No longer the Guvn'r.........

Well,well,well, the Guvn’r has gone. Didn’t think it would have happened after yesterday’s proceedings. KO seemed to have chickened out, but today he took action. Not only was Ince Snr shown the door but so were Alex Rae and surprisingly Steve Thompson. Some fans think Thommo's sacking was a bit unfair considering the time he’s been at Bloomfield Rd. Personally I think Thommo should have moved on before now. KO for all his faults has stayed loyal to Thommo up until today, but I think he’s done the right thing. Why? Well for me, Thommo has developed his own little comfort zone at Bloomers and I honestly think he was the obstacle previous manager contenders had to negotiate. I think he might have been seen, rightly or wrongly by other prospective managers, as a spy in the camp for the chairman. I also don’t think despite what other fans say, he carried that much influence with the players. To me he was your typical

“Good Egg” type of a bloke. Honest, loyal and trustworthy but lacking that steely determination to take it to the next level as a manager. Well now he’s going to have to do something away from Bloomfield Rd. KO has used him as a temporary manager in the past, but I think he realised he’s not the one to be given the job permanently. So, I wish him all the very best and thank him for what he’s done, but it’s now time for him and us to go separate ways.

As far as the Paul Ince/Alex Rae departures, neither are going to be missed. Both have shown a complete lack of discipline, which has filtered down to the players. Ince has been the worst culprit having been banned for 5 games not only from the touchline but from the stadium. Something that’s never been heard of from a Blackpool manager in the past and hopefully never again. Privately, I think Tom Ince will be relieved his father has gone, because his form has never been the same since he took over. In the early days you could see the anxiety on Tom’s face when he thought he’d done something wrong on the pitch, because his father was quick to let him know he wasn’t happy. Last Saturday’s match led to a nasty confrontation between Tom and some of the fans, which is best forgotten by all concerned. Now, whether Tom moves on we’ll have to see. Apparently he has been in talks with a possible move to Monaco, but nothing definite as yet.

The managerial baton has now moved onto Barry Ferguson. He will be installed as the player/manager apparently until the end of the season. Not yet sure how this is going to go? After all Ferguson all though the current captain and a big voice in the dressing room has no previous managerial experience. Obviously KO has seen something in him to think he can do the job and it’s not the first time KO has installed a player in the manager’s role. He gave the job to Simon Grayson, who turned out to be quite successful in the role, only to be poached by Ken Bates and taken to Leeds Utd in a very acrimonious fashion.

But for the time being, I along with most, if not all fans are delighted to see the back of the “Guvn’r” and his assistant. They’ve gone and hopefully long forgotten. The fight back starts NOW. UTMP

Misery, despair and on the slide....

The protests are growing and getting louder, but as yet Paul Nero Ince is still insitu fiddling away. Our demise continued yesterday away to Barnsley. Not only did we fail to score yet again, but we managed to get beat by a side bottom of the league who came into the game with a run of results similar to ourselves. But they got all three points, scored two goals (albeit one was a pen) and we came away with nowt. That means we have been beaten by two of the bottom three and we play the third one Doncaster Rovers this Saturday at Bloomers. The omens aren't looking good, especially as they're currently managed by old boy favourite Paul Dickov.

Not only did we get four players booked yesterday but Alex Rae gets sent to the stands as well. The travelling fans (quite rightly in my opinion) vented their understandable anger towards Ince Snr & co, unfortunately Ince Jnr got involved and had to be ushered away by Barry Ferguson. The stand-off continued after the game when none of the management team spoke to

Will Watt from the Gazette or other media present. Can't remember when that last happened? Doesn't say much for the integrity of the manager to avoid giving his view of what happened. I also judge a person on the way they react to defeat rather than when everything is rosy. We all can be everyone's best friend when we're winning but turn into a sulking bore when things go awry.

Paul Ince would never have been my choice as manager, mainly because I always suspected he couldn't hack it in the higher divisions. The trouble was we ended up with him because Oyston Jnr did his usual trick of wanting a top manager but not bothering to back up their ideas.

Yes, it always comes down to him. Because Ollie achieved success on a shoestring he thinks everyone can.

