Valérien Ismaël: Blackburn Rovers Head Coach

[chaddyrovers]

42 minutes ago, Wheelton Blue said:

This is what people forget.

We've become so conditioned to watching and putting up with shite, that we've forgotten how it was before they darkened our doors.

I haven't the times from the PL under King Kenny Hodgson, Souness and Hughes, winning promotion and the League cup winner under Souness and then the Hughes days and FA cup run and UEFA cup runs. 

28 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

They were one TV deal away from PL revenues exploding - they could’ve tripled their money,.

They sold the club and Jack’s legacy down the river for fuck all.

Shame the Walker's family didn't listened to John Williams about the PL tv rights going to only increase in the future. The Walker family need to be hold some of the blame aswell. 

[Mattyblue]

The Walkers are completely to blame. Imagine sitting in a room with these people (if they ever even bothered to do that) and thinking ‘yes, these can be trusted with Jack’s/Dad’s legacy’… of course they didn’t, ‘ooo £30 million, you say, where do we sign?’

Edited April 21 by Mattyblue

[chaddyrovers]

I wonder if any of them have any regrets of selling Rovers now looking back? 

[Mattyblue]

I imagine they’ll regret not making more cash out of it, but regret for the state of BRFC? I imagine they don’t give a toss.

[Tomphil2]

2 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

The Walkers are completely to blame. Imagine sitting in a room with these people (if they ever even bothered to do that) and thinking ‘yes, these can be trusted with Jack’s/Dad’s legacy’… of course they didn’t, ‘ooo £30 million, you say, where do we sign?’

Their Monaco residency all sorted once that deal was done.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

5 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

I wonder if any of them have any regrets of selling Rovers now looking back? 

None of them with the Business nouse of their father,he left them a Legacy that should have been built upon..they took the Coin as fast as they could.

Edited April 21 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[Upside Down]

22 hours ago, Wheelton Blue said:

This is what people forget.

We've become so conditioned to watching and putting up with shite, that we've forgotten how it was before they darkened our doors.

I haven't. I don't accept it and neither should you or anyone else.

What they have done to this club and this town is beyond unacceptable.

[Tomphil2]

Big Val's Blue & White army.... 👊

Edited April 22 by Tomphil2

[norwichblue]

Do we need to make one of them apology forms?

Fantastic turnaround since the Ewood crowd chanted off off off 🙈

[DE.]

If we fail to get into the playoffs then not really. His first 7 games in charge (almost all against teams far below us in the table) will have destroyed what was otherwise a very attainable chance to get into the playoffs. Just one win against any of those teams would see us in 5th right now and with our fate in our own hands. Instead we have to rely on other teams, as usual. Those performances weren't just bad, they were absolutely appalling, and as the man at the helm he has to take some responsibility for that.

If we get into the playoffs, fair enough, he's proven people wrong. Otherwise it's a case of too little too late, unfortunately. We need a manager and a team who can play when the pressure is on, not just when they are the underdogs.

[Eddie]

I think it's fine to think it's a little bit of both.

Things have definitely improved and it's not that strange that he struggled at first - given the unusual circumstances. The players will have been disappointed with a manager they liked leaving, the circus surrounding the departure will have been distracting, and they also had to change systems mid-season.

What has been shown to be incorrect is that the players won't play for him or that he can't lead. That was a big part of the narrative for the first handful of matches and the last 4/5 matches have proven that wrong - both in results and, more importantly, in the attitude and effort of the players themselves. 

[Andy]

He definitely deserves credit for the last 4 games.

If it can be followed by a fifth consecutive win next weekend, then I think he has enough credit to get a clean slate for the summer and the start of next season (presuming we're still in this division).

[chaddyrovers]

9 hours ago, Andy said:

He definitely deserves credit for the last 4 games.

If it can be followed by a fifth consecutive win next weekend, then I think he has enough credit to get a clean slate for the summer and the start of next season (presuming we're still in this division).

He is proven me wrong the last 4 games with different type of wins and performances. 

So it was clean slate from the summer from me

[dingles staying down 4ever]

13 hours ago, DE. said:

If we fail to get into the playoffs then not really. His first 7 games in charge (almost all against teams far below us in the table) will have destroyed what was otherwise a very attainable chance to get into the playoffs. Just one win against any of those teams would see us in 5th right now and with our fate in our own hands. Instead we have to rely on other teams, as usual. Those performances weren't just bad, they were absolutely appalling, and as the man at the helm he has to take some responsibility for that.

