Valérien Ismaël: Blackburn Rovers Head Coach

[RevidgeBlue]

Looks like the Mowbray link is a wind up thankfully but that doesn't change the fact we're in a world of trouble.

As you would expect from this shower the whole Ismael situation has been horrendously mismanaged. 

After Eustace was driven out the obvious thing to do then was to appoint a wise old head until the end of the season just to keep their hand on the tiller, and keep things ticking over. Then in summer, reassess. In the meantime, don't change too much and get someone in who would get the players feeling good about themselves. Someone like Warnock.

Instead we got this chump and play off hopes evaporated immediately with a home draw followed by five defeats from his first 6 games. To say that was a disaster would be an understatement but bizarrely we'd given him a 3.5 Yr deal which seems ludicrous given he's barely lasted 50 games anywhere else he's been.

A dire summer of recruitment followed and predictably Ismael has lived down to expectations and then some. Should have been sacked in summer after making such a balls up of the play offs and really with only two home wins on the board you could quite easily have sacked him at any point this season.  Definitely no later than the Wrexham home game on New Year's Day when it was clear there was nothing left in the tank.

Now due to the incompetence of management we're still stuck with the problem that he has 2.5 years still left on his contract and the January transfer window has been and gone.

In my view:

Worst possible case scenario: Ismael stays

2nd worst case scenario: Ismael is sacked and Mowbray is appointed until the end of the season. (In no way an endorsement of Mowbray, but shows how bad Ismael is)

3rd worst case scenario: Sack Ismael and give it someone like Damien Johnson/David Lowe until the end of the season.

Ideal case scenario: Sack Ismael and make a decent appointment. If we were prepared to chuck some money at it, still wouldn't mind an Allardyce or a Warnock type until the end of the season to lift the mood around the place  - possibly with the help of a younger assistant. Longer term if we go down we need to identify an up and coming young manager/Head Coach.

Probably a vain hope but as I said at least a couple of months ago, it's a stark choice in my opinion.

We either stick with Ismael and accept we're going down or we make a change and TRY to do something about it.

Edited 2 hours ago by RevidgeBlue