Valérien Ismaël: Blackburn Rovers Head Coach

[allanncd]

11 minutes ago, Inferi said:

Getting so many injuries is not just down to bad luck. It's also due to an unwillingness to rotate the squad (because the squad depth is so poor), the high intensity (yet very ineffective) playing style as well as having several players who are known to be injury prone. Also let's not forget that there's some proper dross amongst those players currently out injured.

Recruitment has been dire since the summer of 2024.

Useless players that have contributed little or nothing - Gueye, Kargbo, Woodrpw, Dennis, Tavares, De Neve, Henriksson

Very mediocre (at best) players - Mcloughlin, T G-H, Cashin (too early to judge), Forshaw (frequently injured), Ribeiro (duplicates Pickering)

OK but flawed - Miller(tries lacks quality), Morishita (skilful but v lightweiht), Baradji (lazy attitude)

That just leaves Gudjohnsen (scores but does little else) and Alebiosu (effective still rough at the edges).

And that motley crew replaced Szmodics,Travis, Brittain, Hyam,Batth, Weimann, Baker, Dolan,JRC, Leonard.

[DE.]

11 minutes ago, Rover down South said:

Am I right in saying that Appleton was the last manager actually officially sacked?

Would it be a possibility that given he was sacked about two months into a 2.5 year contract that the club wanted to avoid such a costly repeat in the future and inserted some sort of performance related get out clause into future manager contracts? Well pay you XYZ% and we’ll call it mutual consent?

Not sure how manager contracts really work, but imagine they are very different at Blackburn Rovers!! 

How are you classifying officially sacked? Bowyer and Coyle were both given the boot. 

[AAK]

He isn’t the problem but said him for a laugh

[wilsdenrover]

1 hour ago, G Somerset Rover said:

Of course. No contentious referee calls tonight so it’s just the injuries:

 

Describing ‘Pearsy’ as a regular starter should be a sackable offence on its own.

[Rover down South]

As in officially reported as sacked. 

I’m not declaring I’m right and I’ve had to look back to check and you are indeed correct about Gary Bowyer. Forgot about him.

Lancashire Telegraph report on Coyle…..

“BLACKBURN Rovers have announced manager Owen Coyle has left his role at Ewood Park by mutual agreement”

I’m clutching at straws anyway. I can’t see they’ll pay up the remaining two years of VI’s contract, so we are going to be stuck with him.

Who in their right mind would come here anyway. That’s why we ended up with him in the first place.

[...]

16 minutes ago, Rover down South said:

As in officially reported as sacked. 

I’m not declaring I’m right and I’ve had to look back to check and you are indeed correct about Gary Bowyer. Forgot about him.

Lancashire Telegraph report on Coyle…..

“BLACKBURN Rovers have announced manager Owen Coyle has left his role at Ewood Park by mutual agreement”

I’m clutching at straws anyway. I can’t see they’ll pay up the remaining two years of VI’s contract, so we are going to be stuck with him.

Who in their right mind would come here anyway. That’s why we ended up with him in the first place.

We need buying out, stop the rot

[Gav]

1 hour ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Please dont compare VI with JDT and Eustace!

No doubt that the Venky's need to go but in the meantime on the pitch we need to try and cling onto Championship status and the only chance of doing that is to remove VI asap.

May or may not work but at least we will have tried.

If they leave him in situ it will speak volumes.

We have the worse squad in VENKYS time here. VI is a very limited manager working with a piss poor side, he’s not the problem Rev.

[roverandout]

I do feel some sympathy for him.  You can tell he cares a bit by his body language when things don't go to plan. He's clearly out of his depth. But sacking him will just bring in some other chancer.  Until venkys go we're on a never ending cycle 

[Ossydave]

4 hours ago, roverandout said:

I do feel some sympathy for him.  You can tell he cares a bit by his body language when things don't go to plan. He's clearly out of his depth. But sacking him will just bring in some other chancer.  Until venkys go we're on a never ending cycle 

I agree, it would never be a sensible replacement if RG is picking the next manager (if VI ever goes).

