[Archived] Millwall [H]; 13/3/2013. F.A. Cup Quarter-Final Replay

[perthblue02]

He's not spineless. He's bombed Murphy out. He's sidelined Shebby. He got rid of a lot of dross in January. He's brought in his own backroom team which no other manager has been able to do since Venky's arrived; he's also put some structure in place with a recruitment expert; the PR is better with no stupid stories leaking. Progress has been made.

Its no coincidence that the stupid stories stopped "leaking out" once certain people got rid of an appointment which in turn led to the humiliation and banishment to the sidelines of a Rao appointment sent to the club to keep an eye of them and their activities .

Confidence must have been pretty high in the self preservation camp as its leader as been confident enough to speak to the press and not go through his little stooge. Don't worry the stupid "leaked " stories will start again especially after the rallying call to last nights game was a massive failure. Self preservation is the order of the day and once attention is turned on their complete incompetence they will be looking to divert attention away again probably not ever meeting people who can not be named in the process before another grovelling trip to India..

Hopefully if they try the same silly stories and stunts on Appleton that they did on Berg , his very expensive PR will gave them a run for the money

[Paul Mellelieu]

Thought Peds and Dunn did the best they could, although Peds was poor on the ball.

[Gav]

Too right it's the hope that kills you. I was really looking forward to last night's match after an encouraging display at Cold Blow Lane but I should have known better after decades of watching Rovers.

I thought the attendance last night was disgraceful. If the Blackburn public cannot be bothered to turn out to support the team with an FA Cup semi-final Wembley at stake there is little hope for the future.

As for Appleton he is shaping up to be a worse appointment than Steve Kean. How the people have in the boardroom have managed to pick 3 poor managers in succession is beyond comprehension. Anyone on this messageboard (including GAV) could have done better.

No doubt Appleton will switch the side round for Sunday but at the moment I'm dreading it. Apart from Dunn, Hanley and one or two others the players seem to have no spirit.

You can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear, its time to look at the players not the manager Jim.

Yes the manager lives and dies by results, but those players are professionals who can't pass a ball 5yrds, and the ones that can don't give a toss or aren't fit enough and they have no excuse for not being fit.

I'd get rid of 75% of the current squad and start again, not the manager.

[rog of the rovers]

Not wanting to make excuses for last night, because it was poor, but last night showed how exposed we are at the minute (in particular in the cup!)

Obviously not 100% fit - Martin Olsson, Marcus Olsson, King, Dunn, Best

Injured - Orr, Bentley, Kazim-Richards, Etuhu, Williamson

Cup Tied - Jones, Stewart, Campbell

Frozen Out - Robinson, Givet, Murphy

Loaned Out - Rochina, Formica, Rosado

I wonder how this lineup would have fared last night?

Robinson

Orr - Dann - Hanley - Givet

Bentley - Jones - Murphy - Rochina

Kazim - Campbell

[Gav]

Thought Peds and Dunn did the best they could, although Peds was poor on the ball.

If he was poor on the ball he shouldn't have been on the pitch, because he was poor at distrubution, poor at set pieces, not sure why we pay him these days Paul....

As for Dunn, he played well, showed the other players up for what they are, and a word for Scott Dann, played well again last night, had a good game on Sunday, he was rounded on by most posters on here, me included, but he's done well recently and one I would keep for sure.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

We need a manager with experience Gav not a fookin Rookie.The people in charge of this club have learnt nothing..they are making the same mistakes over and over again.Agree about the team,too many players are picking up big wages on long contacts and they dont give a toss.

We are a club going nowhere with this lot.

[jim mk2]

I'd get rid of 75% of the current squad and start again, not the manager.

Buck stops with the manager as far as results are concerned.

[Rover_Shaun]

That was just Berg Jim. Appleton is excused from such things for some reason

[Gav]

We need a manager with experience Gav not a fookin Rookie.The people in charge of this club have learnt nothing..they are making the same mistakes over and over again.Agree about the team,too many players are picking up big wages on long contacts and they dont give a toss.

We are a club going nowhere with this lot.

Yes couldn't agree more SG.

So we sack this manager, who clearly knows whats wrong with the squad, and replace him with another manager or similar ilk who needs time to assess the current squad? madness in my book.

Whilst the idiots are running the asylum things won't change, mistakes will happen time and time again, so some stability in the managers position is all we can hope for surely?

[tomphil]

Thought Peds and Dunn did the best they could, although Peds was poor on the ball.

