[Archived] Gary Bowyer

[Mercer]

The Rovers Fans aren't as happy marooned in the bottom three, but they can still see what he's trying to do. I'm not happy outside the top six!

I question his success rates with the juniors anyway.

I wonder how he managed to survive in the first place as all and sundry lost their jobs.

The clean sweep required includes Bowyer and his cronies.

Spot on.

Our whole club has been dumbed down beyond recognition. Bowyer will never appoint coaching staff that 'threaten' him - in any event, the conductor of an orchestra should never be found wanting.

We need charisma, drive and footballing nous. Sadly, IMV, Bowyer and his cronies offer none of this.

[Tom]

202 votes and only 7 of those think he doesn't deserve to be sacked:

[K-Hod]

Spot on.

Our whole club has been dumbed down beyond recognition. Bowyer will never appoint coaching staff that 'threaten' him - in any event, the conductor of an orchestra should never be found wanting.

We need charisma, drive and footballing nous. Sadly, IMV, Bowyer and his cronies offer none of this.

I fully agree. Though if the people on the executive management structure don't have this themselves, I don't hold out much hope for them appointing someone with these credentials.

That being said, we desparately need a change in the dugout imo.

[JBiz]

That being said, we desparately need a change in the dugout imo.

Yes, but not just anyone. Desperation could be the word of choice if he's replaced by another Appleton, Berg or Kean (all who have failed, on different levels of spectacular!)

[Gav]

Yes, but not just anyone. Desperation could be the word of choice if he's replaced by another Appleton, Berg or Kean (all who have failed, on different levels of spectacular!)

First of all he's not getting sacked, but if he does:

History tells us that we'll get a cheap inexperienced replacement, and we'll be back in the same position again soon after his appointment.

At this moment in time I'm sure most would take that, I'd like to see a change, but I'm more than aware that until Venkys go this club will continue to slide slowly into the lower leagues.

[K-Hod]

You're both right (Gav and JBizzle). Can't remember who said it but, I'll paraphrase: sacking the manager is the easy part, it's the next steps that are crucial.

[AllRoverAsia]

Berg and also Appleton get far too much stick on here. They both suffered inheriting the garbage put together by K-nut and the other tossers and a dressing room with quite a few self-serving football mercenaries past their football sell by date. Berg and Appleton did not stand a chance, whether in time they could have succeeded at Rovers in a different story altogether. Bowyer was given a break by the Fans as he came from in-house.

[chaddyrovers]

You're both right (Gav and JBizzle). Can't remember who said it but, I'll paraphrase: sacking the manager is the easy part, it's the next steps that are crucial.

That was my point yesterday.

We dont know how and who the owners will appoint and cricually listen to Advisor wise.

We already see what certain ppl have done to us in the past

[dr who true blue]

Has i have said from day one Bowyer is not a manager,but he is just one part of the problem at Ewood.The Board are self serving Keans and Venkys are complete Morons.So you can't really blame Bowyer for milking this appointment, beacuse at the end of the day he is never going to get a managers job agiain at any leauge club.

[Mattyblue]

Has i have said from day one Bowyer is not a manager,but he is just one part of the problem at Ewood.The Board are self serving Keans and Venkys are complete Morons.So you can't really blame Bowyer for milking this appointment, beacuse at the end of the day he is never going to get a managers job agiain at any leauge club.

I think he would. The wider game are under the impression he is doing well.

If he gets an inkling that he is under threat, I assume he'll have the feelers out.

[DE.]

I think he would. The wider game are under the impression he is doing well.

If he gets an inkling that he is under threat, I assume he'll have the feelers out.

According to some journos he already did this summer re: the Sheff Utd position.

[Neal]

Just been watching SSN and looked at the league table... A loss tomorrow and we should be all over this fella on Saturday WIN OR LOSE.

[Guy N. Cognito]

Berg and also Appleton get far too much stick on here. They both suffered inheriting the garbage put together by K-nut and the other tossers and a dressing room with quite a few self-serving football mercenaries past their football sell by date. Berg and Appleton did not stand a chance, whether in time they could have succeeded at Rovers in a different story altogether. Bowyer was given a break by the Fans as he came from in-house.

Berg & Appleton have found their level. If they go on to prove they can cut it at a higher or equivalent level, then maybe we should reevaluate their dismissals, but the fact of the matter is that results weren't good enough. Let's not start trying to rewrite history just because things have gone south under Bowyer now. He twice came in as caretaker and managed to get a better return with more or less the same group of players. You could also argue that someone promoted internally from the youth set-up should demand less authority than two outsiders (one of whom was a club hero).

[Stuart]

That was my point yesterday.

We dont know how and who the owners will appoint and cricually listen to Advisor wise.

We already see what certain ppl have done to us in the past

12 months (or more) on and we still don't have a compelling case for keeping Bowyer which amounts to more than "better the devil you know".

So we should stick with mediocrity (which is the 2014 word - 'malaise' is the 2015 version) because the alternative might be more mediocre.

Or just maybe... we get another Berg - except without the boardroom being split and out to undermine him. That's an option that 'history' seems to ignore.

[Gav]

Just been watching SSN and looked at the league table... A loss tomorrow and we should be all over this fella on Saturday WIN OR LOSE.

I think you'll be on your own Neal, the desire to remove him isn't on most fans agendas at the moment in the ground, but fasten your seat belts 24th October because that day could become d-day for Bowyer, if it goes badly emotions will be running high thats for sure.

