Blackburn ‘in mess’ after Coyle sacking
BLACKBURN ROVERS legend Chris Sutton has described his old club as an “absolute mess” after the Championship strugglers parted company with Owen Coyle.
The former St Johnstone manager departed yesterday after eight months in charge, with the Lancashire side facing a crucial foot-of-the-table against Burton Albion on Friday night as they look for their ninth manager since 2008.
Sutton, who helped Blackburn to the Premier League title in 1994/95, pulled no punches in the assessment of the situation under the much-maligned stewardship of the Venkys.
He tweeted: “What an absolute mess the club is in! It would be a bigger help if a few others left as well!”
Coyle, who had stints in charge of Burnley, Bolton, Wigan and Houston Dynamos, leaves Rovers with a record of 11 wins from 37 matches since replacing Paul Lambert last June.
Coyle’s assistant, fellow Scot Sandy Stewart, has also been sacked.
PERHAPS one day a support group will exist for football managers who had the misfortune to work under the dreaded Venky’s regime at Blackburn Rovers. There is an absurdity to life as a manager in the SkyBet championship where one season is a lifetime but never more so when it comes to the eccentric Indian family for whom running this once proud Lancashire club seems but a bizarre marketing ploy to promote their chicken processing business.
Any assessment of Owen Coyle’s eight months in charge, which were brought to a not entirely unexpected end yesterday, should perhaps begin with some context from his predecessor. Originally designed as a long-term appointment, Paul Lambert decided this summer that doing nothing each day and waiting for another club to come along was a better career move. “It is a great club with great fans,” the Scot told me a few weeks ago, “but I said to myself that I would never put my through that.”
Put himself through what, then? Well, basically, having to contend with what seems to be a cross between having an absentee landlord and outright apathy. For all the numbers that were rehearsed about Coyle’s reign – the eight games he went before registering his first league win, the eleven victories he managed in 37 games in charge, the five matchdays the club have spent outwith the relegation places or his 29 per cent win percentage, less than Lambert (36 per cent) and Gary Bowyer (34 per cent) – it is worth crunching some other vital statistics too. In two transfer windows, Coyle brought in more than £20million in transfer fees on the likes of Jordan Rhodes, Grant Hanley and Ben Marshall and spent approximately £200,000.
The squad of misfits and callow young signings which he pieced together had won three and lost three of their last 11 matches ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup tie, and beaten promotion-chasing Newcastle twice.
Of course Coyle was never going to be everyone’s cup of tea at Ewood Park. To some, he was still burdened by an association with their deadly rivals, Burnley and Bolton Wanderers, but throughout all this product of the Gorbals has held himself with a dignity that his detractors could only dream of.
At the club’s Brockhall training ground this week, Coyle had been stoically ignoring all the internet rumours of his imminent demise.
It should be noted that his teamdeserved far better than the 2-1 defeat and the warm words they got for their performance against the millionaires of Manchester United. So too did Coyle. But it clearly wasn’t enough for his paymasters.
It wasn’t too long ago this Republic of Ireland international declined the Celtic job, so it seems far-fetched to immediately start linking him with the job across the city at Rangers. But if the evidence of his stint at a basket case club like Blackburn is anything to go by, they could do far worse.