[Archived] Appleton Sacked

[Paul Mellelieu]

The only concern right now is how we can avoid relegation: as far as I can tell Appleton staying at the club would have made it more likely than Bowyer taking the reins. So a good move for all the wrong reasons.

[RevidgeBlue]

In some ways it's a pity that Appleton was sacked before the Blackpool game.

Ince v Appleton you couldn't make it up given their respective histories. It would have been a fantastic spectacle. Both managers would be getting dogs abuse off the opposition fans and not much support off their own fans. Given what we know about Ince I think that match would have told us everything we need to know about Appleton, but we'll never know now.

[RevidgeBlue]

Whilst i would thank Rhodes for his sterling efforts this year (his goals). I would snap clubs hands off if they offered in the region of 5 or 6 million. I remember being at the evening when Allardyce had just arrived and a bloke asked 'why did you let Derbyshire go'. Straight away Allardyce said, strikers nowadays need to be much more than just a goalscorer.

There are very few strikers nowadays designed just to score goals, and if they are, generally they come off the bench. Rhodes is so far away from a complete player that it was laughable to pay anywhere near £8m for him IMO. 4-4-2 is going drastically out of fashion, and Strikers nowadays must be able to play back to goal. Rhodes can't, nor does he run the channels.

IMO we can only make a loss on Rhodes, he will not cut it in the Prem.

Off topic but I completely disagree with this, we paid over the odds because we wanted the finished article in terms of someone who'd guarantee goals and the lad has delivered in spades imo.

21 goals so far in a team where the service is so poor it can't really be described as service that's some going. Instead of criticising Rhodes the question should be, how many would he score in a decent team?

Incidentally the emphasis should now be shifting to Best imo. I appreciate the lad is just returning from a serious injury but I can see little sign yet that he is anything than a bog standard player who will struggle to bag a decent return even at this level.

[Blue n White Rover]

All these topics need to be moved to ICBINF!!

[Tom]

In some ways it's a pity that Appleton was sacked before the Blackpool game.

Ince v Appleton you couldn't make it up given their respective histories. It would have been a fantastic spectacle. Both managers would be getting dogs abuse off the opposition fans and not much support off their own fans. Given what we know about Ince I think that match would have told us everything we need to know about Appleton, but we'll never know now.

Appleton was still getting support off the fans in the ground though, yes there was chants of Appy sort it out when we were losing but also Appletons blue and white army and Appy give us a wave

[T4E]

Voted "don't care" - basically because I don't

Same. Despite the tragic nature of it all, I'm completely de-sensitised to it. It's like watching donkey porn. The first time you see a dude blowing a donkey, you're going to be pretty shocked by it. After three years of watching dudes blowing donkeys, you're going to struggle to have the energy to be outraged by it anymore.

That's pretty much what being a Rovers fan has become under Venkys ownership. Three years of watching dudes blowing donkeys.

[Realist]

Same. Despite the tragic nature of it all, I'm completely de-sensitised to it. It's like watching donkey porn. The first time you see a dude blowing a donkey, you're going to be pretty shocked by it. After three years of watching dudes blowing donkeys, you're going to struggle to have the energy to be outraged by it anymore.

That's pretty much what being a Rovers fan has become under Venkys ownership. Three years of watching dudes blowing donkeys.

That's brilliant, T4E that is worth some sort of award......

[BigBar]

Hope they actually stick with Bowyer til the end of the season, then in the summer a new manager can come in, gut the dross, decide who he wants, what he needs and start fresh, no point bringing someone in now, utter filth at his disposal and lose a few games and be under pressure right away! Get to the summer in the championship and make some sort of effort to get the fans back onside!

Also the pitch is in Sh*t these days, worst condition for many years, are cutbacks really that tight!? its as if the club is just been abandoned and neglected completely even down to lookin after a poxy pitch,,,disgraceful!

[Amo]

Depends on who's available. I have no idea why I'm even entertaining the concept, but if Venky's are able to bring in someone like Nigel Adkins or Brian McDermott (with the follicly challenged one having the advantage), then we should strike while the iron's hot. Bowyer is still only a caretaker manager and fans shouldn't assume he's just going to pick up from where left off last time. Which, of course, is entirely academic because Bowyer's going to be streets ahead of whatever wacky name Shebby's cooking up.

