Who is Rovers best ever boss?
OLD BLACKBURNIAN
ON an international weekend without club football, thank goodness for Twitter. Last week a Tweet asked “Who is your club’s greatest-ever manager?”. Bingo, this week’s column sorted!
My Rovers viewing started in 1969, therefore I’m going to restrict consideration here to the last fifty years so that my firsthand experience of watching Rovers can inform the commentary. The downside of this approach means that Bob Crompton’s FA Cup winning reign from 1926-1931, Johnny Carey’s first spell in charge from 1953-1958 which saw Rovers return to the top-flight and Dally Duncan leading Rovers to the 1960 FA cup final are all ineligible, though worthy achievements.
This will be of course, entirely a matter of subjective opinion and heavily influenced by personal biases as you shall see. Any comparison of achievements must also consider the context of those achievements; notably the resources available, how they were used and the personal impact of the manager in question.
In true “Top Of The Pops” style, let’s count down from five to one...if at this point you are hearing Alan Freeman’s dulcet tones over the legendary theme, “At The Sign Of The Swinging Cymbal”; then my friend, we are on the same page...
5. Mark Hughes HUGHES joined Rovers as a player in October 2000 on a free transfer from Everton, one of many Rovers signings over the years that I have vocally questioned, only to have the evidence of my poor (and premature) judgement rammed down my throat.
However, it is his managerial record we are considering and Hughes returned to Ewood in 2004 to take over a side bereft of confidence and potentially on the road to relegation. Hughes led Rovers to two FA Cup semi-finals, UEFA cup qualifications and fashioned a side of skill allied to strength, leading the Guardian to christen us “Blackeye Rovers” in their “The Fiver” column. A team that contained the likes of Andy Todd, Robbie Savage, Roque Santa Cruz and David Bentley gave Rovers fans some great moments. Arguably, his reign at Rovers was the high-water mark of Hughes as manager.
High Point: 4-3 win at Ewood over Manchester United in 2006
4. Graeme Souness SOUNESS, initially at least, was exactly the right man, at the right club at the right time. Rovers were in danger of being cast adrift in the second tier, or perhaps even worse and the whole club seemed to need a shakeup.
Souness built on the young talent at his disposal, namely the triumvirate of Duff, Dunn and Jansen and added to it some quality and experience with the likes of Berg, Short, Hughes and of course, the inimitable Tugay.
Promotion was soon followed by a triumph in the League Cup, ensuring Rovers joined the pantheon of clubs to have won all three main domestic trophies. The future seemed bright, but slowly but surely, the abrasive side of Souness seemed to alienate some of his key players and when Newcastle came calling, many suspected that the timing salvaged his reputation and prevented Rovers having to dismiss him following a poor start to the season.
High Point: Cardiff, 2002
3. Howard Kendall KENDALL joined Rovers as player-manager, on the back of a recommendation from Jimmy Armfield, after the Rovers board had tried to secure Armfield’s services. He took over a disjointed, dispirited team and re-shaped them in his mould; hard-working, industrious, tenacious, organised but with flair and ingenuity when required.
Securing promotion from the third division back to the second in his first season; incredibly, he almost made it back to back promotions the following year. That he managed all this at a time when Rovers financial peril meant that (allegedly) nothing brighter than a 40w bulb flickered in the offices, tea bags were used twice and Kendall himself it is said, used to buy the milk for the staff tea is little short of astonishing.
His influence as a player should not be under-estimated, but as he later went on to prove with Everton, he was indeed also a great manager. Had he stayed longer than two seasons, perhaps he would have been indisputably Rovers’ best ever.
High point: Gigg Lane, April 1980
2. Kenny Dalglish DALGLISH is one of the legendary figures in British football and that he ever managed Rovers at all is still a source of astonishment. For younger readers, imagine Pep Guardiola quitting Man City next February and by October, being installed as the new Rovers manager... yes, it was THAT big at the time.
Dalglish brought gravitas and instant credibility to the role, able to attract players to Rovers that wouldn’t have given us a second glance previously, he was serious about his work and what he was expected to deliver.
Promotion via the play offs and of course the small matter of the league title means he must be up there, but adjusting for the resources at his disposal, means he falls just short of the number one spot in my chart.
High Point: May, 1995
1. Don Mackay I did say at the outset that personal biases would come into play and Don Mackay made me fall in love with Rovers all over again after the relatively sterile years of the early/ mid 1980’s, where my Rovers habit had been broken by attending university.
There was something uniquely appealing about Don and the teams he assembled that won me over.
Much like Howard Kendall a decade earlier, the handicap of a shoe-string budget (initially) was overcome and resulted in successive appearances in the play-offs, albeit leading to annual heartbreak of course.
But, THAT day out at Wembley in the Full Members’ Cup means that the Don just edges it for me. A day I never thought I’d see, Rovers lifting a trophy and at Wembley...little did we know what was to come.
High Point: FMC, Wembley
You may well have your own view on this topic, but one topic we presumably can all agree on... “Who is Rovers’ Greatest-Ever Caretaker Manager ?”.
CRICKET
WHILE an epic summer of English cricket may have ended in Ashes disappointment, Jos Buttler was keen to cast his mind back to the good times as he and his team-mates toasted the tenure of Trevor Bayliss.
Taking charge in the wake of the 2015 Cricket World Cup debacle, the Australian – who, it was announced last Monday, will be succeeded in his role by Chris Silverwood – oversaw a remarkable change in fortunes that culminated in Buttler’s iconic run-out at Lord’s, before announcing he would be stepping down at the end of the Ashes.
And the 29-year-old Buttler – one of the chief architects of that World Cup triumph – believes Bayliss’ legacy was forever enshrined in that unforgettable moment in July.
“I do, but I think he wouldn’t really see it like that at all,” he said.
“This has been one of his big things: it’s all about the player and we’re just here to help you achieve what you want to achieve, but it’s all a massive team effort.
“I think Trevor and Eoin Morgan are a brilliant double act, who really created something very special.
“Now it’s not about this being an endpoint; we’ve got to continue this. If you look at the one-day team, most of the guys are coming into their peak, so we’ve got a great opportunity going forward, with a T20 World Cup coming