Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Jack forgive them for they know not what they do

In football, as in life, timing is everything. And Sam Allardyce's sacking yesterday could not have come at a worse time in the Blackburn Rovers season. On the back of a spirited performance - albeit a defeat - two home wins against West Ham and Stoke would have set us up for a good half way tally of 27 points. Now, it's up in the air. I don't know how the players will react, but give this to the big man, he usually had a game plan and they were two of the 12 games we should expect to win.

That's my first problem with his sacking. The timing.

My second is I think these new owners are clueless.

Say I'm right, then this is going to be a grim second half of the season. This will see rising anger at the haste with which the Walker Trustees sold the club reach a boiling point. I think they've acted with indecent haste and completely against the wishes of a man who's legacy they were entrusted to protect.

Say I'm wrong, then Venky's will have to pull a massive rabbit out of a hat. The return of Tugay, for example. But  everything they've done suggests that the Venky's people don't know their bees knees from their chicken's elbow. There is money, there isn't money. We can rely on loan players, we can play better football. We can be top 5, we have a plan. We will wait to get the right manager, we are talking to a target right now. It all sounds so very amateurish and so very sleazy.

Finally, a word on Big Sam. I didn't like the style of football. It was cynical and lacked romance. Grind a win against most teams at home. Hoof and hope against the big boys. Capitulate against Manchester United away from home. But he had NO MONEY. He hasn't signed a real duff player has he? Chimbonda, possibly? His management style at least gave Blackburn Rovers a stable base from which to evolve. Now we have chaos. And from that, I fear can only emerge more chaos.

5 comments:

Brian Spence said...

Glory be, he's finally gone.

Duff signings? How about Benjani, Goulon, Linganzi, Basturk - and let's not forgot the wonderful Elrio Van Heerden.

Don't forget he also seemed to believe Keith Andrews was a Premier League player. (He and Paul Ince are the only two people in the entire world who share this opinion.)

And Allardyce DID NOT have "no money" as so many seem to have claimed since his dismissal - Nikola Kalinic alone cost £6m.

Scott Balling said...

Dear spencey7,

Benjani, Goulon, Linganzi, Basturk, and Elrio Van Heerden were all FREE transfers.

In addition:
Salgado - Free transfer
N'zonzi - £500k
Diouf - £2m
Chimbonda - £2m
Givet - £3.5m
Kalinic - £6

That's roughly £14m spent. The net profit from the sale of Santa Cruz was £14m. That means Sam spent no money. In fact, he made the club money through the sale of Warnock and Benni.

moodonthepitch

Moorendman said...

Chaos - a day old chick beats its wing in Mumbai eventually causing a huge depression in East Lancashire

Savio Mathias said...

scott you seem to forget Chimbonda on that list is a duff signing & all those free signings may have been freebies but they were still duff signings & don't forget Benjani,Goujon,Linganzi still pick up wages despite them being duff & Benjani just adds insult to injury with his dodgy knees & huge salary hardly makes it money well spent but I have to agree the way the owners got rid off sam they should have done it in a more dignified way than how it was done but looking forward would like Tugay to come in as a no.2 with a more experienced man at the helm would work well

Scott Balling said...

Savio, I never indicated whether Chimbonda or any other player was/was not a duff signing. I'm speaking about transfer money, or lack thereof, spent.

If you don't have money to buy food you have have pick through the trash. Occasionally you get something fresh, but most of the time it's better suited for rats.

Wages are a whole other ball of wax. I certainly think some guys are overpaid, but it's built in to our business model unfortunately. It's the club's strategic approach to staying in the PL. I don't like it, but we don't have the cash to splash on the front end. Hopefully Venky's will remedy that on some level.