[RevidgeBlue]

Hope they actually stick with Bowyer til the end of the season, then in the summer a new manager can come in, gut the dross, decide who he wants, what he needs and start fresh, no point bringing someone in now, utter filth at his disposal and lose a few games and be under pressure right away! Get to the summer in the championship and make some sort of effort to get the fans back onside!

Also the pitch is in Sh*t these days, worst condition for many years, are cutbacks really that tight!? its as if the club is just been abandoned and neglected completely even down to lookin after a poxy pitch,,,disgraceful!

2 points on that, I like Bowyer and would be quite happy for him to have charge until the end of the season. However if in the unlikely event that an outstanding candidate indicated he was willing to come to the Club NOW we'd be silly to wait until the close season because he might get snapped up by another Club in the meantime.

Conversely on the flip side of the coin if Bowyer does remain in charge until the end of the season and does really well again getting the team playing well and scoring plenty of goals and registering six or seven wins then we probably should be looking in summer at whether he'd want it full time as he must have something about him instead of obsessing over a "big name" .

I think the reality will be somewhere inbetween the two. I think Appleton has upset the status quo so badly Bowyer won't have quite the immediate and dramatic impact he did last time, but nevertheless we'll see a noticeable improvement over the remaining 9 games.

[EPF]

rather than talking about the next manager we should be trying to figure out how we can get Shaw, Agnew & Singh out of Blackburn Rovers FC. Then when the new board are in, build from there.

[perthblue02]

Same. Despite the tragic nature of it all, I'm completely de-sensitised to it. It's like watching donkey porn. The first time you see a dude blowing a donkey, you're going to be pretty shocked by it. After three years of watching dudes blowing donkeys, you're going to struggle to have the energy to be outraged by it anymore.

That's pretty much what being a Rovers fan has become under Venkys ownership. Three years of watching dudes blowing donkeys.

Suggest you change your DVD supplier, I believe there's ones of Donkey's in various costumes available , might reignite that outrage

[Veevs]

rather than talking about the next manager we should be trying to figure out how we can get Shaw, Agnew & Singh out of Blackburn Rovers FC. Then when the new board are in, build from there.

Could not agree more.. lets have Bowyer and turn everything we can against those who really need to go to get this damned club back where it should be.

[bypass06]

National media ridicules Rovers for sacking Appleton

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/blackburn_rovers/news/10301888.National_media_ridicules_Rovers_for_sacking_Appleton/

Fans' favourite Dunn could follow Appleton out the door at Blackburn this summer

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2296392/David-Dunn-follow-Michael-Appleton-door-Blackburn.html

[perthblue02]

National media ridicules Rovers for sacking Appleton

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/blackburn_rovers/news/10301888.National_media_ridicules_Rovers_for_sacking_Appleton/

Fans' favourite Dunn could follow Appleton out the door at Blackburn this summer

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2296392/David-Dunn-follow-Michael-Appleton-door-Blackburn.html

Wonder why the Dunn article didn't surface Monday or perhaps Tuesday ? No big secret he's out of contract, Think it's going to be tin hat time for the next few weeks with Appleton's PR sticking the boot in and the Shadow mole at Ewood on the rebound

[Stuart]

Sack me by proxy as you are slipping a cheque for 500k in the post and I'd not care less.

btw I am amazed at the response to this poll. The football was crap, the tactics were crap, the crowds were crap, we'd been shown up live in a FA Cup quarter final by players who'd cost virtually sweet FA, we couldn't score to save our lives and the players weren't playing for him. Nothing good was happening at the club whatsoever. In a nutshell Appleton had the club on a collision course with Div 1 ffs so why is anybody not jumping through hoops now that he's been binned?!

I'm not happy he was sacked.

Although I wasn't happy when he came, he was turning us back into a proper club off the field - or at least I thought he was. Clearly he was just the shop window mannequin with the shop keeper itching to change the display (put together by the hired help).

On the field he started well enough and has had a poor run of injuries. Some could say that his training regimes caused the injuries but if the premise is that we are hiring managers on short term target driven contracts, the chances are they may gamble on a players fitness - even at the expense of doing more harm.

I'd sooner have replaced the board, global advisor and owners, and kept Appleton and his team.

