Valérien Ismaël: Blackburn Rovers Head Coach

[Wheelton Blue]

The writing has been on the wall for a while since our early season form started to dissipate. Eustace saw what was coming and jumped ship as soon as he could.

We can only hope that this new guy has enough about him to keep the ship afloat. Next season will be a massive challenge for him.

[BankEnd Rover]

I remember the 5-0 drumming at Bristol away last season and thinking who the hell have we brought in with Eustace.

The one thing which I feel players will miss is the culture Eustace brought...Personally think that is the reason he'll keep Derby up.

[Parsonblue]

Although Ismaël wouldn't have been my first choice of manager, I'm not going to judge him after two games.  I remember Gordon Lee coming in at a similar time when we were still involved in a promotion race to get out of the Third Division.  We finished mid-table as Lee chopped and changed the team to evaluate the players he had inherited.  In the summer the squad was restructured  to meet Lee's requirements and we went on to win the Third Division Championship the following season.

I don't for a moment believe that will happen again.  In the seventies we had Bill Bancroft at the helm who was Rovers through and through.  But I'll judge this manager when he has had time to build his own squad - admittedly it will largely be loans and freebies that Gestede and co can cobble together - and infuse his own style of football into the team.  By November or December we will have a good idea of how this appointment will work out.  Like every supporter I hope for the best but fear the worst. 

[Waggy76]

8 minutes ago, BankEnd Rover said:

Eustace had a poor start under us and if it wasn't for the catastrophic 7minutes we probably would have come away with something yesterday so it's daft to write a manger off so soon. 
Slight worry that in both games there's been no identity in play...Hopefully that will come. 

This nonsense that players won't be playing for him is hilarious...That may come over time if result continue but the bloke has just come in.

We will see a response but ultimately it will be too late (it already is).

 

 

I can go back a long time , the name was Jim Iley.

In  fact there are many similarities in the situations of now and 1978.

Jim Smith went to Birmingham in March 78 and Iley replaced him ..

He didn't last long maybe October 78.

No play offs in those days .

[Wheelton Blue]

Realistically, the best that I expect these days is that we don't get relegated, in the vain hope that The Idiots will one day disappear and that better days will come.

[CambridgeRover]

10 minutes ago, Parsonblue said:

Although Ismaël wouldn't have been my first choice of manager, I'm not going to judge him after two games.  I remember Gordon Lee coming in at a similar time when we were still involved in a promotion race to get out of the Third Division.  We finished mid-table as Lee chopped and changed the team to evaluate the players he had inherited.  In the summer the squad was restructured  to meet Lee's requirements and we went on to win the Third Division Championship the following season.

I don't for a moment believe that will happen again.  In the seventies we had Bill Bancroft at the helm who was Rovers through and through.  But I'll judge this manager when he has had time to build his own squad - admittedly it will largely be loans and freebies that Gestede and co can cobble together - and infuse his own style of football into the team.  By November or December we will have a good idea of how this appointment will work out.  Like every supporter I hope for the best but fear the worst. 

So we decided to throw this season away despite our position. Another Venkys Waggott classic

[DE.]

The "players aren't playing for him" idea might have slightly more weight if we didn't regularly lose to teams in dire straits. At this point teams on a poor run of form likely mark Rovers on the fixture calender as a target to get back to winning ways. 

Edited 11 hours ago by DE.

[Parsonblue]

2 minutes ago, CambridgeRover said:

So we decided to throw this season away despite our position. Another Venkys Waggott classic

I think once Eustace decided to get out it was always going to be difficult to sustain a top six challenge.  I don't think we would have finished near the top six even if Eustace had stayed.  Fourteen defeats thus far suggests we lack the consistency required to finish in the top six.

[BankEnd Rover]

Just now, DE. said:

The "players aren't playing for him" idea might have slightly more weight if we didn't regularly lose to teams in dire straits. At this point grand on a poor run of form likely mark Rovers on the fixture calender as a target to get back to winning ways. 

Agreed we'd of lost that yesterday with or without Eustace...This team can't handle pressure.

[DE.]

5 minutes ago, BankEnd Rover said:

Agreed we'd of lost that yesterday with or without Eustace...This team can't handle pressure.

100%. The cursed second half of the season was already happening before Eustace left. It's just something that happens now, like the tides or the sun rising each morning. An unstoppable force. We could be 20 points clear at the top at the end of December and we'd still end up finishing 8th. 

Edited 10 hours ago by DE.

[martonrover]

1 hour ago, Parsonblue said:

I'll judge this manager when he has had time to build his own squad - admittedly it will largely be loans and freebies that Gestede and co can cobble together

and therein lies the problem.

It won’t be his own squad, so the job is made almost impossible, other than to tread water at best.

