Steve Kean - A Man on the Ropes

In December last year, Blackburn Rovers were floundering in a lowly 13^th position on the Premier league table and signs of turning the corner for an upsurge didn’t look too likely. New owners Venky’s London Limited seemed to have had enough of the charismatic English man Sam Allardyce who had only the previous season guided the team to an impressive mid-table finish.

In what Sir Alex Ferguson described as an ‘absolutely ridiculous decision’, Allardyce was summarily fired and in stepped Glaswegian Steve Kean who had the awkward task of having to convince skeptics that he was the right man for the job. 


More exceptionable, however, were the tasks of shrugging accusations of backstabbing Allardyce’ s whom he had worked with as first team coach and perhaps more pertinently, improving morale in a camp on the precipice of disarray.

Christopher Samba, Rovers stalwart in defence was one of the few players who voiced his displeasure at the change in leadership but decided to rebuff advances from several admirers including Arsene Wenger.

Kean, since taking over from his mentor, has managed just 6 wins in 31 games, a return that has had the Blackburn fans up in arms. Needless to say the noose is tightening around his neck. He has to pull a rabbit out of the hat to ward off the steadily increasing amount of unrest amongst fans of the club. 


His employers, however, have been unfaltering in their support (at least publicly), but there are those who’d be quick to point out that the very act of a public backing by the owner of a club is akin to a death sentence in an era when the firing of managers is as arbitrary as drinking coffee.

Fans of the club have certainly had enough of Kean and have not been shy to let their feelings known at Ewood Park until a recent ban against protests on the ground was promulgated. Kean outwardly looks like a man with a thick skin who would survive a kitchen sink and some, but he would no doubt be feeling the heat as Rovers continue to slip towards relegation.

It is Chelsea side smarting from a defeat against Arsenal and a lackluster draw against Genk that travel to Ewood Park this weekend. It’s hard to see Blackburn getting a result against Chelsea and one just gets the feeling that this might be Kean’s last game as manager of Blackburn making him the first Premiership managerial casualty of the 2011/12 season.

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