Weather permitting it’s Gameweek 18, this roller coaster Premier League season is about to enter its crucial Christmas period. Three points going into the festivities will be a priority for all managers this weekend.

Sam Allardyce can put is feet up on Saturday and watch the club that unceremoniously sacked him take on his potential new employers. Rovers Phil Jones(4.5) is an apparent January transfer target for several clubs, the defender has picked up 48 points so far this season and could be a shrewd acquisition if the rumours bear fruit. Blackburn’s performer of the season so far is the ever consistent Morten Gamst Pedersen(5.9), a 75 point haul this season puts him 12^th overall in the midfield rankings.

Avram Grants tenure at Upton Park is hanging by a thread. He could be trading places with Big Sam come the New Year unless the Hammers can perform a dramatic turnaround. Were it not for the Influence of Scott Parker(5.4) you feel that Grant’s and quite possibly West Ham’s fate would already have been sealed. With Parker again the centre of transfer speculation it could be wise to add the playmaker to your ranks. Goals win Football matches, Frederic Piquionne(4.9) and Victor Obinna(5.5) have excited occasionally and Allardyce could be warming himself by the fire for a bit longer if the pair hit form over the festivities.

It’s time for another West Midlands derby on Sunday as West Brom entertain Wolves. The key to the Baggies success so far this season has been in the engine room. Chris Brunt(5.7) is a massive player for Roberto Di Matteo, if he’s not scoring goals he is creating them. Wide man Jerome Thomas(4.6) is performing well and steady as a rock Paul Scharner(4.5) is a reliable performer who chips in with the odd goal too. Mick McCarthy’s men deserve to be a wee bit higher up the table, if Stephen Hunt(5.3) can recapture the form of his Reading and Hull City days he will play a vital part in Wolves’ survival campaign. Wanderers will also be buoyed by the return of key men Matthew Jarvis(5.3) and Kevin Doyle(5.1).

Gameweek 18 concludes with Everton paying a visit to official title contenders Man City. Reports indicate that Carols Tevez(11.1) will be stripped of his captaincy but will play. There is a bargain to be had at multi-billion pound City, midfielder Yaya Toure is available for a mere 5.3 million. The Ivorian notched 13 points last time out, that’s value for Fantasy League money. Keep an eye on the happenings at Eastlands, a clear out is on the cards. The Fantasy League January sales will start here.

The next round of Premier League fixtures kick off on Boxing Day. I therefore wish you all a very merry and points laden Christmas. May your stocking be overflowing and your Turkey be moist and delicious. Thank you for reading every week and many apologies if you’ve followed any(and there have been plenty!) of my, shall we say, less rewarding suggestions.

If you feel like joining in the fun then join the EPL League by visiting: http://fantasy.premierleaguem.com/ the code you need to join is 13413-5300

While a Patrick Vieira goal was enough to rescue a point for Manchester City against Blackburn a draw won’t be good enough to satisfy City’s ever demanding owners and fans. But expect more results of a similar nature as sides adjust to City’s new statute.

City’s vast spending over the last few years has now taken them in to a different bracket of Premier League class. Sam Allardyce and his side would have been more than happy with a point before the start of the game, and I hazard a guess that a point would have still been widely accepted even after Rovers took a 25^th minute lead through Niko Kalinic.

Unfortunately this is what comes with been considered as a ‘top’ side in the Premier League. Unless they are playing another ‘top’ side, most visitors to Eastlands will opt to sit back and soak up City pressure, looking to counter with devastating consequences.

The likes of Chelsea and Manchester United have to deal with this in every single one of their home games, but what makes them so successful is their ability to break teams down and get the valuable goals that leads to subsequent comfortable wins.

You can’t help but think this ability to battle your way to wins only comes with experience.  While City have got a select few that have won titles around Europe, they haven’t got a vast amount of winning experience.

I think eventually this experience will come, but this season I think it will be the main reason why City don’t achieve Premier League success this season. I think against the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United, City will be fine. But against the Premier Leagues lesser clubs I can City dropping crucial points that hold back their charge for their maiden Premier League title.

I’d be interested in to hearing your thoughts. Was the draw to Blackburn just a minor blip? Can City be successful this season and if so What would be a successful season for City

With Fabio Capello insisting that he won’t manage England past the 2012 European Championships, names are already been branded about as a possible successor to the Italian. But with the FA proudly boasting that their next manager will be English there is hardly a wealth of managers to choose from.