If we get into the playoffs, fair enough, he's proven people wrong. Otherwise it's a case of too little too late, unfortunately. We need a manager and a team who can play when the pressure is on, not just when they are the underdogs.

Problem is that he only continued the downward trajectory that already started, granted he accelerated it.

Also he wasn't the only coach that hadn't won against promoted sides away.

The ball stops above him but the coaches and players need to accept some responsibility 

[Tomphil2]

Has to have a clean slate going into next season now it's only fair whatever happens in Sheffield.

I know we say this regularly these days at this circus run club but this really is the most important summer for many years and a bad one you could stick Slott or Klopp in that dugout and it wouldn't end well.

Seems to me now the players have bought into him which clearly they didn't for a while, blame for that can be put in various areas the main one being upstairs for allowing another season wrecking situation to develop.

I'd keep Ismael and boot those above him !

Edited April 27 by Tomphil2

[rovers11]

Fair play to VI, he has turned things around big style over the last 4.5 games. We are looking solid defensively and much, much better going forward than we did under Eustace. We even came from behind to win a game!

Hopefully we can tie Batth to a new deal. He's absolutely instrumental to us.

If we can keep the defensive nucleus together, which I think we will, and add more attacking quality then we may do ok next season. 

[Underground, Roverground]

Win this weekend and VI will have greater points per game (17 from 11) than JE (45 from 32). 

Could argue the fixtures were kinder, but JE got 16 points from the reverse of those 11 fixtures). 

[Commondore]

Still far from convinced, but he’s undeniably been able to get a lot more out of Dolan, Cantwell, and Ohashi than Eustace did.

[J*B]

I’m officially no longer calling Val a write off. Going into the last game of the season with a chance is a successful season. 

[MarkBRFC]

Is missing out on the play offs on the last day a successful season?

Is getting in the play offs and losing a successful season?

Progress maybe, but not successful.

I personally think the only success is getting in them and winning them.

[Mattyblue]

End of the day they don’t sack managers so all you can do is hope that this guy can produce the goods as we’d need to be hurtling towards League 1 before they’d even countenance potting him (and when/if they bothered doing that it would inevitably be too late).

[AspRover]

It looks increasingly like the way that Eustace left and the atmosphere at the club afterwards must have been an absolute rug pull for some of the players, they completely lost their heads. A lot of us, myself included, blamed Ismael for it.

I'm not saying that he is blameless, a better manager would have got a handle on it sooner and might have prevented that slump from being as bad as it was. He does seem to have turned it around one way or the other though. Maybe too little too late, we shall see. 

Five wins, five defeats, two draws isn't far off par for the season - six wins would be slightly kinder, more wins than losses always looks good. If the results had been spread out a bit more evenly I think the atmosphere on this message board would be more along the lines of 'going to fall short' pessimism rather than the 'we might make the playoffs' optimism of a winning streak.

Jury's out. He'll be here next season and he'll have to do it all again, probably with a weaker squad. 

[DeeCee]

Do leopards change their spots?

VI's record speaks for itself. I'm very much on the fence (on the negative side) and will continue to be, let's see where we are at Christmas 2025.

Excuses accepted for his hands being tied, although I doubt he'll be flavour of the month.

Edited April 28 by DeeCee

[Tomphil2]

Thing is if he has a bit of a bang average WLD style record maybe a bit like TM then that's what they are looking for here.

An average coach who'll accommodate young players and loans whilst mixing it up enough to be comfortable in the league and getting value in players via appearances. That is the be all and end all here now everything else is either a little bonus - great first half of season doesn't mean a promotion push it means we won't go down when the weaknesses and injuries kick in.

Or it's collateral damage, long losing steaks and odd season fighting relegation.

So unfortunately we judge head coaches on the points and where we finish whilst they use different metrics altogether, squad value, youth mins, work under ever reducing costs, cope with angry fans, stay up.

[RoversClitheroe]

Drastic.

Has to go for me.

Waits until the 80th minute to make attacking changes in a must win game?

Valerian out.