Le Saux: Rovers board should stand by Ince
Blackburn Rovers legend Graeme Le Saux believes his former club's board should openly support, manager, Paul Ince, amid reports the 'Guv'nor' may be sacked should his side lose to Wigan at the weekend. Le Saux, who played alongside Ince for England, told FourFourTwo.com that the Ewood Park hierarchy should never have appointed the former Manchester United and Inter Milan midfielder if they were going to grow uncomfortable with the appointment so soon into the season, and, instead, should back their man to turn around Rovers' poor form.
“If they haven’t felt that comfortable with him from the first few games, then they shouldn’t have employed him," said Le Saux, who made close to 150 appearances for Rovers, winning the Premier League title in 1995.
“It’s an easy option for the club to say it’s not going to work for the rest of the season. It’s a lot braver to sort of stick with it, but they’ve invested in him and he’s not been there long and he deserves an opportunity.
“You need young English managers coming through.”
Le Saux, who became Britain's most expensive defender when he rejoined Chelsea from Rovers for £7m in 1997, suggested the Blackburn job may have come too soon for the self-proclaimed ‘Guv’nor’.
“He’s had a quick rise from Macclesfield, then MK Dons,” he said. “To then go to a club like Blackburn – and you can’t blame him for taking that job – it’s obviously a dream job for someone of his experience.
“But the thing I felt when he took the job was that was there another job that he should have taken first? It’s easy to say that in hindsight, but another stepping stone along that way would have been a good experience for him.”
The Lancashire club have lost five league games on the bounce, and haven’t won in the league since their 2-1 defeat of Newcastle United in September, with Rovers’ relegation form leaving Ince as the bookies' favourite in the Premier League sack race.
But Le Saux believes that if Ince continues to stick to his guns, Rovers will eventually get themselves out of trouble.
“If you start changing things around and start adapting things too much you’re basically pushing lots of panic buttons,” said Le Saux.
“I’ve not managed so it’s not necessarily for me to say, but certainly I would try and have a philosophy that I maintained. If the players believe in you and want to do it and are good enough to do it, then that consistency will be the solution.”
Graeme Le Saux was speaking at a childrens’ training session on behalf of Ford’s Feel Football programme.
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Gregg Davies is the Chief Sub Editor of FourFourTwo magazine, joining the team in January 2008 and spending seven years working on the website. He supports non-league behemoths Hereford and commentates on Bulls matches for Radio Hereford FC. His passions include chocolate hobnobs and attempting to shoehorn Ronnie Radford into any office conversation.