[Archived] Steve Kean

[A cup of beans]

Chaps. Just wondering if anyone knows why Martin ONeill was walking into the JW Stand on Monday with two 'suits'? Anyone heard any speculation?

if it was true... surely it wouldve come up earlier and even elsewhere ???

[tony gale's mic]

Chaps. Just wondering if anyone knows why Martin ONeill was walking into the JW Stand on Monday with two 'suits'? Anyone heard any speculation?

I heard it's what happens if you take too much acid and hang out around Ewood Park

[LeChuck]

Which part? It was definitely him.

The part him going into Ewood with two 'suits'.

I couldn't work out whether you were asking whether that speculation was true, or asking for speculation on why he was there.

Sounds like the latter...in which case, surely that's VERY interesting!

[DE.]

In reality next season will be a slog unless there are plenty of changes on the playing side too as the squad is just not good enough in all departments bar the Keeper.

squad is very low on quality overall. many of our squad players have become stale and others simply not good enough... atleast when it comes to improving the club year on year... huge investment is needed, and we'll also need our scouts to unearth gems.

Both very true statements. Even if we stay up this season the worrying unfortunately doesn't end there. Until Kean is gone and major investment has been given to our squad I'll seriously struggle to be optimistic for the upcoming season after getting in a proper manager our priorities have to be getting in some midfield reinforcement (JJ if possible), one or two good strikers and decent cover for our defence (I'd say defence is our strongest area atm, but if Samba or Phil Jones is sold we'll need replacements, and Nelsen/Salgado aren't getting any younger).

Unfortunately I have a horrible feeling we're going to enter next season looking much the same as we do right now. I hope the owners prove me wrong on that.

[A cup of beans]

I heard it's what happens if you take too much acid and hang out around Ewood Park

[Gav]

I heard it's what happens if you take too much acid and hang out around Ewood Park

Can you still get acid

[A cup of beans]

Unfortunately I have a horrible feeling we're going to enter next season looking much the same as we do right now. I hope the owners prove me wrong on that.

i agree with everything in that post DE4, and i hope the owners prove you wrong too.

i'd feel just as worried as most if they dont.

[Bennisfromheaven]

Martin O'Neill walking into Ewood??

2 games left to save our premier league status!!

I know they havent made the most intelligent of decisions since taking over but Venkys are hardly going to be interviewing for Steve Keans replacement in full view of everyone!!! Especially at such an important point in the season!!

[ABBEY]

Don't let the Sam haters read that Cruz. They all reckoned that the squad, before we spent money on it, was quite capable of playing entertaining football.

come on den surly proffesional footballers ,most internationals should be capable of playing football for many thousand pounds a month ..IF THEY ARE NOT WHAT DO SCOUTS LOOK FOR IN KIDS THESE DAYS ? SOMEONE WHO CAN LUMP IT FORWARD? ITS PATHETIC IF THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO ADAPT THE WAY THEY PLAY AND EVERY SCOUT AND MANAGER SHOULD BE SACKED FOR INCOMPETENCE WHEN THEY SIGNED/RECOMENDED TO OUR BOARD ,THIS PLAYER IS GOOD ,HE CANT PLAY BUT CAN LAUNCH IT AND I RECKON 30 -50 GRAND A WEEK IS IN ORDER!!! ITS PATHETIC IF THIS IS TRUE!!!

THERE MUST BE MORE THAN (SAY ENGLISH PLAYERS IN TOP 4? 20ISH? NO IDEA TRUE NUMBER) SAY 20 ENGLISH PLAYERS IN THE COUNTRY CAPABLE OF PLAYING "FOOTBALL" ?

[A cup of beans]

A slow fall but not a jump of a cliff lol

lets hope we jumped off the cliff in a hang glider!

[den]

come on den surly proffesional footballers ,most internationals should be capable of playing football for many thousand pounds a month ..IF THEY ARE NOT WHAT DO SCOUTS LOOK FOR IN KIDS THESE DAYS ? SOMEONE WHO CAN LUMP IT FORWARD? ITS PATHETIC IF THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO ADAPT THE WAY THEY PLAY AND EVERY SCOUT AND MANAGER SHOULD BE SACKED FOR INCOMPETENCE WHEN THEY SIGNED/RECOMENDED TO OUR BOARD ,THIS PLAYER IS GOOD ,HE CANT PLAY BUT CAN LAUNCH IT AND I RECKON 30 -50 GRAND A WEEK IS IN ORDER!!! ITS PATHETIC IF THIS IS TRUE!!!

