I know it's over

[Minnie the Minx]

Yet I cling. I don't know where else I can go.


Fried chicken, half price buckets.

[andymacandy]

I actually feel sorry for Kean, who I think has been thrown to the lions by his owners, and will probably get the brunt of the blame.He's kept a dignified silence, and got on with his job.He's probably not up to the task, but he can't be blamed for having a go.

[Minnie the Minx]

I don't feel sorry for him at all, and I have tried to be rational and keep those partisan feelings in check but to no use. I've been awake since 4am dreading today. The whole season has been a debacle of the highest order with some grotesque mismanagement and poor decisions coupled with a disinterested and etiquette barren support from the alleged highest levels of the club.

At the risk of sounding melodramatic, poor fucking Jack Walker.

[Diamond Dog]

I actually feel sorry for Kean, who I think has been thrown to the lions by his owners, and will probably get the brunt of the blame.He's kept a dignified silence, and got on with his job.He's probably not up to the task, but he can't be blamed for having a go.

Someone made a point the other day, calling Kean a 'complicit cunt that gets all he deserves'. When I questionned this further, he said to me "Do you really think he had nothing to do with Allardyce going and wasn't already fitted up for the job before he left?". I'd never actually thought about that side of the debate.

[andymacandy]

I actually feel sorry for Kean, who I think has been thrown to the lions by his owners, and will probably get the brunt of the blame.He's kept a dignified silence, and got on with his job.He's probably not up to the task, but he can't be blamed for having a go.

Someone made a point the other day, calling Kean a 'complicit cunt that gets all he deserves'. When I questionned this further, he said to me "Do you really think he had nothing to do with Allardyce going and wasn't already fitted up for the job before he left?". I'd never actually thought about that side of the debate.

Im struggling (in general terms) to see the sacking of Allardyce as anything other than "a good thing".
I really don't rate him.Would he have kept them up? Maybe, but the thing that has killed Blackburn is the lack of investment in the team.But then Im not as closely involved as Anna, so I don't know the full story.

I really don't like Allardyce though.





Did I mention that Im not keen on Allardyce?

[Diamond Dog]

You are a long way behind me in the "Allardyce Haters" queue, Andy!

[The G Experience!]

Blackburn are in big trouble. I think a financial shitstorm is coming their way. I certainly don't see them get promoted again to the Premiership any time soon.

[Diamond Dog]

They think it's all over...it is now.

[Minnie the Minx]

All you want as a football fan is for your team to give a shit, rise to the occasion and display some pride. All of these things were sadly lacking yesterday, and we slid down effortlessly. We deserved it, we were awful, and have been for most of the season.

Whilst not having huge success in the past decade the club has a firm and sound youth policy and whilst the Walker family were still in control we were acknowledged as being one of the best run clubs in the Premiership.
The club has been stripped like meat off a bone, if you'll excuse the chicken analogy. We're not the first club and we won't be the last. This is the way the world of football is going.

There is far more that has occurred behind the scenes than most non- Rovers fans know, and much of that has to do with the feeling towards Kean. Without going all Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Rovers is a relatively small club with close connections and news travels, I've heard and seen enough to understand that the whole thing has been a debacle. Whilst it saddened me to watch the way everything unfurled yesterday with nobody shouting for the team and instead concentrating on the poor performance, I eventually acknowledged that I couldn't blame anyone.

It felt odd watching it from a distance in a different part of the world, though when I saw the rain it seemed like a blessed relief. There wasn't a single player who lifted up his head and led. I saw players laughing with each other on the bench at the 75 minute mark and was incandescent with rage. Some players went off and it crossed my mind that they were just eager not to be on the pitch at the final whistle as they sat with their feet up on the bench playing with their Iphones. Colin Hendry, wherefore art thou?

The dismay I feel is that sickening sense of 'starting all over again'. Clubs need continuity, to build, to have some sense of growth. When you get relegated it's rewriting the rule book. Growth goes on a back burner. Kean wasn't the man for the Premiership job, so he sure as shit isn't the man for next season.

