ENGLISH football's great troubleshooter, Howard Kendall, may well make a sentimental return to Blackburn Rovers after the Lancashire club yesterday parted company with their manager, Ray Harford.

Harford's offer of resignation was accepted yesterday morning, something which became both an inevitability and a formality after Blackburn's season of many troubles had touched rock bottom on Tuesday night with elimination - from the League Cup by Second Division Stockport County.

Blackburn lie at the foot of the Premiership table, the only one of England's 92 professional clubs not to have woe a league game. Kendall, now in charge at First Division Sheffield United, features prominently on provisional short list of possible successors to Harford, an elite rollcall of experienced men which is also believed to include former England coach Terry Venables, Bruce Rioch and Howard Wilkinson.

Harford's assistant, Tony Parkes, has been placed in charge in a caretaking capacity and will select the team which will face West Ham United at Upton Park this afternoon.

Harford's departure comes five years after he arrived at Ewood Park to forge a successful partnership with Kenny Dalglish, and lust 17 months after Blackburn had improbably won the Premiership title. Harford became Blackburn manager 16 months ago when he profited from Dalglish's controversial decision to become the club's director of football, a post he relinquished by mutual consent in early August.

Harford conceded yesterday that he may have unwittingly accepted the offer of a poisoned chalice in agreeing to succeed Dalglish. "Taking over from Kenny was probably a mistake in terms of my career," he said. "But, how could I turn down one of the biggest clubs in Britain, one that had qualified for the European Cup.

"It is probably fair to say it is better to be the man who follows the man who followed Dalglish. I leave here with sadness but with no regrets.

"I just hope I am not going too late, because the situation is bad. If the club achieves safety and survives, that will be success," he added.

Harford accepted that the time had come to follow Dalglish's example in the wake of Tuesday's highly embarrassing defeat, one which prompted a demonstration by disillusioned supporters.

"I have no criticism of the players, but they have been playing with anxiety and with a lack of confidence. I have always tried to put the club first and maybe a change at the top will help," he added.

Kendall actually began his managerial career at Blackburn in 1979 before leaving two years later to join Everton, the club with which he built a reputation as one of the most successful managers of his generation.

Although he feels an understandable sense of loyalty to a club which rescued him from football's wilderness 10 months ago, Kendall is a man of limitless ambition. It is believed he has a clause in his contract which permits him to hold negotiations with any Premiership club willing to meet a pre set compensation figure.