[Archived] Michael Appleton - New Rovers Manager

[cop]

Also, as for him being as bad as Kean, are you joking? The same Steve Kean who we pretty much all regard as the worst manager in our history, and one of the worst in the history of the modern game?

I have to agree there, I doubt Steve Kean will ever be seen again in football management, unless he turns up as some consultant at a dodgy non-league club or an assistant somewhere. How he kept his job so long is amazing, but he won't be fooling anyone in the football industry. He made his millions and he doesn't need to work again.

[Andy]

based on who he has shipped out and who he has brought in and his record thus far, it could be argued that Appleton is worse than Kean...we never look like scoring under him

Sorry, don't buy that for a second.

Kean took over a very good Allardyce team and ripped it to shreds, taking us from a top-10 Prem team to Division 1.

Appleton is still suffering the after effects of Kean and it will take a long time to turn around the entire club, though I am impressed with some of the actions he has taken so far.

On the field, yes, we currently look awful and that comes back to the manager, but nobody could be worse for us than Kean.

[Athlete]

Sorry, don't buy that for a second.

Kean took over a very good Allardyce team and ripped it to shreds, taking us from a top-10 Prem team to Division 1.

Appleton is still suffering the after effects of Kean and it will take a long time to turn around the entire club, though I am impressed with some of the actions he has taken so far.

On the field, yes, we currently look awful and that comes back to the manager, but nobody could be worse for us than Kean.

Appletons tactics are making a good go of it IMO...on Wednesday 11 players + a manager out the crowd would have a given Millwall more of a fight and today we should have been dead and buried before half time..only after the sending off did we come into it ( with Dunnys magnificient 110% ) IM o V a poor Burnley side

[Andy]

In fairness, Appleton's tactical change when replacing Best with Morris showed more tactical acumen in one game than Kean has ever had, or ever will have.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no MA fanboy, but Kean was on a level on his own with regards to incompetence.

[Rover_Shaun]

More than enough!!!!

A dire, dour individual with no idea.

Shame we seem to have replaced him with a similar type though.

It was a comparison and NOT sympathy for Berg. Appleton has had the chance to change the squad and has removed players with a bit of flair (albeit brief) with useless twonks whereas Berg had no such opportunity.

We are headlong into a downward spiral. We are doing sh.te so why keep the moron when someone can do just bad BUT that someone may not??

There is only ONE solution to our short term promblem. P45 for Appleton

[Guest Norbert]

Can we afford to, if the rumours of financial peril are true? We'd have to pay off Appleton, as well as resolve the issue with Berg's severance, and then tempt a competent manager to come in. So all that would probably mean we have to find an out of work manager to save on compo to another club.

So I'd like to know, which manager who is better than Appleton can we afford? And which of these would want to come to this club in its current state?

[Rover_Shaun]

I would defer any appointment until the summer and take it from there. A plank with a nail in it couldn't do any worse

[LDRover]

That's the point though isn't it, Freedman didn't do it all that quickly?

14 points in his first ten games, not good but compared to Appleton's 9 he looks like Mourinho. He took over a team in the bottom 6 as well with the pressure really on.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

I wonder what people made of Mark Hughes first two or three months in charge at Rovers ? Not a defence of MA - but we have to give him some time to sort out the mess he in herited, which is far worse than Mark Hughes did.

[LDRover]

They haven't had 5 managers and I think we can assume they had a decent pre-season to get their fitness up. Under kean there were little/no fitness sessions for 2yrs or so.

Might be wrong here but I think Forest could be on their 5th manager this season. O'Driscoll, caretaker, McLeish, caretaker, Davies.

As for fitness etc., it's quite possible that this was an issue at the other clubs when a change was made. I know my Bolton supporting mate said that and it is generally the case that players fitness levels and motivation drop in a failing team under a failing manager.

[bypass06]

Appleton hopes for derby catalyst

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/blackburn_rovers/news/10295144.Appleton_hopes_for_derby_catalyst/

[Rover_Shaun]

Appleton hopes for derby catalyst

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/blackburn_rovers/news/10295144.Appleton_hopes_for_derby_catalyst/

Here we go again. More guff

[chris_h]

Some of the now usual hysteria and claptrap on here about the current manager and another reminder of why I don't bother visiting when we get beat. No manager has had to take over a club in such free fall and turmoil, certainly not in our history but, there you go he's "worse than Kean" after 5 minutes in the job.

Fairly typical fare on here, after all look at some of the bile and crap that was posted about Dunny recently.

[Guest Norbert]

I would defer any appointment until the summer and take it from there. A plank with a nail in it couldn't do any worse

So Appleton out at the end of the season then? Even so, I just can't see anyone barring failures and no marks like Judian Ali or Peter Taylor willing to come in whilst Venky's own us. And I don't see either as any better than Appleton. When Kean finally went, we may have had a chance of say, Holloway or maybe even Schuster, but not now. Not with all the stupidity and sheer lunacy of the boardroom and our owners there for all to see.

[adsfortheblues]

Appleton hopes for derby catalyst

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/blackburn_rovers/news/10295144.Appleton_hopes_for_derby_catalyst/

Not even going to bother reading that. Will be more bullshit.