THERE MUST BE MORE THAN (SAY ENGLISH PLAYERS IN TOP 4? 20ISH? NO IDEA TRUE NUMBER) SAY 20 ENGLISH PLAYERS IN THE COUNTRY CAPABLE OF PLAYING "FOOTBALL" ?

Calm down Abbey and address the point. Yeah, they can all play football, but this current squad can't play an out and out, attractive pass and move football in the premier League and win games. Hasn't that been proven? It has to be a balance of gritty determination and playing to your strengths.

[Ricky]

Just unapproved a load of point scoring and insults on here guys.

Lets stick on topic and get away from the personal insults.

Play nicely and all that

[ABBEY]

Calm down Abbey and address the point. Yeah, they can all play football, but this current squad can't play an out and out, attractive pass and move football in the premier League and win games. Hasn't that been proven? It has to be a balance of gritty determination and playing to your strengths.

If they CANT play football in every style ,WHY are we paying them obscene amounts of money?

[yoda]

If they CANT play football in every style ,WHY are we paying them obscene amounts of money?

Because Jerome did it

[den]

If they CANT play football in every style ,WHY are we paying them obscene amounts of money?

We don't pay them as much as most PL teams pay their players. Hence that's why we don't have the best technical players in the PL. C'mon Abbs, you know that.

I'll tell you how I saw things during the Allardyce reign and I bet a lot of others saw it this way as well. I was critical Of Sam's over use of the long throw and of Robinson launching every free kick into the oppositions penalty area. I thought we could have mixed that up more than we did. I didn't go as far as some of his harshest critics do and suggest that all of our play was simply "hoofball" - [a term used by the real haters - and I don't think that's too strong a word], because some of our football inbetween the set pieces was reasonably good. Some games it was very good, sometimes it was poor. But, I was doubtful at that time about where Sam was taking us, especially just before last Xmas when we were struggling for results and were around the bottom reaches of the league. I wasn't sure that Sam could turn it around. If you remember, at that time there were lots of rumours that Sam was going to get the chop. Results improved though after that, so I was more than happy to go along with what we had.

However, I also realised and said on here many, many times that the only way to get real quality football, was to buy real quality footballers. I never thought this squad was capable of outpassing many, - if any - teams in this league.

So, while I had some doubts at one stage, that's a million miles from the position that many took. Many wanted Sam out from the day he set foot in Ewood. Many were elated when he was sacked. Some still are. There's one thing that in my opinion, people should acknowledge. If you have a manager that gets you results, then you stick with him. Changing managers is always a big gamble, no matter who they are. Dalglish was a gamble. Lots of fans were against his appointment at the time, but it worked out well. Hodgson was a well respected manager with great credentials who many thought would do well here, but was a gamble that didn't work out. You can never be sure that any manager will improve the situation, but sometimes, when results are only going one way, you have to get rid. That's also a reason why I struggle with this "well the timing was wrong, but the decision was right", argument. That's still gambling with the managers position, when it isn't necessary.

There you go, a big long post, but like I said, I bet quite a few fans felt the same way.

[ABBEY]

Den, like i said before some of these "not technical players" are not paid peanuts come on. We have internationals and they are supposed to be elite players in an elite league are they not? So if only the players who can "play" are not at clubs other than the top 4 then what you are saying in reality is that the other 87 clubs should only be playing hoofball because noone else has technical abilty only the players at the top 4?

Den, should players in the top flight of football ,being paid huge wonga, be able to play football? If yes its now keans responsibility to ensure they do or if no then what is the future for the great game 87 teams of hoof?

[jonv]

bet steve is replaced by roy in the summer; seems like a rovers scenario at the moment

[Pete1981]

I sent the FA a email enquiring about Steve Keans badges as some members keeps asking for proof that he has these and i got a response today

Hello Peter,

Thank you for your email.

It is a requirement of all Premier League managers to have the required badges. Steve Kean meets these requirements.

Regards, Conor O’Callaghan

[LeChuck]

Den, like i said before some of these "not technical players" are not paid peanuts come on. We have internationals and they are supposed to be elite players in an elite league are they not? So if only the players who can "play" are not at clubs other than the top 4 then what you are saying in reality is that the other 87 clubs should only be playing hoofball because noone else has technical abilty only the players at the top 4?