On the subject of Pedersen did anyone see the Q&A with Rebbecca Lowe on ESPN before Millwall away ? One of the first questions asked was "What does Arte Et Labore on the club badge mean ?" "No idea" replied a giggling Gamst. This is our longest serving player ffs, just says it all to me about that dozy wuss.

[Mercer]

Very true but pity more journos were not flagging this far earlier !!!

Jeremy Butler‏@jezbutler

@broncoblue69 I've covered #brfc since be4 Hodgson days & cud see what a shambles it became during Kean era. Have total sympathy with fans

[Mike E]

B&WA, I don't think we're excusing Appleton as such. We know results are pisspoor and the buck stops with the manager. BUT do you really trsut Venkys to appoint the right man?

I say we stick with Appleton til the summer, hope to God he pulls out a couple of results from somewhere and see what he can do next season. it's all very well saying 'have we not learnt from Kean', but that was a unique situation. We can't let stability be avoided just because we've been burnt once.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

It was embarrassing tomphil,a player living on past glories (scoring the winner v Burnley).

BTW,what the 'ell were a group of youngsters in the JW lower doing giving Shittu the high fives for as he went down the tunnel??

Gav,I really do think we need to turn the heat up on Venky's as we all know they are the root cause of the never ending problems.

[onlyonejackwalker]

Crystal clear 4-4-2 is not working. If we don't change anything, nothing will change.

[tomphil]

It was embarrassing tomphil,a player living on past glories (scoring the winner v Burnley).

BTW,what the 'ell were a group of youngsters in the JW lower doing giving Shittu the high fives for as he went down the tunnel??

Gav,I really do think we need to turn the heat up on Venky's as we all know they are the root cause of the never ending problems.

There was a taxi full of kids going back towards town shouting Millwall etc at people, when challenged by a couple of blokes some of them spoke with northern accents saying no no we are Rovers. When car set off again they were shouting Millwall etc again, some did sound cockney. Maybe a nothern supporters club of the Lions ? May have been them in JW ?

[Athlete]

We need a manager with experience Gav not a fookin Rookie.The people in charge of this club have learnt nothing..they are making the same mistakes over and over again.Agree about the team,too many players are picking up big wages on long contacts and they dont give a toss.

We are a club going nowhere with this lot.

yes we are going somewhere ..league one

we need to somehow hope Venkys FO + we start afresh with the trust , etc

[den]

No point going over the game again, it was so very obvious how we lack the quality needed, even for this league. I don't think there's one player from last nights side that I would want to keep next season. Not one of them - apart from Dunn - has the class to turn this club around. I don't think either, that any new manager, whoever he might be is going to get us back to the PL any time soon. That isn't to protect Appleton either, who looked completely clueless as to what was needed to beat a very poor Millwall side, last night.

I have a message to the younger fans on here. Us older ones are too set in our ways to change. :-

I probably wont see Rovers in the PL again, but you might. If we do ever get back there and get ourselves reasonably established, then protect what you have with everything you've got. If the club or fans start to suggest that selling the best players is a good thing - then give 'em short shrift. If they suggest that the money can be used to strengthen the squad, tell 'em where to get off. When they tell you that the way forward for our club is to sell good players and rely on the youth lads, tell 'em they don't know what they're talking about. If the owners start to replace the club's staff infrastructure with nobodies and people tell you it's just progress, don't have any of it. When people argue that there's nothing wrong with paying agents inflated fees to bring in a multitude of inferior young foreign lads at massive profits for the agents themselves, tell 'em where to go. When and if they tell you that there's nothing wrong with a system that entails a manager being supplied with players he knows nothing about, remind 'em of what happened here. If someone suggests getting rid of a manager who's getting results, without knowing who's going to replace them, - tell 'em they're well out of order.

and then, if all fails and we do go down and those same fans then start blaming the new manager who's inherited all that, and believe that another manager is the whole answer to the club's plight, just remind them of how we actually got to that point.

I wasn't disappointed last night, because I believed we would have got mullered by a much better Wigan side in the semi's, but I was angry, very angry by the methods used by Venky's that's resulted in our plight.

[whittle blue]

_{Excellent post Den. Spot on with every point made.}

[Mike Graham]

“Our lads gave everything tonight, I couldn’t ask any more for effort or desire but it just wasn’t to be"

Really?!

I could ask for a LOT more in the way of effort and desire from that shower out there tonight.

Appleton talks some sh!te. He sounds more and more like Kean after every game.

