[Archived] The Sack Race <== Featured Article. A fantastic historical overview of Rovers managers

[Guest Wen Y Hu]

"BRFCS match reporter Parsonblue takes an in-depth look at the history of sacking managers mid-season and places the current debate surrounding Steve Kean into the context of the fate of nearly a century of professional managers at Blackburn Rovers Football Club."

Read the full article here.

[chaddyrovers]

Firstly well done to the BRFCS news team who did the article. Excellent work

Really good interesting article

[Grez]

Great article.... If history repeats itself, the poor results and fan reaction parts are complete - it's now down to how long it takes the owners to realise they need to pull the trigger. Only problem is, no-one can predict the venkys. I hope they move KEAN and clemence own a level and bring in a proper manager - that way no-one loses face and we have a stronger back room team than just firing Steve.

I can but dream...

QPR result will be interesting - if rovers lose and KEAN is not sacked, ewood will be a very unpleasant game for the spuds match

[den]

A very interesting, excellently written article. Plenty of detail going back some considerable time.

I'm trying to work out, just who on the news team can write such a comprehensive and surprisingly literate piece. I'm struggling.

.

[DE.]

A great article, I enjoyed reading it

[AllRoverAsia]

Very good and well written.

[m1st]

An excellent article with wonderful perspective.

Surely the key point is that there's presently nobody at the top of This Great Club Of Ours with a tradition in British football. In the pre-Internet era, we probably accepted that the Rovers had little or no money, so we were more tolerant than we would be today.

I've drawn this comparison before; but Stoke City are now owned by Peter Coates, their local equivalent of Uncle Jack. He's gradually built them up over the last 5 or 6 years with a MANAGER [not an over-promoted coach] who has gradually got them into the upper half of the Premier League.

Why can't we have someone like that at the head of the playing side of BRFC? Probably because, to quote myself, there's presently nobody at the top of This Great Club Of Ours with a tradition in British football.

Sorry if that sounds racist; it's not meant to, and that comes from someone whose next holiday will include staying with Indian friends in Delhi.

[Ozz]

Excellent work Parsonblue.

One question-In the interest of balance, will there be any articles from people who may want extol the virtues of Venkys patience and loyalty?

[Stuart]

Great piece, PB.

Why do people think that Jim Smith remained popular despite poor results whereas Kean is so unpopular? Is it down to experience, personality, integrity? Something else?

[Bluefudge]

Great piece, PB.

Why do people think that Jim Smith remained popular despite poor results whereas Kean is so unpopular? Is it down to experience, personality, integrity? Something else?

Honesty, heart and dignity.

Mr Kean knows of none, Jim Smith did, much like Bobby Saxton when times were hard on him.

[Guest Wen Y Hu]

Indeed, it was Parsonblue - who else?! 'Tis a work of art. The author name has now been added, as noted in the top post.

Events of the past months have been extraordinary and many of the decisions are bewildering and seem to make little sense. As for our manager, although the antipathy towards him has grown over the last few weeks since the start of the season, I can't think of a manager who has received so little active support from the Ewood crowd from the outset - even Paul Ince and Big Sam had their names chanted from the beginning and they were far from popular among Rovers fans before they arrived - the facebook campaign against Sam's appointment shows that quite clearly. So, I am interested in how Steve Kean's situation compares with that of other managers in the past. When you are in the middle of dramatic change, it is extremely difficult to grasp what is happening in objective terms - largely because human emotions tend to cloud our judgement but also because we tend to ignore the lessons of the past. I wanted to try and put our current predicament into perspective and I wanted to know how history would record it. So, I asked Parsonblue if he could put the tenure of Steve Kean into context - an extremely difficult task that he has responded to remarkably well.

One thing that we discussed briefly that didn't get into the article was the question of the impact of the increased pressures on managers and the boardroom that the Premier League has brought about. 4 of the 8 men sacked mid-season - from Roy to Sam - are from the PL era and 3 of them were sacked because of the desire to maintain PL status. Again, in the context of the PL era rather than in the 1970s-80s or an earlier era, it is all the more remarkable that a rookie manager with an abysmal record over close to a full year now can remain in charge. Seen both historically and within the context of the Premier League as a competition and as a financial operation, it is astounding. As Parsonblue concludes, it is the owners of the club that ultimately determine the direction of a football club and in our case I believe we have been incredibly fortunate to have been run so soundly over the decades by people with the club at the heart of their thinking. Bill Bancroft, Bill Fox, Jack Walker, John Williams ... Venky's. I very much look forward to being able to run a piece on the Venky's that praises their courage and competence as well as their self-professed patience and loyalty. The sooner, the better.

[Darwen Rover]

just

kean out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[philipl]

Excellent read- well researched.

The facts, the fans, the results, the logic, the head, the gut, the heart all say KEAN OUT NOW.

[Glenn]

I'm amazed this hasn't gotten more of a reaction. It's simply one of the best pieces I've seen written on here.

[dlukeg1]

Great article thanks. How do we instill the "club first" message into Venky's?

[redroses]

just read this now. Excellent piece and for me only being 31 its been brilliant for giving me an idea of how things were before my time. Top marks.

[Smithyster]

Brilliant read. Very well written. Being only 20, it's always good to read about the clubs history and so that article was really interesting to me.

As we have seen and said, the most worrying bit about all these managerial problems is that we are not confident at all that Venky's will do the right thing, or if they even know what that is.

Thanks for taking the time to write this.

[K-Hod]

Great article.

There's so many similarities between ourselves and West Ham this time last season it's frightening. An imposter manager who gets the odd result to keep him in a job now and then!

I can only pray that Venky's have the mettle to do what Gold and Sullivan didn't!

[Doug]

:(Superb article, like a trip down memory lane. I remember Smith, Lee, Kendal being excellent managers. I think McKay got the bullet due to his well publicised bid for a certain crisp advertiser that shook football to it's roots and announced Rovers as a major player in English football. The point you make of 'true rovers' on the board is very important. We have lost all the backbone of 'true rovers' in the club and that's why there is much anger with true Rovers fans. I always felt, over 40 years of supporting Rovers, that the board were as passionate as I was, they almost felt like part of an extended family, sadly, I don't feel that under this current regime, and that's why I feel so distanced from the club.

[Waggy76]

Maybe the wrong topic, but I think Steve Bruce is going to win the sack race !!!

[den]

I'm amazed this hasn't gotten more of a reaction. It's simply one of the best pieces I've seen written on here.

It's a very good piece Glen. I would be interested to know how much of it PB remembered himself - and how much he head to research.

To me, the best contributory article on this site is the history section composed by Four Lane Blue. I remember it took Darren a long time to get it together. I wonder how many people have actually took the time to read it?

[Glenn]

It's a very good piece Glen.

To me, the best contributory article on this site is the history section composed by Four Lane Blue. I remember it took Darren a long time to get it together. I wonder how many people have actually took the time to read it?

Indeed. I go back and re-read it from time to time. I've started converting it to the software the site uses (so it looks all pretty again) and your Best Ever Rovers Team project is up there too.

[American Rover12]

Wow, great article. Really interesting reading for a younger fan like me who didn't see any of those times mentioned in the article.

[Blueheart]

Alas the last two sentances of the excelent article says it all !

we are at the moment in the lap of owners who unfortunately do not know what they are doing and/or do not appreciate the difference between premiership football and life in the lowerr divisions.

[bob fleming]

I'm amazed this hasn't gotten more of a reaction. It's simply one of the best pieces I've seen written on here.

It's absolutely first class. In fact I can't think of a more well researched article about BRFC at all, anywhere, at anytime, let alone on this web site. A great read PB.