[Stuart]

Not even going to bother reading that. Will be more bullshit.

For some reason he's starting to have little digs at the fans.

[Rover_Shaun]

So Appleton out at the end of the season then?

Erm NO and a massive NO. Sack the plank and leave a caretaker until the summer. We have nothing to lose

Eric Black on another Kean love in

http://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/competitions/championship/8573748/black-dismayed-by-fans

[adsfortheblues]

I wonder what people made of Mark Hughes first two or three months in charge at Rovers ? Not a defence of MA - but we have to give him some time to sort out the mess he in herited, which is far worse than Mark Hughes did.

Won 3 drawn 9 lost 3 in his first few months in charge. Made us solid and 9 of the draws at least 4 could easily have been wins. I'd say that was a good start with a @#/? team.

Erm NO and a massive NO. Sack the plank and leave a caretaker until the summer. We have nothing to lose

Eric Black on another Kean love in

http://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/competitions/championship/8573748/black-dismayed-by-fans

@#/? that link mate. I watched that and he didnt have a bad word to say about the fans and more or less said kean should have left earlier.

For some reason he's starting to have little digs at the fans.

I'd like to have a little dig at his face but I refrain from doing do so and so should he mate. Pure smell of bullshit every time he speaks.

[chaddyrovers]

Appleton comments about the fans was that if the atmosphere was like that every home game the players would find it easier to play at home.

the atmosphere at home games in last 18 months is so negative and fans on the players backs after a poor pass.

today atmosphere was positive and fans were awesome today and sang their hearts out. like it used to be under Hughes.

he wasnt having a dig at the fans.

[Blue blood]

For some reason he's starting to have little digs at the fans.

Agree. Once again blaming us for hoofing it forward. Not a good way to get the fans on board and it didn't work for Kean either. Utterly stupid thing to do.

Actually it's quite clever. Fans are dissatisfied at our lack of creativity and attacking prowess but by saying these things it makes it sound like fans discontent is because we're not hoofing it. It turns a genuine concern and criticism into an invalid one.

I wonder if he's saying these things for the benefit of India?

[Guest Norbert]

Erm NO and a massive NO. Sack the plank and leave a caretaker until the summer. We have nothing to lose

Eric Black on another Kean love in

http://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/competitions/championship/8573748/black-dismayed-by-fans

I see, try and get Bowyer and McPhillips back until the end of the season.

We'd still end up with a tool as bad as Appleton in the summer though. Have the current regime ever made the right decisions in these appointments? Sacking Appleton will just mean more compo money thrown away, and another idiot coming in June. We're stuck with Michael whether or not he can start to turn things around. We can't just sack managers every other month whenever we hit a sh_t run, it'll be expensive for starters, and in the long run the quality of candidate will get even worse.

We've been sh_t all season, and the season before, neither of which is Appleton's fault prior to his appointment. Even if Jesus Christ himself came down from heaven to take over the helm, he'd have to write off the rest of the season and start again in the summer. The fact is, the revoling door at Ewood Park, and the frankly bizarro world of the owners and the board have torpedoed any hopes of a quick turnaround as happened when Hughes took over from Souness. Is Appleton the right man, I really am unsure, but getting rid and just hoping some decent manager to come in and save us does not sound realistic.

[beerwins]

All he has to do is win matches, he can complain all he wants about fans but the only real way of shutting fans up is getting points on the board.

Sick of excuses.

[SydneyRover]

Wish people would stop trotting out the five managers this season line. So far we have had three managers this season, caretakers don't count.

But those include a man who should have been sacked much sooner and a man who most of us agree should never have been appointed.

Our main problem isn't that we keep changing our manager, its that we keep appointing ones with no experience or @#/? track records, so it's absolute claptrap to claim all we need is a bit of stability. Had we kept firing good, experienced managers or even close then my view on things would be very different.

What on earth has Appleton done to suggest he deserves a whole summer? When judging him you need to look at his previous records too - the guy is simply useless at winning football matches. When people are having to make excuses for you across three different jobs then I think enough is enough.

Ideally we would wait til the end of the season. That way if things suddenly pick up under Appleton we can consider giving him more time, if we just muddle on and just avoid the drop we would get rid. And if we lose the next three then we get rid sooner, put Bowyer back in as caretaker and hope to god he can grind a couple more wins together.

[Gally]

Take your point about the number of managers, but it's not as though the caretakers were just in charge for a match or two each was it? Also 3 in one season is pretty awful too.

The fact is that our team has some good aspects to it, but it's got some pretty toxic ones too, with too many players scared of getting the ball and too many players used to losing. This coupled with playing 2 games a week for what seems like months now and numerous injuries means that circumstances have been hard.

Appleton has publically recognised these failings, and has only had a small window to try and address them.

I haven't liked what I've seen over the last month or 2 either, but any manager would have to deal with these problems and it will take giving someone a little longer than 2 months to solve the systemic issues, whoever the manager is.

[Rover_Shaun]

Appleton is being saved by the big book of 1001 excuses and people silly enough to swallow them.

We will do nothing under the current imbecile. Zilch, bugger all, diddly squat.