New Manager is Mark Hughes

[jim mk2]

Even with this taken into account there is still less pressure on a Rovers boss to perform than there is at Everton

........ so he wants to join Rovers because he wants an obscenely large salary AND the easy life?

He made his bed at Everton; let him lie in it.

[rover6]

If it is true that Premiership managers have applied, I thing Iain Dowie is almost a cert.

Crystal Palace are going to get relegated even if they appoint a professional miracle-worker. Simon Jordan is looking to get out of Palace, which means in the very near future the funds will be withdrawn, so the future looks fairly bleak.

I'd personally be more than glad if Dowie takes the reins.

[den]

Can someone remind me again - how do we know three current prem managers have applied for the job?

[philipl]

Information I have is that of the 20 applicants there are at least 3 from current Premiership managers.

Good source from inside the club too.

Our good friend Jason.

[jim mk2]

If it is true that Premiership managers have applied, I thing Iain Dowie is almost a cert.

Crystal Palace are going to get relegated even if they appoint a professional miracle-worker. Simon Jordan is looking to get out of Palace, which means in the very near future the funds will be withdrawn, so the future looks fairly bleak.

I'd personally be more than glad if Dowie takes the reins.

I wouldn't.

A successful six-month spell gaining promotion for Palace on the back of a gruelling fitness regime a Premiership manager doth not make.

He's also not the big name that the club needs to attract the better players.

Dowie, Jewell and their ilk are non-starters as far as I'm concerned.

[den]

No disrespect LDRover, but not absolutely set in stone, then?

[BMan]

Maybe its RFW. Wouldn't that be a laugh and a half?

[RoverDrake]

Roversmum said earlier that if Advocaat was appointed that would mean the exit of Amoruso? Did they have a clash during their Rangers career I presume?

[philipl]

He's also not the big name that the club needs to attract the better players.

Dowie, Jewell and their ilk are non-starters as far as I'm concerned.

As I wrote this morning, the choice of Manager is going to indicate how the Board and Jersey Trustees see the immediate future for the Rovers.

A "big name" manager and presumably the funds are being made available to attract the sort of players a "big name" is intended to attract.

However, if those funds are not available, give us a Dowie or a Jewell who seem to have the management skills and ability to pick players to do the job of keeping us in the Prem.

[John]

Dowie- no way, need a manager who can attract a high calibre player and I doubt he can. Good coach and did well last season but I cant see him as our next manager.

You can still get good players without having £10 million in your pocket.

If we are competing for a Bosman, who our manager is could matter a lot.

Edited September 8, 2004 by John

[T4E]

Roversmum said earlier that if Advocaat was appointed that would mean the exit of Amoruso? Did they have a clash during their Rangers career I presume?

Advocaat was a big fan of Amo during his earlier days at Rangers, frequently praising him publicly. However Amo did almost leave Rangers twice when he was there, and spoke out about his unhappiness a few times. I wouldnt say Advocaat doesnt like Amo, but they probably dont have the friendliest of relationships.

[Hasta]

Hughes now 6-4 on Betfair

Correct me if I'm wrong Brownie but does the graph not show that there's been about 14k lumped on him in the past hour or so.

Youre right, the spike is quite out of the ordinary.

That's a hell of a lot of money to be throwing at such a bet.

It's either someone 'in the know' or someone with more money than sense. I'm going for the former and expect him to be installed before the Portsmouth game.

The grey bars on the graphs on Betfair are induvidual bets so the £14,000 is just one bet! One very plausable reason for this though is that a Bookmaker may have gone a top price about hughes on Monday (say 9/2 compared to everyone elses 4/1) and got hit quite hard. Now it looks like he is a very realistic option they could be trying to offload ttheirhere liabilities on the best price they can find which would be with Betfair. Still a staggeringly large bet though which never happened on Newcastle's Manager betting until Souness was all but confirmed.

