Nelson wants grater communication between the owners and players of Blackburn
The Blackburn Rovers captain, Ryan Nelson spoke about the departure of the former manager Sam Allardyce from the club, after his side succumbed to a draw against bottom-of-the-table West Ham United on Saturday. Sam Allardyce was shown the door at Ewood Park
in the second week of December, a decision which has been deemed dangerous by many managers and players alike. Manchester United’s manager, Sir Alex Ferguson was one of the first to denounce the decision by the new Blackburn owners to sack Allardyce.
Ryan Nelson and a number of other players in the squad were undoubtedly disturbed by not only the sacking of Allardyce, but the nature of his dismissal. He spoke fondly of his former manager when the news of the sacking was revealed, saying he was aware
of the amount of time, energy and passion the former Blackburn boss had invested in his reign at Ewood Park and the skipper previously concluded by saying “I feel so sorry that it's been handled like this."
The skipper revealed to the press after being held by Avram Grant’s team on Saturday, that he himself and the players were still finding it difficult to cope with the shock of Allardyce’s removal, and the decision had caused an atmosphere of tension amongst
the squad members. Nelson further explained that he did not want to create a rift between himself and the new owners of the club, and acknowledged that the club’s major decisions were the board members’ to make, citing that “it’s their club”.
He added that the team members including him found out about the sacking on the 9 ‘0’ clock news, in the same manner “everyone else” did. Nelson explained that despite simply being a player in the club, him and his team mates deserve to know the goings-on
at Ewood Park, “especially when you make a monumental decision like that.” The player compared the manner of the former Blackburn boss’s release to previous managerial changes, and felt the Venky’s Group (the new owners) did not conduct the firing in a professional
enough manner. He stated that “its always been done smoothly, but this was left out of field.”
He concluded by sending an open request to the members of the board, saying that the players would prefer to not be left out in the dark concerning the important decisions happening at Ewood Park, as communication is always vital for the squad to be able
to perform well and do their part on the field, in order to improve their position in the Premier League.
Blackburn http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Rovers-c40385 currently sit on the twelfth position in the table, having acquired a total of twenty two points from eighteen matches. The managerial post left vacant by Allardyce has been filled in on a temporary basis by the former first team coach,
Steve Kean, who oversaw the match against West Ham, in which his team scored the opening goal commented on his team’s performance after the match. He said that the one acquired point from the match “is not so bad” if one takes into account the numerous injuries
the squad had endured and as a result, the team had a greater collection of offensive players than defensive.
The Scottish manager explained that earlier this week, he had the chance to confer with John Williams, who is the club’s chairman and the Venky’s Group owners. Kean had previously spoken of his desire to acquire the managerial position at Ewood Park on a
permanent basis, but revealed that the chairman and chairlady both had not stated exactly the period of time the Scot would be expected to serve as manager.
The Venky’s Group chairlady, Anuradha Desai spoke to the press previously concerning the sacking of Allardyce and mentioned that the club were in no such hurry to appoint a new manager just yet and were confident that Kean’s services would suffice for the
time being. She further revealed that it could take up to six months for a new manager to be appointed. Most likely contenders for the Blackburn job are said to be Martin Jol (ex-Ajax) and Martin O’Neil (ex Aston Villa).
Tags: