Valérien Ismaël: Blackburn Rovers Head Coach

[Upside Down]

16 hours ago, oldjamfan1 said:

Having dealt with Waggott several times I did warn when he left that fans celebrating his departure should be careful what they wished for. He was a canny operator.

Sometimes you just have to let the train wreck happen on its own.

[ageoftherover]

Napkin count has Middlesbrough with 9 injuries atm, including to key players like Brittain, McGree, Strelec. 

Maybe its the extra 4 that accounts for the 20 position gap on the league table.

[MarkBRFC]

15 hours ago, Athlete said:

WTF is VI still in employment ?

He is doing exactly what the regime wants him to do.

For the 100th time, football results are not a priority here.

15 hours ago, sharpysharps86 said:

Realistically I don't think he'll leave because he'll manage to scrape a win in the Sheffield Wednesday replay, keeping himself comfy in the job till the end of the season.

This is exactly what will happen, lose the next two fairly comfortably, then we'll beat Sheffield Wednesday and somehow get a point at Norwich and they won't stop banging on about it for ages.

Then we'll go another 10 or so without a win.

[DeeCee]

What's Tony Pulis doing nowadays?

[Mattyblue]

Give it Lowey to the end of the season (did Suhail ever get to the bottom of if he’s still employed or not?)

[LeftWinger]

20 hours ago, oldjamfan1 said:

Having dealt with Waggott several times I did warn when he left that fans celebrating his departure should be careful what they wished for. He was a canny operator.

Completely agree. Whenever I met him he struck me as an extremely knowledgeable football person. 

[Tomphil2]

Waggot was the public face of Rovers as a CEO should be but he was only half a CEO behind the scenes i'd wager.

He took the brunt of the stick whilst the others hid in the shadows and he did his best often to hide as well although maybe he was gagged who knows. This is the club who went to lengths to hire a director of communications and then stopped him from communicating !

So they finally get Waggot out the door as the fall guy, after finishing 7th, then embark on wrecking the stability at least his presence provided. 

The last advert for a new CEO read basically as a stadium manager even Nixon confirmed this so it's obvious who is running everything now so they should be held accountable for everything.

Starting Saturday.

[Tom]

Seems some Carlisle fans want Hughes out there; could genuinely see him back here.

How we’ve both fallen!

[sharpysharps86]

5 minutes ago, Tom said:

Seems some Carlisle fans want Hughes out there; could genuinely see him back here.

How we’ve both fallen!

Oof, yeah they seem to have blown it. Played 4 more games than 2nd placed Rochdale and are 2 points behind them, 3 points behind top of the table York who also have a game in hand on them. They appear at risk of not even making the playoffs.

[LeftWinger]

6 minutes ago, sharpysharps86 said:

Oof, yeah they seem to have blown it. Played 4 more games than 2nd placed Rochdale and are 2 points behind them, 3 points behind top of the table York who also have a game in hand on them. They appear at risk of not even making the playoffs.

They've got a 12 point cushion from the team outside the play-off spots - it's not that much of a risk.

[Mattyblue]

End of the Swag was a General Manager type figure. Senior face around the place, been in the game a long time, could placate fans with some anecdotes or merely just nodding along.

He had no power, CEO-INO but he was a deflection, especially when Cuddly Tone and uber-charismatic JDT (before he went after the regime) were here to deflect too.

Now with this motley crew who have the worst traits combined - unprofessional and out of their depth, but arrogant and un-charismatic with it. 

[sharpysharps86]

10 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

They've got a 12 point cushion from the team outside the play-off spots - it's not that much of a risk.

Ah, sorry I didn't realise the playoff spots where down to 7th. My bad!

[wilsdenrover]

At a normal club there’d at least be rumours that the board were considering his position.

At our club, not a peep…

[den]

4 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

At a normal club there’d at least be rumours that the board were considering his position.

At our club, not a peep…

Who on earth based at Ewood is going to push for VI to be sacked? - Nobody. 

[...]

2 hours ago, Tom said:

Seems some Carlisle fans want Hughes out there; could genuinely see him back here.

How we’ve both fallen!

Rise together like the good old(ish) days

[...]

33 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

At a normal club there’d at least be rumours that the board were considering his position.

At our club, not a peep…

Or if they did that would be the end of the transfer window

[JPTSwindon]

Oh to have a young(er) Don Mackay to come in and somehow keep us up.

Suspect VI is safe as will cost money to remove him, but Damian Johnson would at least be a free replacement.  The league table is looking beyond grim, something - anything needs to be done.

[RevidgeBlue]

5 hours ago, MarkBRFC said:

This is exactly what will happen, lose the next two fairly comfortably, then we'll beat Sheffield Wednesday and somehow get a point at Norwich and they won't stop banging on about it for ages.

You've been predicting we'd pull out a result to save Ismael's skin (not that he probably needs one) for at least half a dozen games now based on some non existent ability you think we have to pull off a result when we need one.

Well it hasnt happened so far and I can't see it happening either.  As you say, results aren't a priority here, so whether or not it they will leave him in situ regardless whilst we drown I've no idea.

On the other hand, it would be a very odd look even for us and pile even more unwanted attention on the owners and the stooges they would probably rather do without.

[Tricky]

Phil Jones must be patiently rubbing his hands...

[MarkBRFC]

4 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

You've been predicting we'd pull out a result to save Ismael's skin (not that he probably needs one) for at least half a dozen games now based on some non existent ability you think we have to pull off a result when we need one.

Well it hasnt happened so far and I can't see it happening either.  As you say, results aren't a priority here, so whether or not it they will leave him in situ regardless whilst we drown I've no idea.

On the other hand, it would be a very odd look even for us and pile even more unwanted attention on the owners and the stooges they would probably rather do without.

Only two games to be fair, I said we wouldn't get beat by Charlton, which we didn't, and then said Swansea is the sort of game where we might get a result, in which I was horribly wrong. Predicted defeats in the Sheffield Wednesday, Wrexham and Ipswich games, comfortable ones in the latter two.

Also think we'll get beat fairly comfortably in the next two games too.

[London blue]

Yeah the trope of us pulling a rabbit out of the hat came from the end of last season, then most of that squad left.

These are sorely lacking in the gumption required to block out the noise and focus on themselves, not helped by the excuse culture ingrained in the club.

Watford will hammer us, I'm fairly sure of it.

[StHelensRover]

54 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

You've been predicting we'd pull out a result to save Ismael's skin (not that he probably needs one) for at least half a dozen games now based on some non existent ability you think we have to pull off a result when we need one.

Well it hasnt happened so far and I can't see it happening either.  As you say, results aren't a priority here, so whether or not it they will leave him in situ regardless whilst we drown I've no idea.

I agree with what he's saying, even stinking, doomed teams like Wolves and Sheff Weds this season will get the odd result (an unexpected draw or better), it's just the law of averages, it will happen. Our one win in thirteen was against an in form Millwall team, a result we didn't expect. We will continue to pick up occasional wins between now and the end of the season, because that's just football. The problem is that each one of these results will be held aloft by the club as a sign we're about to change our fortunes, but I'm not convinced we are. I think we'll finish 21st by the skin of our teeth.

The timing of these one-off wins depending on when they fall act like a pressure valve which will probably keep him in the job. Especially if they're home wins. I'm not happy about this, I want him out, but we're probably stuck with him if he isn't getting sacked this week.

Edited 51 minutes ago by StHelensRover

[sharpysharps86]

If Ismael does leave, a thought has just crossed my mind that the club might go for Ruben Selles. Sheffield United did after all hire him as their head coach because he supposedly aligned with their AI-led data driven approach to signing players.

[RevidgeBlue]

3 minutes ago, sharpysharps86 said:

If Ismael does leave, a thought has just crossed my mind that the club might go for Ruben Selles. Sheffield United did after all hire him as their head coach because he supposedly aligned with their AI-led data driven approach to signing players.

And look how well he did!

[sharpysharps86]

Just now, RevidgeBlue said:

And look how well he did!

Oh yeah it went swimmingly of course 😂. Cap in hand back to Chris Wilder.

just wouldn't be at all surprised is all.