[perthblue02]

A good piece here worth a read

[windymiller7]

Hope they actually stick with Bowyer til the end of the season, then in the summer a new manager can come in, gut the dross, decide who he wants, what he needs and start fresh, no point bringing someone in now, utter filth at his disposal and lose a few games and be under pressure right away! Get to the summer in the championship and make some sort of effort to get the fans back onside!

Also the pitch is in Sh*t these days, worst condition for many years, are cutbacks really that tight!? its as if the club is just been abandoned and neglected completely even down to lookin after a poxy pitch,,,disgraceful!

Agreed. The pitch is a disgrace. Even in the pauper days of the early/mid 80s I still remember the pitch being at least green! Apart from when it snowed & we had to use an orange ball!

You'd think it'd be pristine given how little time the ball spends actually on it!

(I was going to do the old £20m worth of @#/? joke but refrained)

[rovers11]

Anyone know what's happened to DJ Campbell? Mirror reporting we've sent him back to qpr.

My guess is that he's gone back to his parent club for treatment on his injury but will return once fit.

[USABlue]

Well after I read most of this I sit in bewilderment at the minds of my fellow fans. It is clearly evident by results and ever worsening performances, along with fitness issues and some poor player moves this was not the man. Still fans are up in arms over his sacking, he's a couple of points worse than Berg yet few shed a tear for his removal. So Appleton said a few truths about the sorry sate of the club and it's players, even knowing that and stating he knew it he could not rectify matters where it counts, on the crappy pitch. I have a gut feel Bowyer will keep us up but the big worry is now just how will the Punatics screw it up again.

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

I was against Appleton from the start on account of his rubbish record at former clubs and an unwillingness to make excuses for him about difficult circumstances. However I must admit that by Arsenal I'd started to come round. But that proved to be a fluke and his overall record here is almost as bad as Berg's. I think a lot of fans are generally coming to the wrong conclusion. Our managers don't keep doing rubbish because they have to work under Venkys, they ARE rubbish because they were hired by Venkys.

[Lancs Rover]

In Praise of Folly: IT WAS THE ARSENAL WOT DID IT!

Or, 'For what it's worth'...

Prior to the Arsenal game, the team was on a what was shaping up to be a decent run before the FA Cup Fifth Round decider at The Emirates Stadium. Defence tighter and goals being scored.

It is taken as a given that everyone associated with Blackburn Rovers was filled with unalloyed joy at that unexpected and uplifting victory at the Emirates. Taking a more measured peek behind this curtain of euphoria, there stand two men, much, much less than pleased. In fact, two characters who were probably inside more than a little upset by the turn of events.

Shebby Singh. Global Advisor. How can he justify this role to his paymasters except to import talent from abroad? Otherwise, he'd just be an 'Advisor'. So, we end up with a group of over-rated Iberians who only qualify as interesting because they have Portuguese names. Certainly judging by the reserve match I saw, anyway.

And Daniel Murphy. One time England player, (seemingly promised a starting bonus - my speculation), an ageing, Machiavelian hod-carrier for the hopes of the rest of the 'Shebby babes'.

Appleton, bless his little cottons, picked a team for thebiggest match of a hitherto sorry season that included journeymen, has-beens and ne'er-do-wells, and 'rested' his captain. He included, instead of Murphy,a player that hardly anyone had heard of before he joined, found by Appleton in the footballing backyard, costing nothing, not even a fanfare, and by all accounts a star player in the match.

That match shattered the shallow strategy of our 'Global Advisor' in ninety minutes. Appleton didn't need him, nor his acolyte, Mr Murphy. We didn't need the bling, we just needed a bunch of scrappers who would run for the cause. I guess that win must have hurt both those chancers. For them, the writing was well and truly on the wall.

Why do I think that? Simple. Look at the results and the form before and since. Something pretty significant must have happened. And anyone who believes that Shebby has or ever will disappear quietly is, in my view at least, and judging by events, seriously underestimating the malevolence of the man.

[bypass06]

“Appleton turned Blackburn into the most defensive outfit”

http://www.lifesapitch.co.uk/laptv/podcast/fl-extra/appleton-turned-blackburn-into-the-most-defensive-outfit/?

[Giant]

If Murphy has been undermining Appleton then he is a disgrace to the club. I cannot see how any fans will accept him back into the fold after his atrocious performance against Peterborough, when he played with an unbelievably couldn't care less attitude.

[rossyrover]

Shebby Singh will no doubt be back at the training ground now in his track suit putting in his bit on tactics and team selection.