The very best we can hope for is a gamble on a cheap, young, up and coming manager and it actually pays off with them being decent. I'm not saying that's what we need, we need an experienced manager who can get the best out of limited resources and boost morale. At this point though, it can't really get much worse than VI given his awful record.....

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

TBH - this is where we find out if any small way Gestede lives up to his title - as any other DOF would get rid of Ismail.

(Before anyone says it - I appreciate Gestede is part of the problem - but he has the chance to show for once he can live up to his job title)

[Tim Southampton Rover]

I agree that injuries have affected the team, and we can sympathise with Val on that. But it’s hard to understand why he says that while still leaving out better players like Pickering and persisting with underperformers like De Neve. He’s sticking to a system that hasn’t worked in about 20 games, and any other manager would have adapted by now. The one piece of data they seem to be ignoring is the actual results on the pitch. 

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

1 minute ago, Tim Southampton Rover said:

I agree that injuries have affected the team, and we can sympathise with Val on that. But it’s hard to understand why he says that while still leaving out better players like Pickering and persisting with underperformers like De Neve. He’s sticking to a system that hasn’t worked in about 20 games, and any other manager would have adapted by now. The one piece of data they seem to be ignoring is the actual results on the pitch. 

His refusal to pick players that he has evidently fallen out with (like Pickering) is making a bad situation worse.

Watching last night showed how poorly coached we are - when playing a high press you have to ensure you are set up for when they break that high press. Time and time again, they broke the high press and then went through our non- existant midfield like a knife through butter. This was Swansea, a mid to lower Championship team not b£%%^y Arsenal.

[davulsukur]

Not sacking him today is utterly ridiculous, last 2 results/performances have shown the whole thing has fallen apart completely.

Managed decline, they want us down.

[Mattyblue]

Look at his track record of tenure lengths.

He’s got the smug look of a bloke who’s stumbled across the one club in world football where results don’t matter and just ‘giving minutes’ to young lads and waifs and strays from god knows where whilst mouthing platitudes about ‘projects’ and ‘transitions’ gets you to see out a three year deal.

[G Somerset Rover]

Regarding his latest ‘but when the injured players come back we’ll shoot up the table’ comments - I’m sure my memory serves me correct that (roughly) six weeks ago he said once Cantwell and Tronstad return to fitness that we would be fine. Well, we’re not.

He needs kicking out of the club with a kind sized rocket shoved right up his arse today. Of course it won’t happen but at any remotely normal club he’d have been gone months ago.

Edited 1 hour ago by G Somerset Rover

[Ricky]

They won’t sack him as it’ll bring the radar back on Pasha and Rudy, they’ve got the perfect shield who can take all of the blame in Val.

[KentExile]

6 minutes ago, Ricky said:

They won’t sack him as it’ll bring the radar back on Pasha and Rudy, they’ve got the perfect shield who can take all of the blame in Val.

[StHelensRover]

I remember speaking to a few fans at the ground about it when it happened, but in a funny way that run of 3 wins on the bounce (Soton/Leics/Bristol) has done us in, in that it gave Ismael a breather or a reset with some fickle parts of the fan base, like when Kean won at Old Trafford and drew at Anfield. The idea that things aren't too bad and that we'll turn a corner. 

Yes without those three wins we'd be currently adrift under VI, but he might have been potted sooner.

[sharpysharps86]

I think Rovers are as good as down even if they do sack Ismael because a large amount of damage is already done...but at least a change might mean they go down with a fight rather than a whimper.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

We'll probably smash Watford 5-0 and he'll get awarded a 3 year contract. 🤣

[Waggy76]

Someone should ask him at his next press conference, ' do you still think this squad is better than last years ?'

He is the manager he has to be brought to account !

[Jimmy612]

Weirdly, we’ve not been in this position of jeopardy since Coyle was sacked. Two years ago they’d already appointed Eustace/it was clear JDT was leaving by the time we got fully mired.  So, will our apparently fully engaged owners (who watch every game) grasp the nettle here and go over the heads of the cosy pair…