Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Gary Bowyer, when "a right good go" just isn't enough and why I want Tim Sherwood

I have a small habit, a catharsis, of writing up a few thoughts on each Rovers match. Not a match report, just a few observations on our day out.

Except this week.

After the draw with Brentford I just couldn't be bothered. I'd stopped caring.

After the Burnley game a few fans I know we're trying to muster support for a Bowyer out campaign. That's never been my style, even with Ince and Kean, I thought it was counter productive. Much as I came to resent the pair of them picking up a big cheque for doing a job they were woefully unqualified to do.

Now that Gary Bowyer has been sacked I feel shocked. Mainly because the owners seem to have realised they own an actual football club with a manager. I had begun to suspect they would never be seen again and that change was a distant prospect while the transfer embargo is in place and any chance of promotion gone.

The strange world of Venky's is a mystery wrapped in an enigma buried under a riddle, or something. I can only imagine conversations were had to sell any player we could get money for, except Jordan Rhodes. I deduced that Bowyer was probably untouchable, because he kept his mouth shut and got on with it.

But if there was one thing from the Brentford game that summed it up for me, it was that there have been so many games where the style of the match is dictated by the opposition, Brentford play it quick pass and move and they press up the pitch, so we just let them. There didn't seem to be a game plan. time and time again I left games bemused about what type of side we are meant to be. The tormentors of Ipswich? or the torpor of MK Dons away? No consistency and no cohesion. His selections latterly of Chris Taylor and stubbornly persisting with Ben Marshall at right back were just daft. That wasn't why he was sacked though.

No, Bowyer committed the most unforgivable sin of them all. We lost to Burnley at home. There is no way back after that. He didn't have enough in the locker beyond "we gave it a right good go". Sure, all his mates, the football people, will say he had his hands tied, there was no money. But when there was he spent it on Chris Brown, Chris Taylor and various goalies we don't appear to need.

So, to the replacement. Now the owners have woken up I can only imagine the madness that may now ensue. I don't think they're likely to stop at the management team. Nor is the international break a coincidence. I would expect a sweep of the boardroom too. A new chief executive and chairman. That may then rule out my initial thought that Derek Shaw will lure his old mate David Moyes, just sacked in Spain. Just please don't appoint a global adviser. But given the mistakes of the past that I'm sure they want to learn from and atone for, let's assume they are capable of making rational and sound footballing decisions.

I would love one or more of the Class of 95 to come in - a dream ticket of Sherwood and Shearer, maybe. Not because they've proved themselves as top managers, but becuase it has to be about the passion, the fire and the glory. We had a glory year. We may never have one again. But playing it safe and appointing Alan Curbishley or Ian Holloway would be so boring.

OK, so Henning Berg and Colin Hendry haven't worked out as managers from that era, but Sherwood is different. He'd be my choice.

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