Author: index


Owen Coyle return to English football after joining Blackburn Rovers

Former Bolton manager Owen Coyle his return to English football after joining Blackburn Rovers on a two-year contract.


He was last seen in English football with Wigan Athletic in 2014. In the last two years, he has been managing MLS outfit Houston Dynamo. It has helped him stay away from the limelight especially after poor spells with Bolton and Wigan. Fans remained divided about his opinion, but Coyle says that he is extremely positive about being successful at Ewood Park. That has been a lot of discontent amongst fans over the regime of the Indian owners.

Constant managerial changes coupled with less transfer money available for the manager has resulted in the club only managing mid-table finishers in the last few seasons. The possibility of Blackburn returning to the Premier League seems like a distant dream at the moment.Coyle, though, reiterated his belief that the club will be able to achieve promotion next season. The belief will be translated to fans only if the club spend big in this upcoming transfer window.Coyle says that even the appointment of a top manager like José Mourinho will not have pacified the supporters at this moment. A few Rovers fans recently came out with an online petition calling for the club to reconsider their decision to appointCoyle. Continue reading Owen Coyle return to English football after joining Blackburn Rovers

Paul Lambert sees Tough Life in Championship next season

Blackburn Rovers manager Paul Lambert says that his former club Aston Villa can expect a very tough life in the Championship next season.


Villa have been relegated to the second tier of English football for the first time since 1987. The club have had a rich history of doing well during this period, but they have consistently been struggling against the threat of relegation in the last four seasons. Lambert did his best to narrowly avoided relegation but two managerial changes in the 2015-16 season seems to have done its job. Villa have not only been relegated, but they surrendered meekly in the process.

The club face an uncertain future in almost every department. Several players have already turned into rebels and have expressed their desire to leave the club at the end of the campaign. Villa have struggled to attract a permanent manager due to concerns about lack of funds to make any significant impact next season. Owner Randy Lerner has already put up the club for sale but he has struggled to find any buyers for his asking price of £ 200 million. The American is unwilling to invest any more of his personal fortune into the dwindling club. For these reasons and the possibility of more than 50 games (league and cup competitions combined), Lambert says that next season will be very tough for Villa. Continue reading Paul Lambert sees Tough Life in Championship next season

Friedel is certain that Tottenham can challenge in every competition

Tottenham Hotspur is making an impressive charge for the top spot of the Premier League as the team of Mauricio Pochettino has secured their 6th successive league victory after having defeated Swansea City with a scoreboard of 2-1.

 

Brad Friedel used to perform for Tottenham Hotspur during 4 years of his playing career and the retired player believes that his former club is able to compete and have a realistic chance of winning in all of the competitions that they are currently performing in.

“They have the mentality where their bodies and minds don’t get tired. They have a fit enough and big enough squad to compete on three fronts. Mauricio worked hard last year to figure out which players were going to have the mentality for his style of football.” Former player of Tottenham Hotspur, Brad Friedel said.

Friedel released this statement only a few hours ago before Tottenham Hotspur faced off with Crystal Palace in the FA Cup and sustained a surprisingly 0-1 defeat which was enough for them to be knocked out of the English tournament.

Mauricio Pochettino and his players are still battling in the Europa League and of course the Premier League which they have a realistic chance on winning. Taking into consideration that the Europa League and the Premier League are the biggest competitions that Tottenham Hotspur are participating in, it might not have been such a bad result for them to get knocked out of the FA Cup as Pochettino can now organize his resources on the titles that are higher in his list of priorities. Continue reading Friedel is certain that Tottenham can challenge in every competition

After 1 year of transfer ban, Blackburn Rovers can now buy players

Blackburn Rovers is able to sign players after having been banned from doing so for around 1 year. The reason of why the English League Championship club was prohibited from securing the services of new players was due to a breach in the Financial Fair Play which was discovered that Blackburn Rovers along with Leeds United and Nottingham Forest had all been doing.

It was unveiled that all of those clubs mentioned previously had breached FFP rules and they were consequently sanctioned.

Now that the finances of Blackburn Rovers have been arranged in a way that it complies with the rules of FFP, the transfer embargo has been lifted and now Paul Lambert are able to sign new players into the team.

“It is a building block and one little stage in trying to rebuild this club. Everybody behind the scenes, the board, staff and especially the owners, deserve a lot of credit’’ The coach of Blackburn Rovers, Paul Lambert said as he gave credit to everyone in his club about this achievement.

In order for any club of the Championship League to satisfy all the rules and requirements of the Financial Fair play, they can’t register financial losses of more than £5m while only have a maximum of £3m which is funded by their respective shareholders. Continue reading After 1 year of transfer ban, Blackburn Rovers can now buy players

Paul Lambert has stated that he is feeling refreshed

New Blackburn Rovers manager Paul Lambert, who was appointed only this week, has stated that he is feeling refreshed after a small break from football.

The manager has been out of work since leaving Aston Villa back in February. He was replaced by Tim Sherwood as fears of relegation grew at Villa Park. The club was only narrowly managed to avoid relegation in the previous two seasons. Lambert had done extremely well at his previous clubs like Norwich, but he failed to put his authority at Villa. Lambert showed no hesitation when being approached by Blackburn even though it meant dropping down a division.

