The 'Rovers Return' to the Championship? (Blackburn Rovers F.C.)

Member Name: thedevilinme

Product:	Blackburn Rovers F.C.
Date:	08/12/08 (206 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good set up

Disadvantages: Lost their best players

Full name - Blackburn Rovers Football Club
Nickname(s) Rovers, Blue and Whites
Founded - 1875
Ground - Ewood Park
(Capacity: 31,367, 30% of the towns populous)
Owner - Fred Walker
Chairman - John Williams
Manager - Paul Ince
2007-08 Premier League, 7th

A fifth of the premiership managers at the start of the season were ex Manchester United players, all tutored under the worlds most successful football manager, Sir Alex Ferguson. But Roy Keane, sporting his German U-Boat look, has fallen, walking away from Sunderland, honorably so as he could have signed a new deal they were offering and taken the compensation, his pride unable to go to Old Trafford last Saturday night in the bottom three. After 100 matches he had taken the team as far as it could go and didn't want to spend the rest of the season trying to get an average team to finish 13th. Keane's a winner and all the winning has been done at Sunderland. So it's over to Paul Ince, the top leagues first British black manager, (John Tiguna and Rudd Gullit not counting, of course), taking over from ex team mate Mark Hughes, who was second only to Kenny Dalglish`s championship match winning ratio of 53% at Blackburn, a tough act to follow, but Ince already the next Fergie fledgling trying hard to avoid a high profile sacking this month.

With twenty managers in ten years at Blackburn Rovers it doesn't look good for the self-styled 'Guvnor'.Steve Bruce is trying to turn Wigans slump around with an unknown Egyptian striker and Paraguay's Roque Santa Cruz is the man Ince is relying on, but as the cold bites in Northern West England their goal ratio has also frozen, perhaps less enthusiastic about life at the bottom of the league on the end of the long ball. Bruce's players didn't turn their back on their boss where as Sunderland's did, but big defeats to Man United and Liverpool must signal the end for Paul by Christmas at Blackburn as the gravitational pull to the championship increases at Ewood Park. The transfer window creaks ominously open for under pressure managers in December, their replacements waving at them through the open door like contestants entering a game show on TV to win the big prizes. Once the players sniff the chance to shift the blame for their plight on to the manger through the media they usually take it and finish him off. Blackburn is the only football ground in the Premier League to have a multi-faith prayer room. I think Ince may need it today.

Like Lewis Hamilton, Paul's detractors say he was fast-tracked up the league ladder so to have a British black manager in a top job. Even though 25% of players are black in the football league ladder it's less than 0.25% of the managers over the years of British football and so inevitably prominent black names in the game like the plonker Gareth Crooks shout racism, even though its quite clear black people are better than white people at football and more than represented in the game as players because of the fact they are bloody good at it. These black players don't want to be referees or mangers Gareth, as do you, simple as. No one is blocking them. These guys would bring clubs success if they tried management. SHUT UP Gareth!

It started to go wrong for Ince, who had done really well at Macclesfield and then progressive club Milton Keynes with promotions, when he lost David Bentley and resigned Santa Cruz on a long deal for Rovers, which meant Cruz could stroll when times got tough, paradoxically getting tough now because he is no longer scoring. Pretty boys from Paraguay usually have the one good season. Top stopper Brad Friedel leaving was also a downer, a guy that can earn you an extra ten points a season, as he proved at Everton yesterday for Villa, Paul Robinson hardly a safe pair of hands to replace him. Morten Garnst Pedersen has also under- performed and a player very capable of big things. That's must be assign Ince hasn't got the players to come around to his thinking. Ince does have one prospect, nicking my home team of Northampton Towns goalkeeper in Mark Bunn. Mark Hughes did turn it around at Ewood Park this time last year to finish a brilliant 7th but I just can't see this group of players wanting to, the January transfer window the sacking time for chairman for guys like Ince.

-The Squad-

No. Position Player
1 GK Paul Robinson
2 DF André Ooijer
3 DF Stephen Warnock
4 DF Christopher Samba
5 MF Tugay Kerimoglu
6 DF Ryan Nelsen (captain)
7 MF Brett Emerton
8 MF David Dunn (vice-captain)
9 FW Roque Santa Cruz
10 FW Benni McCarthy
11 MF Vince Grella
12 MF Morten Gamst Pedersen
13 DF Zurab Khizanishvili
14 MF Johann Vogel
15 DF Aaron Mokoena
16 MF Steven Reid
17 MF Keith Andrews
19 MF Carlos Villanueva (loan from Audax Italiano)
22 DF Danny Simpson (loan from Manchester United)
23 FW Robbie Fowler
24 MF Keith Treacy
27 FW Matt Derbyshire
29 MF Martin Olsson
30 FW Jason Roberts
32 GK Jason Brown
38 GK Mark Bunn

-Out on loan-

GK Frank Fielding (at Northampton Town)
FW David Hoilett (at FC St. Pauli)
FW Maceo Rigters (at Barnsley)
18 FW Paul Gallagher (at Plymouth Argyle)
28 DF Tony Kane (at Stockport County)
34 GK Gunnar Nielsen (at Motherwell)
35 DF Eddie Nolan (at Preston North End)
FW Jamie Clarke (at Accrington Stanley)
MF Rostyn Griffiths (at Accrington Stanley)
FW Osahon Eboigbe (at OH Leuven)
GK Andreas Arestidou (at Nantwich Town)


-Honors-

Jack Walker, of course, bought them the championship in 1994-95 after taking over when the Premiership was born, a smart businessman in many ways. It was an amazing performance when you think Blackburn has a population of just 100,000 people, the smallest current premiership fan per seat ratio. The men that delivered the goods were SAS, 'Shearer and Sutton', still the clubs top premiership goal scorers, Simon Garner the clubs all time record holder with 194 goals. But the gap between 7th and 4th is huge, £50 million quid plus in players if we are honest.

The club was incredibly successful before the great wars, holding the FA Cup record of 24 straight wins, including 3 consecutive FA Cup final wins from 1884-86 in that run, and three times the old division one champions.

-Listed honours-

Premiership/League 1

1994-1995 - Premiership Champions
1993-94 Runners-up
1911-12, 1913-14 League division 1 (now Premier League) champions.

-FA CUP-

1884, 1885, 1886,1890,1891,1928 - FA Cup winners (6)
1882,1960 FA Cup runners-up

2002 League Cup winners

1987 Full Members Cup winners

1912 Charity Shield winners

Runners up
1882, 1883, 1884,1885,1896,1901,
1902, 1904,1907,1909,1911,

-Lower League-

2000-01 League division 1 (now the Championship) runners-up
1938-39 League division 2 (now the Championship) champions
1957-58 League division 2 runners-up
1974-75 League division 3 (now League One) champions
1979-80 League division 3 runners-up

1959 FA Youth Cup winners
1998, 2000 FA Youth Cup runners-up

-Links-

www.rovers.co.uk
www.brisa.org.uk
www.roverstalk.com
(Stats care off Wikipedi)
www.wikipedia_blackburn_rovers

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Summary: Bye Paul!