The Moyes betting pattern is similar to the Advocat betting from Monday and as we now know Advocat is interested in the job. Theres over £3,000 on Moyes now on Betfair which has practically all gone on today. This is more money than on people who have been ranked as decent contenders all week such as Glenda and Houllier.

Geroge Graham and Gary Megson have just been added.

Edited September 8, 2004 by Hasta

[Lathund]

Wonder if he will try signing some of the welsh players if he gets it?

Wouldnt mind Earnshaw or Giggs or even Bellamy but please not Robbie Savage!

I'd absolutely love Robbie Savage. Cracking little player who gets stuck in, doesn't get sent off, can take set pieces, and winds the opposition up no end.

Yeah I like him a lot too. I think a central midfield with him and Fergie would be great..

Anyway.. aren't people reading a little too much into the betting odds? After all, many of the betters on betfair are people just like us, fans on a messageboard with no real clue who's getting the job.

[god]

Dowie would be superb, players don't sign because of the managers rep in the real world they sign (a) for the most cash and ( for the nearest club to london. Of all the names mentioned Dowie and possibly Hughes stand out as the ones with real potential, i'll be sick if we get a Moyes or an Advocaat.

[Lathund]

Players can base their decision on who the manager is. Let's say Wenger was to leave Arsenal and somehow end up at, say, newly promoted Wigan. Don't you think the name "Wenger" might persuade one or two big names who otherwise wouldn't consider a club they've never even heard of?

[god]

the players that would be attracted to us because we had a certain manager are'nt going to be particuarlly great players, and liable to sign whoever the manager. We'd just get those players that have been a managers favorite at a previous club and of all the names linked to us i can't think of many if any players i'd want e.g Moyes=Kilbane, Houllier=Biscan, Advocaat=Dutch 30+crap etc,etc

[kingalan]

Of course the manager has a bearing on whether we can attract good players! I doubt Ferguson would have been so willing to come to Rovers if it wasn't Souness in charge at Rovers. The chance to work with a high-profile manager who has had experience at working at the top-level, been successful, and promise of being able to develop a player's game is of course going to have some sort of pulling power.

As for who I would like at the helm, we have to look at what kind of predicament Rovers are going to be in regarding transfers in the coming months. I think Souness has left us with a good core of players and the foundations are there for an excellent starting XI, so I don't think there's any need to make drastic changes to the team. Plus, there's probably very little in the coffers to splash around come the January sales.

Therefore, what we don't want is a cheque-book manager, a la Walter Smith or Dick Advocaat, who are used to working with big budgets at Rangers. What we do need is an experienced manager who is capable of getting the best out of the players we have at the minute (playing everyone in their proper positions would be a start) and who has some sort of tactical sense.

As for who that could be, I'm not too sure about Mark Hughes. I think his success with Wales has coincided with a crop of good players he's inherited (Giggs, Hartson, Bellamy, Speed, Davies,...) so there's a bit of doubt whether he can do it at a Premiership club week-in week-out.

I would LOVE to see Martin O'Neill here(Christmas will have come early if he was to come) but I think the Board will go for Venables or Hod...

[RoyRover]

Roversmum said earlier that if Advocaat was appointed that would mean the exit of Amoruso? Did they have a clash during their Rangers career I presume?

Wouldn't be a bad thing though. As I've said, Advocat would be a disaster in my opinion, he wasn't able to make the Dutch play well, when they have arguably the best squad of players about.

[Duffers]

the players that would be attracted to us because we had a certain manager are'nt going to be particuarlly great players, and liable to sign whoever the manager. We'd just get those players that have been a managers favorite at a previous club and of all the names linked to us i can't think of many if any players i'd want e.g Moyes=Kilbane, Houllier=Biscan, Advocaat=Dutch 30+crap etc,etc

WTF! We beat off clubs (12 in Dickovs case) to complete the signings of Dickov, Ferguson, Cole and Emerton and each cited the manager as reasons for coming.

[tonygreenbank]

Cant really say that any manager will bring back the glory days. September 6th 2004 will go down in the history of this once famous club as the day that Blackburn Rovers ceased to be a top flight team.