Shit that true football fans understand - it's not just a game actually. The pain is real. The press are having a field day. Not much comfortable reading today. It's not a bereavement but it is a loss - watching the world having a good laugh is unpleasant. So it goes.

[Geezee]

All you want as a football fan is for your team to give a shit, rise to the occasion and display some pride. All of these things were sadly lacking yesterday, and we slid down effortlessly. We deserved it, we were awful, and have been for most of the season.

Whilst not having huge success in the past decade the club has a firm and sound youth policy and whilst the Walker family were still in control we were acknowledged as being one of the best run clubs in the Premiership.
The club has been stripped like meat off a bone, if you'll excuse the chicken analogy. We're not the first club and we won't be the last. This is the way the world of football is going.

There is far more that has occurred behind the scenes than most non- Rovers fans know, and much of that has to do with the feeling towards Kean. Without going all Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Rovers is a relatively small club with close connections and news travels, I've heard and seen enough to understand that the whole thing has been a debacle. Whilst it saddened me to watch the way everything unfurled yesterday with nobody shouting for the team and instead concentrating on the poor performance, I eventually acknowledged that I couldn't blame anyone.

It felt odd watching it from a distance in a different part of the world, though when I saw the rain it seemed like a blessed relief. There wasn't a single player who lifted up his head and led. I saw players laughing with each other on the bench at the 75 minute mark and was incandescent with rage. Some players went off and it crossed my mind that they were just eager not to be on the pitch at the final whistle as they sat with their feet up on the bench playing with their Iphones. Colin Hendry, wherefore art thou?

The dismay I feel is that sickening sense of 'starting all over again'. Clubs need continuity, to build, to have some sense of growth. When you get relegated it's rewriting the rule book. Growth goes on a back burner. Kean wasn't the man for the Premiership job, so he sure as shit isn't the man for next season.

Shit that true football fans understand - it's not just a game actually. The pain is real. The press are having a field day. Not much comfortable reading today. It's not a bereavement but it is a loss - watching the world having a good laugh is unpleasant. So it goes.

If it's any consolation, you've spoken very eloquently about the predicament, and you bring sympathy to a club that doesn't engender much of it from what I see on the pitch. I can only concur from the outside - it really looks like the players have some severe attitude problems, and unfortunately the talent on the pitch (which is fairly considerable) is far outweighed by the actual performances, and it is never fun to see a team dismantled from up above in the way Blackburn have. I've rarely seen such a disconnect between what has been promised versus the reality of the situation - it's quite staggering, and since both football and media have been full of assessment of who is "fit and proper" to run a club/company, surely questions need to be asked about Blackburn in this regard? Where is Hendry indeed...last i heard he was bankrupt? One of those players whom i always admired and wished the best for.

[Minnie the Minx]

Thanks GZ - Hendry developed a gambling habit, well discussed in the media so no real secret really. He lost his wife in unpleasant circumstances and I think everything just became too much for him.

As you say, the attitude was poor. The fans were singing, 'do you know you need to win?' because this was not evident by the game itself.

[Diamond Dog]

Nice piece Anna - it must be horrible. I'd be interested in what you know about Kean though....

Anyway - Rovers abject demise was summed up by Ray Wilkins a couple of weeks back, after the gutless defeat against Spurs. He said (and I paraphrase) "Fans don't mind teams losing if the team put in a stint. But ninety minutes, not a single shot (let alone one on target), only eleven fouls and not one booking. " And he was right - they capitulated and were just as poor last night. The vast majority really didn't look as though they cared one bit. Shocking.

[Geezee]

Nice piece Anna - it must be horrible. I'd be interested in what you know about Kean though....

Anyway - Rovers abject demise was summed up by Ray Wilkins a couple of weeks back, after the gutless defeat against Spurs. He said (and I paraphrase) "Fans don't mind teams losing if the team put in a stint. But ninety minutes, not a single shot (let alone one on target), only eleven fouls and not one booking. " And he was right - they capitulated and were just as poor last night. The vast majority really didn't look as though they cared one bit. Shocking.

sounds a bit like Utd against City

[Billybob Dylan]

The club has been stripped like meat off a bone, if you'll excuse the chicken analogy.