I was hoping along with others that PI would have done the decent thing yesterday and resigned, but it appears he's still there. A defeat by Donny should finally see him go, hopefully with KO helping him on his way. Team confidence is rock bottom, never has there been a better time for a new man to be in place before we end up in the relegation zone.

I wouldn't mind seeing Neil Warnock take over until the end of the season. At least he has a personality and can converse with the media.

The misery, despair and slide needs sorting today not tomorrow.

 



First Half gone.......

Well now that 2013 is out the way it’s about time we had a look at how we’ve got on? Not been the success we hoped it would be so far. Yes ok, we started the season off fairly well. Our style of play under Paul Ince is far removed from the heady days of Ollie, but that was expected, the latter being a “one-off” who got us to the promised land of the premiership.

Initially under Ince our defence certainly been improved and we were managing to win games without setting the place on fire. Unfortunately our initial optimism has died a slow death and our lack of goal scoring has been our undoing. December was the worst run of games for a long time. Out of the six games we played we managed to lose five and draw one, that against a poor Leeds Utd side. We conceded 12 goals and only managed to score 3; this gave us a -2 goal difference. We‘re the only side in the top ten who now have a negative goal difference. Yet a few months ago Ince seemed to be answer to our post Ollie problems although some fans weren’t that convinced. Now the clamour for Ince to go has gained momentum leading to a couple of confrontations between Ince, Alex Rae and some fans, not dissimilar to the latter days of the Ollie era when he started to criticise the fans for not getting behind the management and team. Ince and co, are now saying the same thing. What they forget is, fans of a football club are there for life and they’re passionate about it. Unlike most present day managers, who come and go and move on as regular as clockwork, most without as much of a sideways glance when departing.

I wrote the above paragraphs before the result of our visit to Sheffield Wed was known. I am sorry to report our December 2013 hangover has continued to gather pace with a dismal 0-2 defeat. It was touch and go before the kick-off whether or not the match would go ahead because of the very wet weather. Like most fans I was hoping it would go ahead, but after the poor performance and result I now wish it would have been abandoned. So now, our goal difference has gone deeper in the red with a -4. Post-match comments by the manager were the players made silly mistakes, which led to us chasing the game. He also said he was without 4 to 5 players to choose from, but they should be available soon. At least Ricardo Fuller played yesterday but without much success.

As I write we are currently in 12^th place after 24 games, won 8, drawn 8, lost 8 (7 defeats during December & yesterday).

The main sources of the fans anger at the moment are split between Karl Oyston & Paul Ince. The former for not financing new players and the latter for not having a clue how to manage himself and the players (this is because of his 5 match stadium ban for assaulting the 4^th official in the tunnel). The fans new chant goes along the lines of We used to attack, We used to attack, now we play with 9 at the back. Even fans that verbally attacked Ollie for leaving want him back. Normally I too join in the criticism of KO for his lack of signing new players, but for once I’m glad he has held back with the current manager.

Why? Well his past managerial record has not been anything to shout about apart from his only successful period with Notts County. I remember reading Lord Alan Sugar’s autobiography, especially the bit about when he was chairman of Spurs. He describes how a host of well-known experienced managers signed and some pocketed back handers in the process, players who were past their best and some who never reached that level at astronomical prices. He eventually turned the club’s finances around and took a bigger role in the signing of players but it took time. I know KO comes in for a lot of criticism (including from me) but I can see it from his perspective. Like I said manager’s come & go, but he like us are there for a lot longer. His reluctance to sack managers is something which is very rare in today’s football business and I don’t see him moving Ince out just yet, but that might change if things on the field don’t improve. After all he still has his loyal lieutenant Steve Thompson to call upon as a stop gap, or maybe this time give him a long term chance at managering the club.

We now go into the second half of the season, one which in the past hasn’t been a happy time for us. Our premiership season went downhill and resulted in relegation after Christmas 2010. Unlike when Simon Grayson achieved the “Perfect 10 wins” for us, we now might be in for the “Disastrous 10 loses” under Paul Ince.

So, not a lot to be optimistic for at the moment, despite some fans saying we’re still only 4 points away from the play-off places, yeah right, dream on I say. The only reason we’re 4 points off is because the teams above haven’t capitalised on our bad form enough.

Anyway Happy New Year to everyone and you can always follow me on Twitter these days. Brian@truetangerine  

lnce