Further, Blackburn have shown little signs of being capable of challenging for the Premier League immediately. This huge amounts of debt has forced the club into financial embargo by the league and this prevents Lambert from making wholesale changes to the squad in the upcoming January window. Even with the handcuffs, the manager is confident of making an impact at Ewood Park. Blackburn Rovers have promised that the financial situation of the club, which has debts so close to £ 80 million, will be solved in the near future. Lambert says that the lack of money is not an excuse for lack of success. Continue reading Paul Lambert has stated that he is feeling refreshed

Gary Boyd has dismissed fact about Jordan Rhodes

Blackburn manager Gary Boyd has dismissed solutions that the club has received an offer for star striker Jordan Rhodes.

The club has been holding their hands about the future of the star striker. Rhodes has been linked heavily with a move to Middlesbrough, who just narrowly missed out on a promotion spot to the Premier League. Still just 25 years old, the Scottish international is at the prime of his career and will fetch significantly more than the £ 8 million at Blackburn paid for him a few years ago. After all, Rhodes has been the main goal scorer for Blackburn in the last couple of years.

Bowyer says that the club are quite relaxed about the situation because they know that a player like Rhodes will always attract attention. Last season, the striker came up with 21 goals in the league. It has taken his Blackburn career tally to 79. While Blackburn may see any offer from a Premier League club difficult to resist, the idea of being able to prevent Rhodes joining a Championship club may be seen as a possibility. It, however, depends upon Blackburn’s ability to challenge at least for a play-off place. Middlesbrough are one of the favourites to get promotion next season. Continue reading Gary Boyd has dismissed fact about Jordan Rhodes

Jordan Rhodes has often been seen as the best player in the Blackburn Rovers

Jordan Rhodes has often been seen as the best player in the Blackburn Rovers team, but he could not be at the club next season.

Manager Gary Bowyer admitted that he is already preparing for life at Blackburn without the Scotland striker. Clubs from the Premier league and in the Championship have been keen on the 25-year-old, who has continued to score goals for fun. The club record signing was in danger of leaving during the January transfer window after Middlesbrough showed tremendous interest. However, the transfer failed to materialise, but it is almost certain that he will leave in the summer.

Bowyer, though, is not ready to sell the player in a cut-price deal. Instead, it will take a lot of money to persuade Blackburn to sell the player. Ultimately, they will not want to keep the star if he does not want to remain at the club. At the moment, Blackburn not have a great chance of getting promoted automatically and this limits their attractiveness in the eyes of players like Rhodes. Moving to a club like Middlesbrough will provide the player with a chance to move closer towards home and also try and get back to the Premier League next season. Continue reading Jordan Rhodes has often been seen as the best player in the Blackburn Rovers

Blackburn Rovers made it past Charlton

Blackburn Rovers made it past Charlton, Swansea City and Stoke City before eventually being knocked out of the FA Cup by Liverpool. A solo goal from Philippe Coutinho was enough for Liverpool to book their spot in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Even though Blackburn Rovers failed on advancing any further than the quarter-final rounds, it still was a fairly impressive campaign for the Championship League club as they managed to overcome clubs that are performing in the Premier League and this is the case of Stoke City and Swansea City.

In 2 legs Liverpool only managed to score once as Blackburn Rovers managed to hold their ground.

According to the head manager of Blackburn Rovers, these string of performances have been so impressive that he wouldn’t be surprised if he receives offers for his players during the approaching summer transfer window. Continue reading Blackburn Rovers made it past Charlton

Gary Bowyer dont accept Performance of Club as reason of Defeat

Gary Bowyer reckons that his boys were pretty good the other day versus Norwich, but, because of opposition’s brilliance right at the end there, they had to remain empty handed.

After being stopped on draw in the last couple of games, the Rovers were looking for a win over Norwich at Ewood Park, but, it wasn’t to be.

They played well though and it was all going neck and neck before Bradley Johnson’s stunner which came in the 85th minute of the game.

That goal, which one could say came against the run of play, proved to be decisive in the course of the game.

The Rovers and also the home crowd were amazed where that strike came from all of a sudden.

Norwich was actually struggling with the coordination up front and it was hard to foresee them producing something like that at that point of time. But, that’s the beauty of Football. You never know what the game has in store for you. Continue reading Gary Bowyer dont accept Performance of Club as reason of Defeat

Blackburn Rovers vs Middlesbrough

Blackburn Rovers received Middlesbrough at the Ewood Park in what was the last match of the year of 2014 for Rovers and had to settle with a goal-less draw as the game ended without any player being able to score a single goal.

Even though the match ended without goals, it still was a remarkable game for the substitute goal-keeper of Blackburn Rovers as he played this match in place of the on loan shot-stopper Jason Steele due to the fact that Steele was unable to play against his parent club.

Simon Eastwood had a very busy evening as he had to be at his best on a number of occasions in order to not concede any goals in this match.

Eastwood impressed everyone as he made a number of brilliant saves throughout the entire match that allowed Blackburn Rovers on rescuing one point from this game even though Middlesbrough deserved to claim the victory.

Heroic saves had to be done in order to deny Jelle Vossen, Adam Reach, Patrick Bamford and the rest of the players from Middlesbrough to scoring.

When the match was over, the coach of Blackburn Rovers Gary Bowyer praised the work that Simon Eastwood did in the match.

“He’s done brilliantly for us. He’s played two games and we haven’t lost so that’s something for me to look at.”  Gary Bowyer said.

The coach of Middlesbrough, Aitor Karanka also took the chance to express his thoughts about the final result of the match as Karanka stated that it should have been three points instead of just one: “It should be three. Again, it’s the same story when we play against Blackburn. I’ve been here for one year and we have played against them three times and three times the man of the match was the keeper. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence’’