Battling Nelsen makes a point

Blackburn Rovers 1 West Ham Utd 1:THE PRE-MATCH demonstration at the sacking of Sam Allardyce failed to materialise. Perhaps the four inches of snow that fell overnight doused the Blackburn supporters' fire?

So it was left to the club captain Ryan Nelsen to conduct the protest towards Venky’s, the Lancashire club’s new owner, fittingly doing so on the second anniversary of the former manager’s appointment.

Nelsen, who put Rovers ahead early in the second half, revealed that he had learned of Allardyce’s removal five days earlier via Sky Sports News. Nor was there senior representation from India at the first match under the caretaker manager, Steve Kean.

“They want to do it their way, I’ve no problem with that. Good for them,” Nelsen said. “But we’re down in the trenches fighting and the Premier League is not easy. It’s as tough as it gets in any sport. It would be nice when you’re down in the trenches fighting to get a bit of communication.

“When you make a monumental decision like that – and it’s the biggest decision any club can make – you would like to think there’s a back-up plan. We as players know nothing, the staff know nothing. Nobody knows anything about what’s going on. I have to be honest and say I’ve never known anything like this in my career. Managers have come and gone, but not like this. This is something new to all of us. We wanted to get this game out of our system and we’ve done that now.”

If there is mutiny in the camp it did not spill on to the field and Rovers should arguably have won but David Dunn’s late effort was disallowed for a debatable infringement. That they did not was due in part to losing three players to injury, including a devastating one to the 18-year-old Phil Jones, who suffered meniscus damage in a knee which now requires surgery.

“We’ll be lucky to see him again this season,” said Kean, whose need to consider January transfer targets with the chairwoman Anuradha Desai has suddenly intensified.

One of the problems for Blackburn, as Kean acknowledged, may be to persuade players to join at a time of such uncertainty.

“Possibly, but what we would try to put across to them is that they would be signing for a good club. I don’t think the owners have bought the club just to maintain it where it is. With investment, they will want to take it up the league.”

Avram Grant, meanwhile, came into this frost-bitten contest with a reported three-game ultimatum from the West Ham owners David Sullivan and David Gold, yet he dismissed out of hand the suggestion he needs a win before 2010 is out to stay in a job. “I spoke with the owners and they didn’t tell me anything about this,” he said.

Guardian Service