[chaddyrovers]

27 minutes ago, martonrover said:

and therein lies the problem.

It won’t be his own squad, so the job is made almost impossible, other than to tread water at best.

well if listened to Ismael's comment when he got the job, its appears he has been given those assurances he will build his own team. 

Ismael need to change things after Yesterday and I wouldn't to see us go 3 at the back at Stoke and 2 up front. The players let him down and the fans aswell, 2 nil down after 7 minutes isn't good enough  and I expect much better from us 

[martonrover]

7 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

well if listened to Ismael's comment when he got the job, its appears he has been given those assurances he will build his own team.

Do I really need to point out the problem here?

[jim mk2]

1 hour ago, Parsonblue said:

Although Ismaël wouldn't have been my first choice of manager, I'm not going to judge him after two games.  I remember Gordon Lee coming in at a similar time when we were still involved in a promotion race to get out of the Third Division.  We finished mid-table as Lee chopped and changed the team to evaluate the players he had inherited.  In the summer the squad was restructured  to meet Lee's requirements and we went on to win the Third Division Championship the following season.

I don't for a moment believe that will happen again.  In the seventies we had Bill Bancroft at the helm who was Rovers through and through.  But I'll judge this manager when he has had time to build his own squad - admittedly it will largely be loans and freebies that Gestede and co can cobble together - and infuse his own style of football into the team.  By November or December we will have a good idea of how this appointment will work out.  Like every supporter I hope for the best but fear the worst. 

 

You're being too kind. He took over in a team in the top 6 and, if he had anything about him, he would find a way to keep us there. That's all he has to do - and it would have been more prudent for the club to give him a contract to the end of the season reflecting that. As is stands, the season is becoming a write-off and for me, next season is irrelevant when such a good opportunity is being thrown away

 

[Forever Blue]

4 minutes ago, martonrover said:

Do I really need to point out the problem here?

I think you might, but you will be wasting your time. 

[chaddyrovers]

21 minutes ago, martonrover said:

Do I really need to point out the problem here?

or why could wait and see what actually happens but we still have 10 games left to get a playoff lace starting with 3 points at Stoke and 3 points at Ewood Park against Cardiff

[JHRover]

I doubt Waggott or the curtain twitcher in the shadows know between them what is going to be happening in the summer or next season as I doubt the wretches in India have decided or communicated that to them. 

They are probably working on the basis it will be business as usual - that being find another few players to sell, release a few, cut the wage bill down and then cobble together a squad that has enough to hit 50 points next season from a combination of the academy, loans and free agents.

Exciting times.

But the belief or suggestion that Gestede and Ismael have some sort of plan, project, strategy, and that Ismael should not be judged until that has settled into place, I can't accept.

He won't be given the opportunity to assemble his own squad just as JDT and Eustace weren't. He won't be given the resources to recruit or develop a quality squad.

He's walked into a club in a good place on the pitch, almost 3/4 of the way through a season and on track for the play-offs. Whether you have confidence in our ability to sustain that or not, that is the position he has inherited and he certainly cannot receive a free pass from February to May.

His average tenure as a manager has been 26 games across his 8 senior teams. How long does he want/need here and why are we going to suddenly buck that trend with our 3 year inexplicable contract?

Of course he isn't the problem or the issue here. But February to May was never a write off or settling in period. It was our best and probably last shot at play-offs and promotion and we are once again letting it slip before the talk then shifts to the good old 'projects' and squad overhauls which we all know is just an excuse to be on the road to nowhere and cut costs further.

[roversfan99]

3 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

well if listened to Ismael's comment when he got the job, its appears he has been given those assurances he will build his own team. 

Ismael need to change things after Yesterday and I wouldn't to see us go 3 at the back at Stoke and 2 up front. The players let him down and the fans aswell, 2 nil down after 7 minutes isn't good enough  and I expect much better from us 

You are naive to the point of parody. Whatever assurances hes been given, they wont be fulfilled.

[chaddyrovers]

1 minute ago, roversfan99 said:

You are naive to the point of parody

is that the best you got RF99. very poor. 

[RevidgeBlue]

18 hours ago, arbitro said:

You might be right, who knows but judging him after two matches is crazy.

It's obviously not fair to say that he should be sacked after 2 games but I can't see why it's unfair to pass judgement on his first 2 games and imo its been an absolutely dsmal start.

The majority of the time you'd expect a "new manager bounce" and the players to look like they're prepared to run through a brick wall for the new man. At least until the honeymoon period wears off. That hasn't happened with us, in fact arguably we've gone worse. We were also extremely  lucky to finish with ten men on the pitch against Norwich!