Den, should players in the top flight of football ,being paid huge wonga, be able to play football? If yes its now keans responsibility to ensure they do or if no then what is the future for the great game 87 teams of hoof?

It's nothing to do with anything you have said there.

Of course all our players have excellent technical ability. The problem is they have inferior technical ability compared to most Premier League sides. Therefore, playing a technical game means we will lose most of the time.

If we were playing Championship teams then we could play intricate technical football, because our technical ability would be higher than most of the opposition.

The perceived ability to play certain style is all relative to the opposition. Therefore it is all about playing to your strengths, that's how you get results. It's possible to get results in the PL by building a physically strong team who are a threat from set pieces. Those sort of players are much cheaper to buy (and in greater abundance) than those that can compete technically with the best in the league, hence why we've adopted that style over recent years.

[ABBEY]

ah well,i aint arguing over it really cant be arsed but to me if you are a pro player paid THOUSANDS of pounds a week you should be able to play and swap styles to suit.

[blue_and_white]

Den, like i said before some of these "not technical players" are not paid peanuts come on. We have internationals and they are supposed to be elite players in an elite league are they not? So if only the players who can "play" are not at clubs other than the top 4 then what you are saying in reality is that the other 87 clubs should only be playing hoofball because noone else has technical abilty only the players at the top 4?

Den, should players in the top flight of football ,being paid huge wonga, be able to play football? If yes its now keans responsibility to ensure they do or if no then what is the future for the great game 87 teams of hoof?

Yeah I'd pretty much echo what LeChuck said. Football isn't like say golf where if your handicap is 0 then you are expected to play like a 0 regardless. At least half of how well a player can perform and how nicely a team can play depends on the quality of the opposition. Play football against a team that is technically better than you and most of the time you will lose, and thanks to 3 years of no investment, that applies to 75% of the league as far as Rovers are concerned. So the best I would have expected from any manager we've had in recent times is to "hoof" it against most teams in the league who have more expensive players on higher wages, and play good football against the few teams that don't. Sam did occasionally try this but obviously wasn't overly comfortable at switching between the 2 styles, few managers really are. Kean only seems comfortable with 4-4-2 passing football but having finally realised that won't work for Rovers, is reverting back to a poor version of what Allardyce used to play. Its not a matter of our players not being good, its a matter of them not being AS good as most other players in the league.

[Amo]

Don't let the Sam haters read that Cruz. They all reckoned that the squad, before we spent money on it, was quite capable of playing entertaining football.

But we did it last season and our form improved.

Wouldn't call it "entertaining football", as such, but it was better than the usual hit and hope.

[thenodrog]

So if we survive, then we will have achieved our aim.

At the end of the season, I would get rid of Steve Kean and replace him with a better manager. My preferred choice would be Rafael Benitez. Then spending money on a few quality strikers, improving areas of our squad which I will not go into in this thread, and then aiming for some sort of silverware (i.e League Cup/FA Cup) as well as aiming for a European spot.

Other than financial reasons, realistically, there is no difference between 6th and 17th. Someone mentioned earlier that players will not want to sign for a club that is fighting for relegation, nonsense. Show them the money and they'll all come running. It's just the way football is now.

Complete nonsense. Rafa bloody Benitez is a sham of a manager. Benitez nearly broke Liverpool with massive overspending and left them with an average squad bereft of confidence and belief. He clung onto the signing of Torres as if it were a masterstroke... it was of course but it was his only one amongst a welter of mistakes. The man is not for the Premier League much less a Premier League minnow.

[den]

LeChuck and Blue and white have it right.

[thenodrog]

I think the loan signing of Jermaine Jones speaks for itself Jim, I don’t need to argue with you, its there for all to see and addressed a problem area thats been apparent since Hughes was here.

The key word is loan. Jones isn't our player unfortunately so he's off and away in a fortnight and we'll never see him again. The other 3 signings of Kean have been useless, useless and one even worse than useless. If thats a good transfer window then I'm a bloody Dutchman.

squad is very low on quality overall. many of our squad players have become stale and others simply not good enough... atleast when it comes to improving the club year on year... huge investment is needed, and we'll also need our scouts to unearth gems.

So if you recognise that then why are you so quick to discredit the last manager for keeping us mid table in the face of such miserably LOW investment?