Early contenders are Harry Redknapp, Roy Hodgson, Steve Bruce and Sam Allardyce with current England number two Stuart Pearce also reportedly in the frame. Without meaning to disrespect any of these they hardly have the same statute as Capello.

That is the real problem that the FA now faces after promising an English manager. The FA will be hoping that an English manager will bring more pride and passion from the players, something that was so desperately missing in South Africa.

The worry is though that the FA’s willingness to employ an English manager could backfire with huge consequences. After the 2006 World Cup there was the same urge to go English and Steve McClaren was given the chance to succeed Sven-Göran Eriksson.

What was followed was a drastic failure that lead to England failing to qualify for Euro 2008. If the same was to happen again it would mean England missing out on a World Cup which would the ultimate humiliation.

Personally I see myself more patriotic then most, but I just don’t feel the need for the England manager to actually be English and believe purely in picking a manager who is the most best man for the job.

In an ideal world yes, I’d love to see a top English manager making his national team play with the heart that we saw so many other countries play with at the World Cup.

But the fact of the matter is that we don’t have a top manager. International football is the very top level in football and I wouldn’t want to see England sacrifice the chance of success for an apparent need for an Englishman to be charge. However with the FA already promising an Englishman it means unfortunately this may be the case.

There are green shoots of recovery around the Reebok Stadium, after several winters of discontent under Gary Megson. With Owen Coyle’s arrival, suddenly Bolton Wanderers are playing football again and trying to win games, rather than bore teams to death and hoof it skywards. Megson’s long ball banality has no place in modern football and I feel sorry for the next bunch of fans that have to suffer the tedium of his tactical ineptitude.

Thankfully, Phil Gartside realised that he preferred being the chairman of a Premiership club more than defending a manager who had lost the entire crowds respect. His own position was under threat and no matter how well a chairman and a manager get on, eventually it becomes a question of self preservation. Gartside made the selfish decision after two bad, bad managerial choices almost finished the club off. Now things are a whole lot rosier down Burnden Way and the club can look to a more positive future.

At the time when Coyle left, I was critical of the decision, mainly as I didn’t think Bolton could strike up the pace as quickly as they needed and Burnley seemed to be doing well. I didn’t understand it, but then again, not many people did other than Bolton Wanderers fans. The Green half of Glasgow were certainly left scratching their heads as they watched Tony Mowbray’s reign imploded in a series of bizarre transfer and selection issues and wondering how they couldn’t attract Burnley’s manager over the summer.

So Coyle kept his part of the bargain, he turned his back on devotion and demi-god status at Turf Moor, to ride to Boltons rescue and try and keep them in the Premiership. He did it and with points to spare, such was the dearth of quality shown by the bottom 3 sides for most of the season. Whilst the bottom 3 were nowhere near the worst the Premiership has seen, the lack of a consistent goalscorer in all three relegated sides was too much to bare.

Now Coyle has a few weeks off, and will look to pre-season training in July to begin to continue the good start he’s made to his 4th managerial position. Bolton fans came in for some criticism last season with their campaign to get rid of Gary Megson. “Ideas above their station” ” Spoilt by the Allardyce years” and “Small club punching above their weight” were just some of the delightful accusations levelled at the fans. Quite why wanting rid of a manager who messed up the biggest night in the clubs modern history and would send his teams out not to lose, rather than to try and win games is such a problem.

They pay money and are rightly entitled to their opinions, whether we agree with it or not. I’ve never understood how Gary Megson keeps getting jobs, his record other than at West Bromwich Albion is abysmal. Only Megson could unite Nottingham Forest and Leicester City fans in their hatred of him, such is the feeling of anger towards him from both sets of supporters. Now that takes some doing in anyone’s book, at least Coyle only has one clubs fans anger to deal with, probably for life. Bolton wasn’t a massive rescue job, he just needed to remind the players how to play football, as daft as that sounds.

He simply needed to get the core performers back in unison and on song. The spine of a decent Premiership side was always there, it just wasn’t allowed to be a football team. With Jaaskelainen, Davis, Elmander, Cahill, Taylor and Davies to call on, it simply needed the depressing air lifting from the place and things would soon settle down. The first 6 weeks were tough, but eventually, points started to come, performances started to come and the team began to climb the table.