I watched it in a pub in London last night, we were dreadful, an utter embarrassment.

[Ozz]

Excellent post Den, saved me a lot of time that I don't really have today!

As for being disappointed, well I am. Very.

[McClarky]

Getting annoyed with MA now. Wehn he talks about courage and committment he is well off the mark. For me, courage is about doing the right thing and not taking the easy option and leaving the responsibility up to someone else. It's about taking a risk and trying to make something happen. No-one in that team last night can hold their hand up and say they showed courage. We were weak and spineless. When people got the ball they knocked it aimlessly forward so they didn't have to think about how they were going to do something. Defenders and midfielders failed to close down and make interceptions becuse they weren't taking responsibility. When our wide men get the ball they knock it lonmg instead of trying to beat someone as they don't want to take responsibility. Overall we are and have been pathetic all season and unless MA can inspire some kind of reaction quickly we are likely as not going down.

I've never feared for the future as much as I am now as it seems that no matter what we try it makes no difference to the overall malaise surrounding the club.

[Amo]

Appleton talks some sh!te. He sounds more and more like Kean after every game.

I watched it in a pub in London last night, we were dreadful, an utter embarrassment.

I wouldn't say we were lacking in toil last night. But Appleton seems to be implying it was the rub of the green and not his neolithic tactics that dumped us out of the cup.

[OJRovers]

Appleton on the 8k crowd:

“The crowd was obviously disappointing. If we had won, we would probably have
taken more than 40,000 to Wembley, but more people probably want us to beat
Burnley on Sunday. That’s a bit difficult to take at times, but I understand the
rivalry.”

Deluded.

[AggyBlue]

I wouldn't say we were lacking in toil last night. But Appleton seems to be implying it was the rub of the green and not his neolithic tactics that dumped us out of the cup.

I thought the players did put a lot of effort in last night, trouble was, it was effort doing the wrong things.

Relying on workrate alone, without using skill just isn't good enough.

[onlyonejackwalker]

No point going over the game again, it was so very obvious how we lack the quality needed, even for this league. I don't think there's one player from last nights side that I would want to keep next season. Not one of them - apart from Dunn - has the class to turn this club around. I don't think either, that any new manager, whoever he might be is going to get us back to the PL any time soon. That isn't to protect Appleton either, who looked completely clueless as to what was needed to beat a very poor Millwall side, last night.

I have a message to the younger fans on here. Us older ones are too set in our ways to change. :-

I probably wont see Rovers in the PL again, but you might. If we do ever get back there and get ourselves reasonably established, then protect what you have with everything you've got. If the club or fans start to suggest that selling the best players is a good thing - then give 'em short shrift. If they suggest that the money can be used to strengthen the squad, tell 'em where to get off. When they tell you that the way forward for our club is to sell good players and rely on the youth lads, tell 'em they don't know what they're talking about. If the owners start to replace the club's staff infrastructure with nobodies and people tell you it's just progress, don't have any of it. When people argue that there's nothing wrong with paying agents inflated fees to bring in a multitude of inferior young foreign lads at massive profits for the agents themselves, tell 'em where to go. When and if they tell you that there's nothing wrong with a system that entails a manager being supplied with players he knows nothing about, remind 'em of what happened here. If someone suggests getting rid of a manager who's getting results, without knowing who's going to replace them, - tell 'em they're well out of order.

and then, if all fails and we do go down and those same fans then start blaming the new manager who's inherited all that, and believe that another manager is the whole answer to the club's plight, just remind them of how we actually got to that point.

I wasn't disappointed last night, because I believed we would have got mullered by a much better Wigan side in the semi's, but I was angry, very angry by the methods used by Venky's that's resulted in our plight.

Well said Den.

However, persisting with something that clearly is not working is foolish in the extreme. If MA has to go to preserve our Championship status then so be it. No-one is bigger than the club. He was awarded the job based on who he knew, not what he knew, or had previously achieved. If it isn't working and without any evidence at all to show he is a good manager, then there is no point prolonging the gamble. You have said yourself he looked clueless last night and we certainly played that way yet again.

Allowing a manager a full pre-season and money to change the players and bring in who they want is very sensible as most will agree. But only if it is the right manager and choice in the first place. No one can argue that MA was the best choice or most suitable candidate. They could argue successfully he was Derek's mate however.

It does not need to be this way and a proven quality manager would demonstrate that within days. If we don't change anything then nothing will change. Simple as that.