Valérien Ismaël: Blackburn Rovers Head Coach

[Kjell]

Valerien Gestede is his real name. 

[roversfan99]

To be fair, he had every right to respond as he did today.

You shouldnt be asking a manager about insignificant things like results and league positions. 

[cesus]

The look of a man who knows he is under no pressure, yet categorically knows its his last job at this level. 

The whole club is a front when comparing it to a well run professional club!

[LDRover]

34 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Lol. You've surpassed yourself there LD.

I have an excellent book by Nicky Henderson the Horse Racing Trainer called "My Life in 12 Horses".

Valerian Ismael - "My managerial career in 9 words".

Gotta love Nicky Rev.

One of the most disappointing times of my life when I was at Cheltenham last year and Constitution Hill fell....crushed I was.

[alcd]

1 hour ago, LDRover said:

Thoroughly unlikable bloke and a shit manager to boot.

Steve K**n Mk 2

[Tom]

I actually think he’ll leave if we lose tomorrow, not sure why as I’ve said before he’s not likely under pressure but just a feeling.

Can’t be doing with excuses about decisions against us etc 

[DeeCee]

He knows he the last line of defence and is hanging on as long as he can.

[Tomphil2]

He really is entering the realms of Kean saying we didn't lose any quality.

Dumbest thing iv'e heard in a long time from a Rovers boss and the competition is mighty stiff.

[aletheia]

2 hours ago, arbitro said:

The man is a walking, talking egomaniac.

He is responsible for results and questions around why results have bombed should be answered. He just doesn't want to be challenged at all just like Gestede and Pasha.

Triumverate of deep arrogance.

[Mattyblue]

It’s the outlandish-ness of the lies (just like Ke*n).

You can still be a lackey without coming out with clearly incredulous stuff - I.e  you deflect like; ‘yes, we have brought in new lads, they are learning, but I see their quality every day’ ‘I am convinced we will turn the corner’ blah blah blah.

Don’t just flat bat it saying everything is great, absurd and just invites ridicule… not that there’s ever any feelings of shame or embarrassment within this regime.

[RoversClitheroe]

I got slated on here for saying he's similar to Kean.

Am I wrong yet?

[TimmyJimmy]

42 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

I got slated on here for saying he's similar to Kean.

Am I wrong yet?

Nobody can be similar to Kean.  All this started with him. He's the gold standard of horror appointments. I shudder just to mention his name.

[Guy N. Cognito]

I can't even work up the energy to get angry about Ismael's incompetence.

He deserves to get potted, but what happens next? Let's say we hire someone who turns things around.

Next summer we're bombarded with bullshit about the next dawn at the club, the new project blablabla... The usual bullshit from the spin machine to peddle season tickets and shirts before teeing us up for the inevitable disappointment 

It's all so tiresome.  

[47er]

2 hours ago, Tom said:

I actually think he’ll leave if we lose tomorrow, not sure why as I’ve said before he’s not likely under pressure but just a feeling.

Can’t be doing with excuses about decisions against us etc 

He's not going to find a new club in a hurry is he? He won't go till Venkys sack him and pay him off.

How likely is that?

Edited 22 hours ago by 47er

[Andy]

Comparisons to King Rat are ridiculous.

We're talking about a 'man' who was not only grossly incompetent, but played an active and intentional role in the downfall of our club, purely to line his own pockets.

He's an alcoholic who, when caught drink-driving, legitimately tried to blame the Rovers supporters.

VI is clearly not up to the job and is creaking under the pressure.
But nothing he does will take him anywhere near the level of the scumbag who I won't even give the dignity of using his name.

Short memories to suggest otherwise, imo.

[den]

When a manager starts telling fans things that are clearly not true, it’s a sure sign that he’s feeling the pressure, that the job is getting away from him. It almost inevitably ends one way. Here at Ewood it could take a tad longer.

