Rovers must take a chance on Ince

So Sven got the axe and Mark Hughes took over at Manchester City, ‘Big Phil’ Scolari will be the man charged with taking Chelsea on to glory, which leaves Blackburn next in line for the big unveiling.
Chairman John Williams is set to put the Rovers’ faithful out of their misery in the very near future, but his short-list appears to be making grim reading for the majority of them.
Fans’ favourite Alan Shearer has ruled himself out of the running no doubt because the BBC Match of the Day sofa feels a lot more comfortable than the Ewood Park dug-out (That’s why Hughes always stood through games!)
That has now left the media with three names thought to be absolute certainties.
Big Sam Allardyce, Steve McClaren and Paul Ince.
Looking at the merits of each of them, then McClaren would be the obvious choice. He guided Middlesbrough to their first trophy win with the 2004 Carling Cup, turned them into an established Premier League side and masterminded an historic run to the UEFA Cup final in 2006 which saw him rewarded with the England manager’s job.
There is no need to discuss his record with the Three Lions, but it would appear he can do the business in the bread and butter of club management. However that would only be scratching the surface because, being a Boro fan who is appreciative of McClaren’s efforts at the Riverside, I have to say the brand of football served up was pure boredom for most of the five years.
Anyone who watches Boro games and wonders why there are swathes of empty seats, well I have the answer! Mr McClaren turned thousands of fans away with his ‘must not lose’ approach to games as opposed to a ‘must win’ attitude we wanted to see.
We warned the rest of the country that the FA were making a mistake hiring the brolly carrier but it fell on deaf ears and we all know what happened. Mind you we were just glad to get shot of him, despite it being too late to entice a fair number of supporters to return.
I would tell Rovers chief John Williams to forget him and while he is at it not to bother with Allardyce.
Big Sam did wonders with Bolton in getting them to the Premier League, keeping them there and turning them into a side which qualified for European football on two occasions. However the brand of football did not do him any favours with the rest of the country who watched their teams battered off the park by the Trotters.
Allardyce got his crack at a big club with Newcastle but failed to get the Geordies on side with his style of play and I do not think Rovers fans would warm to that kind of approach given they like their passing game as much as the Toon Army.
Football betting punters will probably put their money on one of those two to get the nod, but if I was on the Rovers’ board, I would stick my neck out and give Ince the job!
A former Manchester United team-mate of Hughes, Ince also appears to have picked up the hang of this management game like a duck to water!
He was given his chance by Macclesfield and turned them from a pub team plummeting towards the Blue Square Premier League, into a side which would have been capable of securing a League Two play-off place had he stuck around long enough.
MK Dons moved to take Ince last summer and he stepped up to the plate again by delivering the League Two title in the past season with a style of play clearly picked up from his old mentor at Old Trafford, Sir Alex Ferguson.
Ince looks like he has got the experience and temperament to deal with players on any level and I would not mind a football bet that he would be a big success at Ewood Park. It is now over to Rovers to forget the safe option and go for a gamble, albeit a very slight one in my opinion!