Souness has the talent to take Newcatle ever upwards. What a pity our provincial and parochial board were persuaded by rantings from a minority of fans to accept Graeme`s decision to leave . He will be missed by many. To have a manager of a premiership side go to another premiership club and state that we have no challenge to offer him is a bitter pill to swallow. Our level is clear. Our Town status has at last caught up with us.

We had better get used to the taste of Coca-Cola.

[jim mk2]

Cant really say that any manager will bring back the glory days. September 6th 2004 will go down in the history of this once famous club as the day that Blackburn Rovers ceased to be a top flight team.

Souness has the talent to take Newcatle ever upwards. What a pity our provincial and parochial board were persuaded by rantings from a minority of fans to accept Graeme`s decision to leave . He will be missed by many. To have a manager of a premiership side go to another premiership club and state that we have no challenge to offer him is a bitter pill to swallow. Our level is clear. Our Town status has at last caught up with us.

We had better get used to the taste of Coca-Cola.

Good grief.

[god]

Any player thats ever signed for any club has always stated the manager as a reason, they are hardly likely to say in the press conference i signed for the money to play in europe and to be close to the nightclubs. Regardless of the manager the clubs standing at the time of previous signings was enough to seal the deal.....Ferguson wanted to come south big clubs not interested and we were in europe finished 6th and could afford him, Logic and not the managers name tells you he ain't going to Everton.

[American]

We beat off clubs (12 in Dickovs case) to complete the signings of Dickov, Ferguson, Cole and Emerton...

THAT'S how we got the other clubs to let us get them!

[mjs]

Cant really say that any manager will bring back the glory days. September 6th 2004 will go down in the history of this once famous club as the day that Blackburn Rovers ceased to be a top flight team.

Souness has the talent to take Newcatle ever upwards. What a pity our provincial and parochial board were persuaded by rantings from a minority of fans to accept Graeme`s decision to leave . He will be missed by many. To have a manager of a premiership side go to another premiership club and state that we have no challenge to offer him is a bitter pill to swallow. Our level is clear. Our Town status has at last caught up with us.

We had better get used to the taste of Coca-Cola.

What complete nonsense. Souness's record in the last 12 months, in terms of results and handling of the players and team selections, is nothing short of appalling.

Do you think the board are so narrow minded that they would listen to a 'minority' of fans?

Do you not think that they had a better idea of what the real situation was than me and you?

Do you not think that they could see that this season's performances have carried on from last and that we were heading for relegation?

Overall he did a good job for the club but he was on his way out anyway!

[thenodrog]

Cant really say that any manager will bring back the glory days. September 6th 2004 will go down in the history of this once famous club as the day that Blackburn Rovers ceased to be a top flight team.

Souness has the talent to take Newcatle ever upwards. What a pity our provincial and parochial board were persuaded by rantings from a minority of fans to accept Graeme`s decision to leave . He will be missed by many. To have a manager of a premiership side go to another premiership club and state that we have no challenge to offer him is a bitter pill to swallow. Our level is clear. Our Town status has at last caught up with us.

We had better get used to the taste of Coca-Cola.

You must have a memory one second longer than a goldfish! I said weeks ago in the close season that GS's future lay not in his results as much as in the number of empty seats and lost season ticket sales caused by.....

1. the home performances of HIS team last year.

2. the tantrums and excesses of his two black pearls......sorry puddings.

3. GS continually denying the Blackburn public any pride of competing in Europe! He misjudged that effect really badly. It might be OK for Lpool and Rangers they are there every year but for us European competition is the stuff of dreams and he rammed those dreams down our throats nd shamed the town, te country and the fans. To repeat that would cause a riot in Newcastle.

Speak to the paying public and unfortunately they were turning away from his style of management. GS did a decent job for 3 years but it was time to move on. Fantastic turn of events for us and him as we would have had to get rid and pay off him and his staff in the near future if Fat Freddie hadn't come a calling.