I have not done a blog for almost a year now, what has changed since then?
In came Shebby Singh with the promises of the world, after all he is our Global Advisor, whatever that entails. One of his first priorities was to bring the fans back on board with his infamous meeting with the fans. He told us what we wanted to hear that Kean, should he lose 3 straight games would be sacked, if he failed to reach a certain tally of points from a number of games he would be sacked. Not to mention calling MGP a pensioner.
Then only a day later Singh had to retract most of what he said, sending signals that he didn't hold the key to the removal of Kean and infact the meeting was in my opinion a farce as he was just telling us what we wanted to hear. The day of the retraction was the beginning of another Venky's foul up, Singh was and still is not the man for Rovers. Full of hot air and stupid remarks, once again for Blackburn we became a joke for the footballing world to see.
Looking back now, when Kean didn't hit the points target set he at last departed. Lets be honest, the points that we had we were lucky to have especially after some really poor displays. We all thought with the arrival of Murphy, Etuhu, Rhodes, CKR, some Portuguese players that we had a team that should be in the hunt for automatic promotion.
Up stepped Singh, on the search for a new manager.
Names in the media and betting sites were being thrown around like confetti. Names like Holloway, Redknapp, Hughes, OGS, Hitzfeld,Schuster, McCarthy plus Ex Rovers players such as Shearer, Sherwood, Hill, BMK and even Flitcroft.
Obviously due to Singh n Co keeping tight lipped for most part of the managerial appointment most of the names above were just tossed into the hat, but the fans mostly agreed that we needed someone with experience to give the team a lift and a complete change of atmosphere. So when Singh looked to ask Fulham to speak to Billy McKinlay, Singh was blasted by the fans as this was a definate no go.
Singh recognised this and pulled out of any talks. We all thought this was a good sign and we would go on and appoint a manager of decent experience, a manager who would turn the fortune around and bring back the fans to a less than half full Ewood.
The selection for the manager started dragging on and time was ebbing away, we thought we would lose momentum with Black in charge on a temporary basis. Fans started calling for the manager to be put into place and quickly. At this time Coyle had gone from Bolton, Howe had gone from Burnley and Jewell's time at Ipswich was almost over. This meant more clubs were out trying to secure the "best" manager for their team.
Out of nowhere or should I say Norway a story broke the Henning Berg was the favourite for the job and Norway TV announced that Berg was coming over to Blackburn to sign the dotted line. I for one was left bemused, no chance that this could happen, surely it was just another media made up story, or I hoped so. Surely Singh wouldn't go for Berg, would he? The selection committee were all wanting different people to take charge. Holloway for me was the better choice, his football is good to watch, he has experience of bringing a team from the Championship to the Premiership, so for me ticked two of the must have boxes.
Oh dear Singh had got his way, in came Berg with limited managerial experience in Norway. Don't get me wrong I am not having a go at Henning, I thought he was a fantastic steady player for us, a rock in the defence.
After witnessing most of his matches in charge I am at a complete loss. We are playing worse now than we were under Kean, we seem to have one plan only and if that doesn't work then stick to it as it may come good. Granted, Berg hasn't had much time in charge but his team selections are strange, his tactics are strange, he is bald ..... you can see where this is going.
Against Cardiff was the low point so far this season, yes we lost to Bolton, drew against Burnley (which we were lucky to survive) but the performance apart from ten minutes in the second half was simply clueless, spineless and devoid of any ideas. We have a fantastic striker in Rhodes, but we play him upfront on his own, usually isolated. He is not a target man, he is a poacher who needs service to get the goals. We have two Centre Half's Hanley and Dann who apart from two maybe three games have been awful as a partnership, Givet must be wondering what he has to do to get a sniff. Vukcevic, Rochina and CKR to name a few players are sitting on the bench while the likes of Etuhu, Ms Olsson, Lowe and Formica all start games. Some would say Formica is playing well, which to be fair he has his patches but I have never thought much of him as a player. He is not a wide man, which is where we play him. Lowe unfortunately lookes devoid of confidence, we know he is a better player than what he is showing us.
Will we get promoted this season?
Not a chance on the showing so far into the season, we will be lucky not to keep slipping down the table and finish lower mid table.
January, bring in new players?
We need to sell before we buy, if I was the manager I would look to offload: Dann, Formica, Robinson, MGP even the ever missing Bruno. Problem is how much do you think we would raise? Answer is not a lot.
Change of manager?
Can't see this happening, after all this is not Henning Berg's fault, he applied for the job, he got it. You have to look at the person who selected him. Shebby Singh, surely his job should be under scrutiny. He wants the fans to like him, well if results like this carry on the fans would love him to go!!
In summary in my opinion we should have gone for Holloway and give him what he wanted. He generates excitement both on and off the pitch. The fans would have come back to Ewood to watch his brand of football. The feel around Ewood is one of "has anything really changed?" it feels like the days of Kean already. We can't all start shouting for Berg to go, he is a man of his word. Automatic promotion or anything else is a failure. So if results carry on like this, I hope he will realise he is not the man from the job and walk away. Berg doesn't inspire me as a manager and you can see that he doesn't inspire the players either. To many players just simply wandering around a field then collecting a substantial pay cheque every month.
