The inevitable and regrettable sacking of Paul Ince
THE beleaguered Guvnor has been relieved of his Guvnorship at Ewood Park, after just six months in charge.
The stats support the case for Ince’s dismissal: Blackburn currently lie 19th in the Premier League, mired in the dreaded relegation zone, with only three wins in 17 games.
Did Rovers chairman John WIlliams have a choice?
Probably not. Williams’ job is to ensure Rovers’ survival in the Premier League, and he needs to do that by any means necessary. If Rovers were to slip down to the Championship, who knows how long it might take to bounce back? A decade, longer even? There’s no guarantee they’d even stay in the Championship. Just look at the recent experiences of Nottingham Forest and Leeds, both of whom are “bigger clubs” than Rovers.
There is no room for sentimentality in football today. Big clubs are only big if they are in the top division. If Blackburn are relegated, they will cease to be a big club. To believe otherwise is naive.
Ince seemed to think he was being victimised, perhaps for his skin colour. Whilst there may be a tiny shred of truth in that, the fact is he failed to do a good enough job. He wasn’t helped by the departure of Brad Friedel and David Bentley, but his attempts to replace those two hinted at the fact he might not be ready for a job in the top flight. And if he thought his players would instantly respect him because of his achievements as a player… well, then he needs to work on his appreciation of what makes a modern pro footballer tick.
As Williams says, Ince is a proud fighter and he will bounce back, perhaps at a Championship club. He’s better off avoiding the Prem for a while. It chewed him up and gobbed him onto the pavement. He’s not the first manager that’s happened to, and he certainly won’t be the last this season.
Posted: 16th, December 2008 | In: Sports Comments (2) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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December 16th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
I think it was the loss of Friedel, Macarthy and Bentley leaving as Incey came in that did for Rovers and in turn Incey himself. Losing Friedel after what they both mean to each other is unthinkable to me as a neutral, something was wrong there and this season had not even begun. I think that losing the fans since about 2 weekends back also probably was the final straw.
This morning I doubted it (that he’d go before the Sunderland game) since it’s a 3 year contract and that makes no fiscal sense, however, it was the stats argument itslf that made me see their point. It seemed to tell me that indeed he’d already had his Stoke and Black Cats game already and as little affinity as I might have for Blackburn, even i have to agree that they don’t deserve to be 19th and despite the core of the team seemingly ripped out of it.
Oh, didn’t really read the article before going into one. Great article Anorak. Well written and to the point, plus i agree (obv.).
Injuries are just the icing on the cake, but the fans players and establishment probbably deserve much better.
December 16th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Well, when you dont have the good players (or at least enough of them) and some injuries it’s very hard to compete these days. I hope he finds another job soon.