I didnt want him as manager in the first place and there's something about him I cant really warm to therefore Im probably somewhat biased against him until he proves me wrong. However I have a very bad feeling about the appointment, I think he's completely the wrong fit, he's not someone anyone seemingly really wanted as manager (probably not even the Club) and bizarrely we've given a 3 and a half year deal to someone who's never lasted more than a year anywhere he's been.

If I had to predict,  I'd expect this season to tail off spectacularly, our better players to be wanting out, him to be refused funding to rebuild the squad in the style he wants in the summer and to be very unhappy as a result and  for us to be firmly rooted in the bottom 3 by the time ten games of next season have passed.

Whether we'd be willing or could afford to part Company with him in that situation is anyone's guess. Just standard sort of fare for being a Blackburn Rovers supporter these days I suppose.

[RoversClitheroe]

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

is that the best you got RF99. very poor. 

You are naïve.

In life we've constantly been taught to learn from our history.

Unfortunately I worry that you have misunderstood what's happened to our last 2 managers who too have had assurances.

[JHRover]

34 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

It's obviously not fair to say that he should be sacked after 2 games but I can't see why it's unfair to pass judgement on his first 2 games and imo its been an absolutely dsmal start.

The majority of the time you'd expect a "new manager bounce" and the players to look like they're prepared to run through a brick wall for the new man. At least until the honeymoon period wears off. That hasn't happened with us, in fact arguably we've gone worse. We were also extremely  lucky to finish with ten men on the pitch against Norwich!

I didnt want him as manager in the first place and there's something about him I cant really warm to therefore Im probably somewhat biased against him until he proves me wrong. However I have a very bad feeling about the appointment, I think he's completely the wrong fit, he's not someone anyone seemingly really wanted as manager (probably not even the Club) and bizarrely we've given a 3 and a half year deal to someone who's never lasted more than a year anywhere he's been.

If I had to predict,  I'd expect this season to tail off spectacularly, our better players to be wanting out, him to be refused funding to rebuild the squad in the style he wants in the summer and to be very unhappy as a result and  for us to be firmly rooted in the bottom 3 by the time ten games of next season have passed.

Whether we'd be willing or could afford to part Company with him in that situation is anyone's guess. Just standard sort of fare for being a Blackburn Rovers supporter these days I suppose.

I agree. I think things will pan out that way. I think we needed a wise old head who would be able to come in and put his arm around the players and get them 100% focused on the rest of the season and galvanise us. I think there will have been a lot of deeply unhappy and angry players in that dressing room after the unprecedented occurrence of a top 6 manager joining a club at the bottom mid-season (it isn't normal, despite what the club and media attempt to portray). 

Whilst Ismael has a reasonable CV and reasons for some optimism with his track record he just doesn't strike me as the sort who will do the above. I've read and heard things that he's probably the opposite of what Eustace was.

I find it totally crackers that a bloke who has managed 8 clubs in his short career, never lasted more than a season and averaged about 20-odd games in charge is then handed a 3+ year deal to come here. The only logic I can imagine with it is that whatever else we were offering - pay, budgets, guarantees - were not forthcoming so we had to offer him a long deal to persuade him to accept it. 

I suspect that a large number of our players will have been looking elsewhere anyway due to the club's decision to run their contracts down, but with the events of the last 5-6 weeks and then if Ismael is very different to Eustace I think a few will have had enough.

I'm at the point where I suspect that is precisely what they wanted when they appointed him - makes it easier to deliver their plans if there are players actively wanting out.

[davulsukur]

5 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

well if listened to Ismael's comment when he got the job, its appears he has been given those assurances he will build his own team. 

Ismael need to change things after Yesterday and I wouldn't to see us go 3 at the back at Stoke and 2 up front. The players let him down and the fans aswell, 2 nil down after 7 minutes isn't good enough  and I expect much better from us 

You can't have gone full circle already?

Everything is rosy in the garden again.

The reason they last 2 managers have walked out on the club is because any assurances they were given, were reneged upon.

[Upside Down]

5 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

or why could wait and see what actually happens but we still have 10 games left to get a playoff lace starting with 3 points at Stoke and 3 points at Ewood Park against Cardiff

Embarrassing chaddy.

[chaddyrovers]

22 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

You can't have gone full circle already?

Everything is rosy in the garden again.

The reason they last 2 managers have walked out on the club is because any assurances they were given, were reneged upon.

Who has said everything is rosy in the garden? No one at all including myself.

All I did was post what Ismael's answer to a question he was asked at his first press conference. That's it FFS but yet again the squad is out in force again and again. 

Yes we all know what we think they were assurances. I would enjoyed asking Waggott or Gestede awhy Eustace wanted to move to Derby and what assurances if any broken to him. But They arent doing interviews currently. Do we need to mention it everyday? Probably not cos we all know