All the club needed was to hold on to the PL for 3/4 more years,

The chances of that were diminishing year on year through lack of investment. Even multi champions league winning Allardyce (He must be to have this strange reputation that is gargantuanly bigger than the sum of his parts) was angling for an excuse to jump ship before the sheet hit the fan. Retirement he called it. Even in the final weeks he was putting the feelers out for a new job. Like I said in hindsight anything can be claimed. Even the clairvoyant notion that everything that has come to pass was foreseen at the time. More utter revisionist tripe Nobody knew just how wrong they'd get it and they couldn't have done more wrong if they tried. 4 utterly useless and pointless managers later............

I had a gut feeling the day Sam was sacked that it was the beginning of the end for us. It was not the "right idea" at all and probably the worst decision I have seen at Ewood in 50 plus years of supporting the club.

Kenny going upstairs trumps it in a non-revisionist world

As DE says all this from a comment about the most pointless tactic in the history of football......the long throw

Looking back. Rotherham 2 Blackburn 0 October 1 2014

Bowyer concedes the Jekyll and Hyde performances they are producing – not just game by game but over the course of a 90 minutes – needs to be addressed and fast.

12 months on...........................

In fairness it's just the usual tub thumping guff all clubs come out with. It just sounds worse when there's never any substance to it.

Some comments are bit less 'childlike thinking' than Shane's reasoning

Shane Duffy has an epiphany and totally nails how to do well in this league. Nodody has ever thought of this before...

"We just need to get on a good run. Four or five wins in this league and you never know where you can be."

What can possibly stop us now?

Who needed hindsight for that one?

Everyone. I'm in a minority but all it needed was a proper appointment and modest investment. Sadly we had no nowt buffoons in charge directed by crooks.

All the *there's nobody but sam who could have kept us going* is frankly ridiculous, as West Ham will show. I'm still of the opinion that we were 2/3 seasons off going down anyway due to lack of investment. Sam would have bailed to save his skin under the spurious retirement excuse he was already hatching at the time.

Anyway it's old and boring and it's been done to death. Back to discussing being relegated again because the right idea was executed by the wrong people

Exactly

Shauny wauny! If I had a quid for every time Abs has missed out the B in my username, I'd be able to pay off the debt and get Yakubu back for a season on a free.

In terms of the ST. It's important to validate views that I saw what I'm saying. See, I have that mentality, don't like discussing, arguing, praising or moaning about stuff I haven't seen.

I'd argue everyone who visits here from all 4 corners of the globe has seen it. You don't need to see it repeated ad-finitum to garner a view on it .I tend not to mention anything prior to 1983 but saying that adds nothing to the debate.

See, as a season ticket holder at the time I seem to remember Pedersen having a cracking assist rate from set pieces and corner...

Sorry if I'm remembering things a bit too fondly, I'd take Big Sam and where we where a million times over recent times.

No idea why you needed to add the 'season ticket holder at the time' part weren't we all? It adds as much to the debate as calling Abbey Abigail.

I said his free kicks were deadly. Sadly his corners (because he kept trying to score) and long throws were good keeper catching practice.

And we'd all take Sam over the current malaise with the benefit of hindsight.

How many trophies has he won ? The best win trophies .

That's what it's all about. Some would like to think it's hovering around in mid to low table. Ask an Arsenal fan in 40 years what they have the fondest memories of. The trophies or the time they came 4th in 2012? Obviously only a hand full of clubs can win something and at the time of Sam was a good appointment in these days where cash is more important than the sport.

My fondest memories are Full Members Cup, Play off win, League title, Promotion, League cup and not finishing 7th in 1996. Obviously the Sam era will be looked at with twisted rose tinted glasses because "those that will still not be protested against" ballsed it all up. But at the time prior to the Indian storm it was akin to just existing and not living. He was a justifiable means to an end but you can't blame fans for the folly of dreams. (bloody stupid damn venkys) Only Notts County and Bolton haven't sack him, he's that good

Even Schteeve McClaren, the wally with the brolly has a trophy to his name. Who did he beat in the final pray tell?

Anyway we have digressed. So lets return to discussing possible Relegation and the common opinion that Spurrs long throws are a waste of time

Big Sam is a professional football manager who decided to use that strategy. Do I think;

1) my recollections of the havoc it hardly caused in the box must be imagined and BS kept doing it because it worked once

Or

2) I remember it perfectly and fans who quickly resort to insults and arrogance rather than discuss it like adults were convinced like Sam that it was a good idea to squander possession cheaply with little reward?

​It was a bit like MGP's insistence on trying to score from corners when he didn't have the angle. Whereas the same strategy from free kicks was deadly.

Either way talk to the hand

Showing your naïveté and lack of experience of football here Shaun.

The reason why Big Sam is probably one the best English managers of recent time is because the methods he uses are effective, not pointless.

His methods work but the long throws were certainly not one of his successes. Like modern day Rovers possession was invariably lost, as well as a decent position in the opposition half, through them

You are showing your naivety and lack of experience of football there if you think they added anything to the party JB. Like today they were a pointless irrelevance. If they were an effective weapon you would see most clubs employing it. Christ they'd even train someone up to be able to throw long.

We would be better off taking normal throw ins and trying to contrive a regular cross into the box from them. As well as picking the best player for the full back role

And we persisted with being in the Premier League....

And the pointless long throws had nothing to do with it. Your point?

Do you think Allardyce would have persisted if it wasn't effective?

Yes. And he did

Spurr. Picked purely because he can throw a ball pointlessly long defends a man who isn't picking him on football ability alone. Shock, horror.

I seem to recall the "there are worse teams than us" line being trawled out throughout the 2011/12 season and look what happened. Never under estimate the affect of a bad manager.

My comment was general and not person specific. Rovers radio is bound to be one eyed

Currently out of the bottom 3. What crisis?

Didn't Bowyer say Cardiff were nailed on top 6 material in his post match excuse conference?

I'm confused as to why you would think Rovers' own radio would not have a gargantuan rose tinted pro-club editorial leaning.....listen to something else.

Hopefully 2 or possibly 3 points from those 9 games Shaun.

I've tried to be optimistic and changed Charlton from D to W

The return of an old favourite

Next 9 games taking us to November. What are your predictions?

Fulham A - L

QPR A - L

Charlton H - W

Hull A - L

Ipswich H - D

MK Dons A - D

Derby H - L

Dingles H - L

Leeds A - L

5 points from the next 27 and 8 from the first 42

Celtic out of the Champions League qualifiers LOL

Nobbers in Round 3 of the league cup (you watching Gaz?)

Poor Brad was declared bankrupt in 2011

http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/the91stminute/2015/05/the-maudlin-tale-of-brad-friedels-doomed-academy/

It's in the bag. One more to regain the Urn

Whilst it's great to see England thumping the Aussies I can't help feel a little sorry for Edgbaston.

They wait 6 years for an ashes test after spending hundreds of thousands on ground improvements and it's all over with inside 3 days and they lose all the money they have budgeted for on the Saturday and Sunday. I assume they have insurance policies or the ECB cover some of it?