Blackburn owners have made a mistake in sacking Allardyce

Blackburn Rovers new owners have sacked boss Sam Allardyce in a move that has shocked football.

I can’t believe this decision, its right up there with Newcastle sacking Chris Hughton last week for silly decisions.

Confirmation

A statement on the clubs official website read: “The Venky’s Group, owners of Blackburn Rovers Football Club, has today confirmed the departure of manager Sam Allardyce and assistant manager Neil McDonald with immediate effect.

“First-team coaching duties will be taken on by Steve Kean (currently first-team coach) for the immediate future. We have taken this decision as part of our wider plans and ambitions for the club.

“We would like to put on record our thanks to Mr Allardyce for his contribution to Blackburn Rovers Football Club.”

Realistic

The owners say that it is part of their wider plans but what do they expect from the team? They cannot expect to invest a few million in the club and be challenging for the Premier League title. Blackburn are currently a midtable team at best and that will take a while to change.

I’m not sure how much knowledge of the Premier League or football in general the new owners have but I hope for the sake of Rovers fans that they know they are doing. If they don’t intend to spend hundreds of millions on players then I can’t see who they could hire to do a better job than Allardyce.

Stable

Sam Allardyce has steadied Blackburn over the last two years. Rovers are currently one of the most in-form sides in the Premier League after winning four out of the last six games. They did suffer a late 2-1 defeat by local rivals Bolton at the weekend but he surely he couldn’t have been sacked on the strength of that result.

I never considered Rovers to be relegation fodder this season and I think most pundits would agree. They are a solid outfit who have a very good home record.

Style

I’m not a big fan of ‘Big Sam’s’ style of football but it certainly is effective. He tends to prefer the long ball game but when he sets his sides out they are always very well organised and generally a hard team to beat.

He is a good man motivator as well. He gets the best out of the players he has at his disposal. He gets an extra 10 per cent from players that don’t seem to have it in them.

Budget

He has also done a very good job on a limited financial budget. He has managed to keep Rovers in the Premier League for the last two seasons and done it with hardly any money. Allardyce and Blackburn went well together because Rovers were struggling financially and Allardyce has an eye for a bargain signing.

Replacement

Now that wheeler-dealer Allardyce has left the club they will need to find a replacement. The current favourite, slightly ironically is ex-Newcastle boss Chris Hughton. However it seems that the new owners would like to bring in a bigger name.

The likes of unattached bosses Martin O’Neill and Martin Jol are probably two of the best options available to Rovers but the question is would they want to join the club?

Both were linked with the Newcastle job before they appointed Alan Pardew but I can’t see Martin O’Neill or Martin Jol joining Rovers. If they were promised massive transfer funds then maybe they would think about the position but neither would be keen on managing a club a shoestring budget.

However it remains to be seen how much backing the Venky’s are prepared to give their new manager. If it’s hardly any backing then Blackburn could be in big trouble in the coming months and the new owners could find themselves regretting the decision to sack Sam Allardyce.

Who will be the next Blackburn Rovers boss?