Buzzin Football Blog

Sam Allardyce was appointed the new Blackburn yesterday after the Blackburn Rovers board sacked Paul Ince after just five months in the job.

Sam Allardyce was interviewed in the summer, along with Steve McLaren and Paul Ince.  So what has changed in the last five months to make the Blackburn board appoint Sam Allardyce as Blackburn manager now after deciding he wasn’t the man for the job in July?

It is common knowledge that the board are looking to sell Blackburn Rovers, and though they apparently have no offers to consider, there’s no denying that a Premiership team is going to be easier to sell than a Championship team.  That is why panic has set in and the board decided to cut short Paul Ince’s tenure and appoint a more experienced figurehead.

But maybe there’s been a reality check in the last few months too.  In the summer Blackburn Rovers were still considered as a top 10 Premiership side; and that was purely down to the success of the previous manager Mark Hughes who, over the past few seasons has helped the Blackburn team to galvanise and punch well above their weight.

In the summer, maybe the board felt they could take a risk on another young manager, and success would continue at the club.  But now, almost halfway through the season and Blackburn are in the bottom three and relegation to the Championship is a very real possibility.

Sam Allardyce has been made Blackburn manager to keep them in the Premier League, and possibly return Blackburn to the top half of the table by creating a similar work ethic and direct and ugly style of football that brought him so much success with Bolton.

I believe Sam Allardyce is the right man for Blackburn.  They need to realise where they actually should be as a Premiership team; and stop dreaming of the Kenny Dalglish and Mark Hughes success in the past.

Allardyce will need to hit the ground running and start with a win against Stoke City on Saturday.  Football bets will no doubt be placed on Blackburn returning to winning ways against another Premiership team fighting for Premier League survival; and if Sam Allardyce is going to rescue Blackburn he will most definitely need to start beating all the teams around them.