The likelihood is that Paul Ince will be out of a job soon.
With Blackburn slipping and sliding towards the bottom of the table, and without a win since September, the smart money is on Ince being shown the door before Christmas.
Blackburn's record under Ince has been poor, but Rovers fans should direct their ire not towards the manager, but chairman John Williams.
Williams was the latest in an increasingly long line of chairman to be seduced by the idea of a young, English manager. It's certainly a romantic theory, and one that could only have been accentuated by the prospect of being the first chairman to appoint a black Englishman as a Premier League manager.
However, it has become patently clear that Ince is not yet up to the job. And the 'yet' is a crucial word there. At some point in the future, Ince might be an excellent manager, but was he really qualified to take the job on the basis of a couple of (admittedly successful) seasons with Macclesfield and MK Dons?
You might say that nobody forced Ince to take the job - he could have refused. Well yes, in theory he could have, but an ambitious man with the ego the size of Ince's was never going to say no.
Ince appears to be cracking under the pressure, just as Roy Keane did last week. In The Times, Ince was quoted as saying:
"We are nice guys, family men. People are envious and don't want us to succeed. I want them to understand the hard facts and not focus on two men trying to make their way and kick us around all the time."
They are not the words of a man coping with pressure well, and it's hardly surprising. If someone with the mental fortitude of Roy Keane can't cope with a poor run, then what chance do the rest of the rookies have?
Chairmen like to think that appointing a young, highly-respected manager will galvanise the players, but they forget that the manager of a Premier League club is no longer simply motivator.
Men like Ince, Keane and Tony Adams (you wonder what will happen when Portsmouth go on a bad run) are now expected to be managers, crude accountants (in these hard financial times, wages must be cut and transfer budgets juggled), ambassadors and public mouthpieces for their club.
To install someone with little or no experience with such matters is at best hopeful, at worst unwise and irresponsible.
Gareth Southgate might provide the exception to the rule, but it should be taken into account that he's at a club with a relatively friendly expectation/financial backing ratio.
Almost instant results are expected these days, and the added pressure of heavy expectation simply strengthens the argument that, in the words of Gordon Brown, it is not a time for a novice.
Consider the better 'young' managers in the Premier League. Martin O'Neill spent nine years managing Grantham Town, Shepshed Carterhouse, Wycombe Wanderers and Norwich City, then a half a season with Leicester in the second tier before making it to the top flight. David Moyes managed Preston for four years before getting the Everton job in 2002. Steve Bruce club-hopped in the old Division One for five years before taking Birmingham into the Premier League.
The 'failure' of managers like Keane and Ince is regrettable, but if there are any positives to emerge from it then it is the prospect of clubs reassessing the way they appoint managers.
Perhaps it will act as a cautionary tale, persuading clubs to look for managers with a little more grounding, rather than going for a 'name' or a romantic theory.
Nick Miller
Your Comments
scottyboy277
"Personally, I do not wish to see the next up and coming manager go, I dont think Ince is to blame for blackburns poor performances. I am a spurs fan, Ramos had to go, he sold some of our best players then never bought new ones, phased lennon out of the team and never brought confidence amoung them.
Ince however did incredibly well to hold on to the likes of santa cruz, mccarthy, gamst p etc
despite these big names iv thought all along that blackburn are overacheivers the last few season, down to how good Hughes was with them, now Ince is in the players dont have the same confidence in their manager
I dont wish to see Ince sacked, i think he is too inexperienced for such a tough job though, i hope he proves me wrong"
michael69
"Blackburn were very average last season. This season, they replaced Friedel with Coco the Clown which has already cost them points. Bad decision Incey. Then they sold Bentley and gave Ince no money to replace him. Then Dunn and Reid got injured. The defense got old real quick. A little bit of luck here and there and Blackburn could have 6 more points this season. The team is still fighting for Ince so he hasn't lost the changing room. I keep hearing that Ince is cracking under the pressure. I think this is absolute bollox. I don't see him cracking at all. It's nothing more than wishful thinking from a large number of spiteful, cowardly journalists who decided long ago that they didn't like Paul Ince. Saying that Ince is cracking is like saying that George Bush is an intellectual. It's completely fabricated BS. There is ZERO evidence of this. As for the spurious claim that Ince is "clearly" out of his depth/not up to the job - how would you know. You are a journalist/fan who has never played or managed at the top level. You completely overlook the fact that 4 out of Blackburn's best 6 players from last season have been unavailable this season. Despite this, Blackburn are still competitive. Maybe Ince will end up not being good enough in the end but at this point in time, the criticism he is receiving is full of bile and empty of the truth. Ince is not paranoid. The press has been against him his entire career - everyone I know realises this. Anyone who doesn't is dishonest or delusional. "
iyibaba
" what is all these fuss about? apart from west brom most of the 4 to 5 teams at the foot of the table are all in a relegation dog fight. why keane of all people should throw in the towel beats my imagination! all sunderland needs is a run of victories in 3 or matches and they will be out of relegation. ince should not dispair either, everything will be fine, blackburn will survive, sunderland as well....no need for anyone to lose his job at this time"