[47er]

That was my point yesterday.

We dont know how and who the owners will appoint and cricually listen to Advisor wise.

We already see what certain ppl have done to us in the past

That was your point yesterday and last month and umpteen times last season with the odd blink inbetween when you decided he had to go before changing your mind again.

Meanwhile we are deeper in the poo every day.

[Scotty]

I voted yes, but it's a decision I've only reached recently. While I've been frustrated with Bowyer's tactics for a long time, I always thought the positives outweighed the negatives until this summer.

I do think people under-estimate the job he did when he first took over. The club was completely broken, a revolving door of managers, a fan-base that had completely lost faith with the board, and a team that looked bereft of confidence and were only heading in one direction - down. He turned the team around, kept us up, recruited well in the main and, certainly for me at least, managed to restore some pride back in shirt. I started to enjoy watching them for a while.

I can pinpoint where my opinion really started to change though - it was Brighton away last season in November. The team were in the middle of an unbeaten run, we were on the verge of the play-offs I think, and we'd won 3 out of the last 4 games. I made the long trip south expecting to see a confident team ready to take the game to a team that were struggling. How wrong I was.

I'd been to Brighton the year before when they were flying high and we got beat 3-0. The home crowd were good that day, loud and right behind their team from the off. Not this time though. The home crowd were quiet and clearly on edge. You'd have thought it was perfect conditions for an away win and a bold team selection, but instead we started with Rudy up front on his own (Rhodes on the bench) and spent the first 20 minutes sitting deep creating nothing. You could visibly see Brighton gain in confidence as they realised we were offering nothing and were there for the taking. Sure enough they scored and we went in at half-time 1-0 down.

Rudy got us back into it shortly after the break with pretty much our first real chance but even then, instead of pushing on and using our momentum to get the winner we went back to sitting deep and defending our point. To illustrate that, Rhodes came off the bench in injury time and even then it was to replace Gestede.

On the face of it a point away at Brighton was probably ok, and you could tell that was what Bowyer thought when I saw his post-match interviews and comments, but I was so @#/? off at how we'd surrendered the initiative and failed to build on our good run. From then on my opinion of Bowyer got lower and lower as the season went on.

This summer was his last chance for me. It was obvious that we were going to struggle this season given we were in an embargo and we'd sold / released some of our best players. My hope (although certainly not my expectation) was that Bowyer would concentrate on toughening the team up, cut out the defensive horror shows that were becoming the norm, and recruit battlers who would fight for every ball. We should have gone into the start of the season knowing we were in a relegation fight and had just one aim - get to 50 points as soon as possible. Frankly you only need a team of battlers to finish mid-table in this league, but instead we mainly recruited wingers, number 10s, and ball-playing midfielders who seem incapable of tackling anything.

So for that reason he needs to go. We will go down if he stays for the season. Christ knows who the clowns in charge will get next though.

[AllRoverAsia]

Berg & Appleton have found their level. If they go on to prove they can cut it at a higher or equivalent level, then maybe we should reevaluate their dismissals, but the fact of the matter is that results weren't good enough. Let's not start trying to rewrite history just because things have gone south under Bowyer now. He twice came in as caretaker and managed to get a better return with more or less the same group of players. You could also argue that someone promoted internally from the youth set-up should demand less authority than two outsiders (one of whom was a club hero).

Results under both Berg and Appleton were poor, the players around at that time didn't want to play for them (imo) and it was post K-nut trauma. They were both swimming up hill underwater without air tanks. Never had a prayer at being successful. Perhaps Bowyer from in house gave those pseudo players a 'feel good' factor.

Nobody is rewriting history and I don't understand that jibe, theno?

[DE.]

Results under both Berg and Appleton were poor, the players around at that time didn't want to play for them (imo) and it was post K-nut trauma. They were both swimming up hill underwater without air tanks. Never had a prayer at being successful. Perhaps Bowyer from in house gave those pseudo players a 'feel good' factor.

Nobody is rewriting history and I don't understand that jibe, theno?

Guy is Topman/Amarillo, needs to change his avatar pronto.

[Guy N. Cognito]

Guy is Topman/Amarillo, needs to change his avatar pronto.

Oh, if you insist.

[Neil Weaver]

Good to see well thought out contributions like Scotty's. I've come away from a few games over the past couple of years thinking much the same but it does seem to be happening more frequently these days. Still not confident the powers that be have it in them to appoint anyone better though.

[Neal]

I think you'll be on your own Neal, the desire to remove him isn't on most fans agendas at the moment in the ground, but fasten your seat belts 24th October because that day could become d-day for Bowyer, if it goes badly emotions will be running high thats for sure.

I was on my own in the beginning with SK so i'm used to it. To start a fire you need a spark, wait until the 24th of October and we could be well adrift.

[Neal]

Good to see well thought out contributions like Scotty's. I've come away from a few games over the past couple of years thinking much the same but it does seem to be happening more frequently these days. Still not confident the powers that be have it in them to appoint anyone better though.

When you're languishing in the bottom 3, playing poorly with a disinterested fan base... It's more becoming how we can appoint anyone worse.

[Mike Graham]

I reckon Scotty is making some well thought out points- it comes down to the lack of tactical nous. I came to a similar conclusions n and it was Wolves away at the start of last season followed by Rotherham away then at a later stage Brentford away.

We were nothing short of appalling in all 3 of those games.

[broadsword]

He's not getting the maximum out of that team.

I mean, just the inconsistency of selection is damning. It's unbelievable.