I'm surprised the ref didn't blow for a "fowl" when that chicken came on the pitch. You'll probably need someone out on the wing next season, eh?

[Johnny Fartpants]

The dismay I feel is that sickening sense of 'starting all over again'. Clubs need continuity, to build, to have some sense of growth. When you get relegated it's rewriting the rule book. Growth goes on a back burner.

It won't come as any consolation Anna, but starting again is more or less what Middlesbrough have been doing over the last 18 months. We dropped out of the Premiership at the end of 2009 under Gareth Southgate, went for the so called "big name" manager with Gordon Strachan, and by October 2010 we were looking like nailed on relegation candidates to League 1. Strachan walked away (and to be fair to the bloke he didn't take a penny in compensation) and we now have a manager in Tony Mowbray who loves the club, is from Teesside, is great working with youth players (as he proved at Ipswich and Hibs) and is slowly but very surely turning the club round. We went from the relagation zone to just finishing in the top half at 12th in 2011, then this season we just missed out on the play-offs in the last game of the season, finishing 7th. You mentioned the youth system at Blackburn, and Boro are also known for having one of the best youth set ups in England ... just look at all the former Boro youth players in the Premiership now ... Stuart Downing, Adam Johnson, David Wheater, Lee Cattermole, James Morrison, Danny Graham, Cameron Jerome, Ross Turnbull. Mowbray is continuing this policy and all these kids seem to want to play for him. The man is a legend at the Boro, probably our greatest ever captain and on top of all that, a more decent bloke you'll struggle to find. We're going the right way again, and it's been great to follow a team that has been winning again. Progression again next year will mean at least a play off place.

So I know it's hard at the moment, but maybe starting again isn't such a bad thing Anna. I suppose the one other big plus for Boro is they have a great chairman in Steve Gibson, a fellow Teessider, who also loves the club and the area. A bit like Jack Walker was I suppose.

[Fireplug]

The situation at Blackburn's very different but sometimes going down is the best thing that can happen. It certainly was for Newcastle. You get a different sort of player coming to the fore, characters who will work and fight and lead. It's a chance to jettison the losers clogging up your squad. I know it seems like your club is being flushed down the shitter by your idiotic owners but that seemed to be the case at NUFC as well until the penny dropped with our fuckwit-in-chief and he learned from some of his mistakes. Hopefully you'll bounce back from this -- I like having Blackburn in the Prem.

Still had a bit of a chuckle at you this season, mind -- schadenfreude's part and parcel of football

[Minnie the Minx]

Thanks, fartpants and fireplug - I know that you're both right. Just feels a bit raw right now.

[Bleep]

Without wanting to pour water on it, the only problem will be whether the fans stay and the gate revenue continues to flow. Newcastle bounced right back up, not only because they had Chris Hughton guiding them, but also because they have a big stadium and a radically motivated supporter base.

Many clubs like Blackburn, who have a 30,000 capacity stadium, ones like Leicester, Derby, Middlesbrough, Coventry, Sheffield United for example, have struggled to return to the Premiership because they just aren't getting the revenue and also because their club isn't attractive enough to foreign players.

Agree though that it is a chance to start afresh. West Ham haven't really done that with Fat Sam - he's just bought a load of players who he knew would get results in the championship, and to be fair they have done, but I think that they're now a championship side who play in a championship manner and that just won't cut it in the Premiership. Swansea and Norwich did well this season because they played as a team and kept the same side from before. QPR didn't do so well because they're a hastily-assembled bunch of players.

If Blackburn rebuild and don't cast off the players that potentially get them back into the Premiership by just importing expensive foreigners because they've got the financial capacity to do so, then they can prosper.

[Diamond Dog]

It's when you read stuff like this that you kind of despair:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18005433

The club looks in utter disarray. Very sad to see.

[Minnie the Minx]

It's when you read stuff like this that you kind of despair:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18005433

The club looks in utter disarray. Very sad to see.

How odd - I just tweeted that very link

Yes - a clusterf**k