Coyle signs in at Ewood
I have to be honest and admit I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I realised that our former manager, the one who believed the God hype and thinks he looks like George Clooney, had been appointed as the new manager of Blackburn Rovers.
In the end I chose to laugh. This is a club I have very little affection for and this is a manager whose word cannot be trusted and who I have absolutely no time for. That for me is a marriage made in heaven so bring it on.
Coyle had success at Burnley, of that there is no doubt. We won promotion to the Premier League in his only full season as boss and got off to a more than decent start in the home games. But we hadn’t won in nine games when he walked out amidst the lies to Bolton and his reputation as a manager has slumped to such a degree since that even a job at Ewood should have been beyond him.
He got Bolton to an FA Cup semi-final in 2011 but it has been a steep downhill road ever since with hardly a bump in that road to slow him down. He took his team to relegation in 2012 along with a whole string of excuses, and it’s a relegation that has certainly accelerated the serious decline of that club. Many of their fans point the finger of blame at him. He’s less popular there than he is at Burnley.
A short stay at Wigan followed before he was promptly dismissed by Dave Whelan, who had some strong words to say about him, and then it was off to create a problem at Houston before losing that job only a week ago. At the time I thought he’d be lucky to land a League Two job if he returned to England so I have to admit to being staggered that he’s pitched up back in the Championship.
Blackburn fans will remember Coyle sticking his nose in back in 2011 after Bolton had beaten them in a game that had seen manager Steve Kean suffer abuse from the stands. He said of their fans: “I do not think they have given Steve Kean any chance from the outset. They have their own reasons for that and ultimately, those who want to be heard shout the loudest.
“Steve Keane is a terrific coach and manager. All you want is an opportunity. We have the best league in the world, but we don’t have the twenty best managers in the world, someone has to fill the dreaded places where no one wants to be.”
No one wants to be? I wouldn’t disagree with that.
Get ready for the soundbites.
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