How on earth has Blackburn manager Steve Kean lasted as long as he has in charge of the Lancashire club. Bad results, bad form and a bad demeanour have led to the Ewood Park faithful continually call for his head.
Is this another case of giving another young British manager not enough time. Not this time I fear. Before a ball was kicked this season they were in my 3 teams to go down and so far them and Wigan have not disappointed. It must horror Blackburn fans looking at the Championship table and seeing the job Sam Alladyce has done with West Ham. They were wrong to let him go in the first place.
Usually I am the first to stand by most managers and say that they need a little time. If I was the owner or chairman of Blackburn then Steve Kean would have one month to convince me that he could turn things around. After his reaction to losing in the League Cup quarter final against Cardiff, he has just 4 games to save his job in reality.
You can accept his decision to leave out key names but for him to come out and say they forfeited a semi final place to concentrate on their league form is ludicrous. A side that has only won 1 league game all season forfeited a semi final place. A semi final whih would see them play Liverpool, Man City and probably Man United. What better way of sending confidence through a struggling team than causing an upset and beating one of those sides.
Instead Steve Kean would rather treat the next 4 league fixtures as cup finals. Had they maintained a good start against Cardiff they may have got something out of the tie to build on for the important December schedule. While they lacked conviction their hosts grew to the challenge and once they scored there was only to be one winner.
Relegation is not ideal but winning the Carling Cup and being relegated hasn't stopped Birmingham impressing in Europe this season and sit in 11th place in the league but with 3 games in hand over most teams. Should they win them they will easily be placed in the play-offs by the end of the season.
So Blackburn have chosen that is not for them. An extra 3 games of testing themselves against the elite didn't appeal to them. This weekend's visit of Swansea is instead the salvation to their season. However I wouldn't say Swansea were a bad team and they will fancy the occasion to cause an upset.
An away trip to Sunderland will not be an easy trip and you wouldn't gurantee 3 points in that match. Then follows to must win home matches against West Brom and Bolton before Blackburn finish the year with away trips to Liverpool and Manchester United. With Steve Kean in charge you can see them winning maybe 2 of those matches and that just isn't enough.
He seems a very self absorbed person, defiant, stubborn maybe but even he must see that his methods have not worked. He has had a summer to bring his own players and ideas in and still Blackburn have not been higher than they were when he took over. Their are managers out their, young British managers who are not currently working. I think if Blackburn are to save their Premier League status they need to hire one ideally before a transfer window when he has a chance to bring in a player or two that are happy to play for him.
That is a major factor with Steve Kean. The players don't perform for him like they did say when Mark Hughes was manager and that has to be motivation. No new players seem interested to go to Blackburn and why would they. Whatever Kean is saying or doing behind the scenes is working because he continues to remain when a change is clearly needed.
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