ollertank
"klingon 1 we know where we should be 2 the only noise about ince being fired is the media 3 who are all these utd chelsea and arsenal fans who think they know everything about our club when they know nothing blackburn fans booed against utd because we havent won in 10 games we are frustrated because not only are we not winning the players seemed to have given up against man utd apart from benni and we dont get sell out crowds because the wage structure of the local fans isnt very high and we dont get bandwagon supporters like the other clubs you know who you are
this sounds like a rant but well it is im a rover till i die i will still support them if they were in the blue square but i hope we keep hold of ince and he does turn things around if we need cash sell roque just tell ince no more bloody league 2 players "
bazzo08
"Lads i'm a Blackburn fan from the day of the S.a.S, Daglish, Hodgson, Souey, we had an unbelievable team but when big Jack passed away the money dried up & we turned it to a fairly average team that got relegated, we did get promoted 2 years later though, & with limited resources Sparky (don't remember him managing any other clubs, he was with Wales though, so he's another exception to your so called rule) turned us into a genuine top 6 / 7 team, I was so disapointed when he left because I reckon we'd have kept the squad we had, the reality is now if we don't get rid of Ince NOW, we're in serious trouble, he is the reason why Brad Friedel & David Bently left, we're also in danger of losing Roque aswell, Ince made his reputation by intimadating lower league players who would quite clearly be fearful & respect a man who has done it at the top level with manchester United & Inter Milan, but it's a different story dealing with premiership & International footballers, you can't insult them & get away with as he found out when he told Bently to do press up's in front of everyone for having his arms folded during training, Bently told him where to go & left for Spurs, brad wasn't long going then, his ego is bigger than the team & that is whats wrong, at the end of the days it's a results business & the buck stops with the Manager, in any other Industry if the manager isn't producing results he has to go, Football is the same, if he goes now & we get someone in to steady the ship we might just be ok. "
AmericaFYeah
"Dead wrong, no surprise from Nick Miller then. As one of the commenteres pointed out, yes Paul Ince hasn't bought well necessarily, but he has had limited funds. Mark Hughes pretty much overachieved by wide wide margins, with the benefits of already having a decent team in place. But when you replace the 3rd best keeper in the league according to F365(and one of the 10 best in the world over the last 5 years) with someone who has the worst save percentage in several years (and to the untrained eye even looks like a crap keeper, witness his blown save of Alonso's shot), well then, what do you want?
Reality is, that team was on a shoe string budget, and was only one-or two losses away from undoing all the good work in overachieving they did. No one should be shocked that they are where they are. They can't buy their way out of it either, but I suspect in the end they will stay up anyway. Nelson and Samba might yet be able to bail out Paul Robinson. Stephen Warnock is a very good left back. There are goals and quality service if they can get Gamst in form, and they still have quality stirkers in Jason Roberts, Benni and Derbyshire, even if their best striker is sold.
It's not over for them yet, and I dont know what Ince could realistically do to replace Friedel and Bentley anyway.
"
Arabiandave
"klingon - before you start bashing John Williams (who incidentally is a fine, well balanced and realistic chairman), please note that there have been no noises coming out of Rovers that Ince will be fired. It is the media who have been piling on the pressure. I wouldn't be surprised if Ince was offered more time. It really depends on how long he can keep the fans on side."
alastair
"If you sell your two best players and replace them with Paul Robinson you're going to be in trouble. No point blaming Ince - if there was no money for players there was no money for a manager. You hire an ambitious man who wants the opportunity.
It doesn't make Ince a bad manager, it makes Blackburn's board a liability. It looks to me as though they're planning to 'downsize' the club in the same way that Forest did 15 years ago."
darraghmac
"An article that manages to completely ignore how much Ince had blown his own trumpet for a year or more before getting the job, complaining that the only reason he wasn't in charge of a PL club already was the colour of his skin. He's a loudmouth and a chancer, Keane is twice the manager and was twice the player."
wuzza
"Even if he isn't "blamed" he will still almost certainly be sacked, and he has to accept part of the blame, even if he hasn't had "time" to do it his way.
I imagine in the interview that Ince promised a galvanised team which played in his image. They have offered nothing of the sort this season.
Nick I also find it strange that you didn't mention mark hughes. Was this because it didn't back up your argument? He was in a part-time job for 5 years. No disrespect to Wales, but it hardly gives you experience in the day-to-day running of a football club, yet he has gone on to be very successful (if you count what he did at Blackburn as successful)
Players whould be bwoing at the feet of Keane, Ince and Hughes because of what they achieved as players. They should be granted instant respect, but because the players are on huge wages and don't care whether they play or not, and because they know they will outlast the manager in all likeliness, they don't care. "
All comments on this story