It was an inevitability, let’s be honest, but nevertheless a surprise when it was announced that Steve Kean had resigned from Blackburn Rovers. The writing has been on the wall for the Scot for some time now, regardless of their impressive start to the Championship.
Fans have demanded he be sacked for the best part of eight months now. Rumours were abound on Twitter earlier this week that Kean had been handed his P45, but refused to accept the decision of the Venky’s and turned up to take training anyway.
Looking back to August, his position at Rovers had become near on untenable following director of football Shebby Singh’s comments proclaiming that should they club lose three games in a row, Kean will be sacked.
However, despite the best efforts of Mrs Kean, who phoned the club’s co-owner Anuradha Desai to earn Steve a stay of execution, Rovers now find themselves without a manager. It’s a far cry from the Venky’s pledge last year to turn the club to a top four side with the bag name acquisitions of Ronaldinho and Juan Roman Riquelme, voids filled by the likes of Danny Murphy and Dickson Etuhu.
Now, without a captain to steady the sinking ship, the Venky’s certainly find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place. The ideal man to replace Kean would be a ‘yes man’, with Phil Brown the most likely candidate to meet the criteria. Former Rovers duo, and key men in the 1995 Premier League title win, Tim Sherwood and Alan Shearer are the current bookies favourite to succeed Kean, who will ultimately be happy to put the entire fiasco behind him.
Yet, while many have seen this as a way of improving the club’s fortunes on the pitch, there is a lot of hard work still to be done. Problems are far deeper at Ewood Park than what is being transcribed to the public and it’ll be some time yet before Rovers recover from the latest Venky’s saga.