[47er]

11 minutes ago, den said:

When a manager starts telling fans things that are clearly not true, it’s a sure sign that he’s feeling the pressure, that the job is getting away from him. It almost inevitably ends one way. Here at Ewood it could take a tad longer.

If only the League table rested on the data!

[Ossydave]

Can't even begin to imagine who Rudy would bring in to replace VI.

Almost certainly wouldn't be English, unlikely to even have any experience of managing in England. Some dud who got a Belgian team promoted from the 9th tier one season maybe?

I still want him to go like, sick of the site of him.

[Mattyblue]

Of course I wasn’t comparing their levels of nefariousness, this fella is just some non entity soaking up one last, well paid gig at this level wholly on his bosses terms - but purely from the perspective of parroting the regime’s pathetically transparent stream of falsehoods in pressers, there are parallels.

[Tomphil2]

2 hours ago, RoversClitheroe said:

I got slated on here for saying he's similar to Kean.

Am I wrong yet?

He's just out of his depth hes already admitted hes never been in this situation before and he clearly has nothing to draw on in terms of how to handle it.

Kean was a dirty rat this fella is just another bog standard head coach floundering his way along but if he keeps coming out with that type of nonsense hes entered Kean territory.

[K-Hod]

10 hours ago, Andy said:

Comparisons to King Rat are ridiculous.

We're talking about a 'man' who was not only grossly incompetent, but played an active and intentional role in the downfall of our club, purely to line his own pockets.

He's an alcoholic who, when caught drink-driving, legitimately tried to blame the Rovers supporters.

VI is clearly not up to the job and is creaking under the pressure.
But nothing he does will take him anywhere near the level of the scumbag who I won't even give the dignity of using his name.

Short memories to suggest otherwise, imo.

True enough, but if he’s ‘unsackable’ no matter how poor results are, that’s definitely a similarity….

[glen9mullan]

Hes nothing on his CV (usually gone within 50 games) to suggest he can build anything long term.

The guy has no credits in the bank and has resulted to speaking with arrogance.

We are heading one way with this squad and it ain't up.

We lack identity as a town team, 

Im struggling to relate to the squad or manager.

The table dont tell lies , we are where we are on merit.

Including cup we've lost 8 games out of 11.

We are suffering from selling our spine

He endorsed the signings, has been clear they were his targets. Along with Gestede the pair are clueless and neither are up to the roles they currently hold.

Vi is a failed manager and after us. Its time for him to find a new line of work 

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

'Im struggling to relate to the squad or manager.'

Im with you Glen,for the first time in Decades i have zero empathy or connection with anyone in this Rovers team.No leaders on the Pitch,no Talisman,nothing but a team of sub standard plodders who I feel just dont care one iota.

Couple that with an arrogant,stone cold Manager and its an impossible situation.I just hope today is the one we say hello then wave goodbye to this character while we still have time to salvage this awful Season.

[B16Rover]

Don't like Rudy, Pasha, Venkys and to a much lesser extent haven't taken a warming to Val.  This post is purely club focussed with a view to trying to be optimistic.

 

Data is on the interpreter and as mentioned I am leading with optimism that we hopefully won't go down.  High barrier. 

 

 

The 'xG' suggests we should be 7th.  Im admittedly a stat guy, but I'd suggest this matches what I've seen so far this season.  For 50 minutes, we are competitive as anyone.  We miss chances.  We lack depth.  

The only way I see us staying up is if we start taking some of those chances, and our rag tag group of bench wild cards intermittently step up.  He's not got a clean plan B, his previous clubs suggest he never has.  But if we can start converting 1 of the 2 or 3 chances we seem to get before the hour mark and throw in a plan B to see games out then we have half a chance of not going down. 

[arbitro]

Seeing Nobbers come back to win impressively last night I had a quick look at their loan players. They have Jebbison, Dobbin, Devine and Armstrong. They all started last night, played really well and have all contributed to Nobbers good start.

Our fella doesn't like loans (and he's never wrong).

And how are we doing with Gestede's 3000 minutes for Academy players?