We are a shambles from top to bottom.

We have been comprehensively and deservedly beaten by Stoke City at home.

On top of this...

Our captain (perhaps former captain now) and best player wants to leave.

Our owners have sacked a manager who has acheived good results with a negative transfer budget.

Our owners have sacked a manager without a plan or strategy for replacement.

Our current Manager has no managerial experience.

Our current Manager is about to spend the first transfer budget we've had in years, with no previous experience of buying.

Our next two games are away from home.

Apart from that everything in the garden is rosey

Kean is good at press conferences though

[FourLaneBlue]

Honest question: Did he HAVE to take the job?

If he had any self-belief at all, yes.

No doubt he thinks he will be able to turn it around. Mind you, he probably expected the players to respond far most positively.

Whatever, it isn't down to him.

Many posters are missing the point about Sam. It isn't the Venky's wanting their own man in that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

It was that they didn't even have their own man!

Just one thing, if you wanted a huge, complete break from the Sam regime...then why appoint his first-team coach as his replacement?

You'd rather I didn't pick the 3 foot wide holes in your post.

That's absolutely fine...

I think we would all rather you didn't pick anymore holes in each other's posts.