Blackburn Rovers relegated from Premier League

Blackburn Rovers were relegated from the Premier League last night after a 1-0 defeat to North West rivals Wigan.

Rovers needed a victory at Ewood Park but put in a lacklustre display against the Latic’s.

The club now face life in the Championship next season.

Awful

In truth Blackburn have endured a terrible season in the Premier League.

Manager Steve Kean has came in for some criticism but the players have to accept a large chunk of the blame.

It was the players that went out there and underperformed. Quite a few of those players didn’t do themselves or the club justice when they pulled on a Rovers shirt.

A lot of those players will leave for pastures new in the summer, like rats deserting a sinking ship but it’s the fans who will have to cope with the fact the club will be in the second tier of English football next season.

Manager

Although I say that the players have to take a large chunk of the blame manager Steve Kean is not completely blameless. I actually feel sorry for the Scot because he is just out of his depth as a Premier League manager.

I wrote at the start of the season that Rovers would go down if they kept Kean in charge and they have. It didn’t take a genius to work out that something wasn’t right in the Rovers camp. The team played like they had no direction or motivation and that leads to only one thing, underachievement.

I’m sure Steve Kean is a decent coach, just like Terry Connor at Wolves but he simply wasn’t ready to be a top flight manager. The Blackburn owners made a terrible mistake by appointing Kean as their boss and it’s the club that have to suffer the consequences.

Plan

Every time something has gone wrong for Rovers this season Steve Kean has stated that he is going to sit down with the owners and draw up a plan. These plans must have been really poorly thought out if relegation is the result.

Kean has said he is going to sit down with the owners and discuss where the club goes from here. I think the next plan should be for Steve Kean to head for the exit door.

Owners

Blackburn owners the Venkys came into the club with a lot of big promises but have delivered on none of them. When they took control of the club Rovers were comfortably in midtable under Sam Allardyce.

Even though the Venkys admitted to knowing little about football they set about making changes like sacking Allardyce. It was a crazy decision and one that everybody at the club will live to regret.

I don’t think Venkys are in football for the love of the game, as previously stated they don’t actually know much about the football. I think they are just using Rovers as a way of promoting their poultry business.

The takeover has certainly produced fowl results (sorry couldn’t resist) and Venkys are now owners of a Championship club, instead of a Premier League club.

Venkys don’t know anything about running a football club or the game. However apparently they are businessmen, so they should have had the foresight to bring in a chairman with some football knowledge. They didn’t and I can’t see them hanging around at Blackburn for much longer.

Fans

The Rovers fans have been criticised for their fan protests and not getting behind their team this season. However, they could see what I saw at the start of the season, a rudderless ship that was sinking very quickly.

They could see that Rovers were going in one direction and that was down. The supporters can’t be blamed for the club underperforming. There is only fan unrest when things aren’t going right at a club, so if everybody else was doing their job correctly the fans would have no need to protest.

Blessing

I know Rovers fans won’t believe it at the moment but I really do think that relegation may be a blessing in disguise. The club could very well now get rid of their out-of-depth boss and clueless owners and start again.

Blackburn as a club really do need a summer overhaul and that needs to start with the exit of underperforming players, managerial staff and most importantly disinterested owners. Blackburn will be back but I very much doubt that Venkys and Steve Kean will be with them when they do return.

Who is to blame for the problems at Blackburn?