Next season will be Coyle’s biggest test so far as a manager. He had nothing to lose at the other jobs he took, Burnley achieved more than even the most loyal fan could have imagined, but I doubt Bolton will be scraping around the relegation zone next season. Despite what their critics may say, Bolton have now been back in the top flight of football for ten years and are an established Premiership club. The troubles of the last 3 seasons should prove nothing more than a bad dream for the Wanderers fans, mid-table is more than realistic for next season.

In his WSJ column, Gabriele Marcotti brings up the dearth of British managers at the top of English football.  Seven of the 20 Premier League managers are foreign.  Sir Alex Ferguson is the only British manager among the so-called “Big Four.”  Manchester City dumping Mark Hughes for Roberto Mancini seems only to exacerbate this trend.

Many in England believe this indicates domestic managers aren’t given a fair chance.  As Marcotti notes, Harry Redknapp expressed this sentiment in his column for the Sun.  “If any manager lower down the football pyramid believes they will get a big club…They won’t.  They simply won’t get a look in.  No chances will be taken.”

Such a sentiment is attractive, seemingly sensible, but ultimately ludicrous.

Viewing England’s top four as fixed entities is tempting and convenient, but it’s untrue.  Alex Ferguson inherited Manchester United in the 1980s and built the team into a perennial fixture.  Arsene Wenger did the same with Arsenal in the 1990s.  These managers joined clubs with resources and potential and built them.

British managers have had similar opportunities.

Sam Allardyce accepted the job at Newcastle, a large, heavy-spending club.  He failed and was finished by January.

Manchester City gave Mark Hughes a blank check.  He spent hundreds of millions.  He either bought poorly or managed the talent at his disposal poorly, but whatever he did it was poorly.  He was fired.

Harry Redknapp, the author of the aforementioned quotation, has the opportunity this season to finish in the top four.  He has been given ample talent.  He has a favorable league position.  He needs to lead them there.

Newcastle (before relegation), Manchester City and Tottenham were big jobs, similar to Arsenal and Man U once upon a time.  The clubs are among the wealthiest in Europe.  The resources are there.  They just need to use them correctly.

The most prominent British managers, men like Hughes Redknapp and Allardyce, have had opportunities to get to the top.  They didn’t take them.

British managers are not victims of structure.  They need no subsidy.  They just need to show ambition, take the initiative and perform better.

Ah, Gary Megson, never a manager to pass the blame on to anyone else for his own shortcomings, has decided that today he would announce that certain players are trying to destabilise the club. After watching Sundays performance, I don’t blame them, they look a team with no self confidence, no belief and no faith in the manager. At least he’s not blaming the fans this week. It’s always some else’s fault in Gary Megson’s mind. On Sunday, they’d lost their zip. Now, dark forces are working against Gary Megson, not the fact he played two left wingers in the same midfield and substituted their best player on Sunday, Ricardo Gardner. Witchcraft is abound on Burnden Way in Megson’s eyes.

The fans do not need a reason to increase their dislike of a manager that they never wanted.The boo’s that came cascading down from the Reebok faithful when Ricardo Gardner was removed served to remind Megson that regardless of the chairman’s support, If enough fans stop going, it won’t matter. Money makes the world go round and Bolton’s gates have never been the highest. Currently 5,000 down on 2005-2006 season, even a local derby on Sunday against Blackburn couldn’t raise the attendance over 22,000.

To be honest, I think Gary Megson would lose a popularity contest if he was the only person in it and only his friends could vote. His dogmatic, banality at all costs style of football makes you want to stitch your eyelids together. That’s no attack on Bolton Wanderers, they have the quality of player to be able to get the ball down and play football. Under Allardyce, they attracted a quality of free signings and rough diamonds that played a high tempo, effective and physical game.Megson’s teams just won’t play football because he doesn’t know how to.

Under Megson, they look lost, without purpose and drive. A key point of this is Johan Elmander. Now, I’ve seen a bit of Elmander play over the last 3 or 4 years and right now, he looks like he’s never played the game before. There is no doubting that Elmander is a quality player and he made Toulouse a different side during his time there. Now, he looks like a fish out of water.Elmander is no Fernando Torres, but he’s a damn fine striker.

The chairman Phil Gartside has said there was no need to panic and he wasn’t the type to do so, but tell that to Sammy Lee. Gartside came out with this gem: “The season is 38 games and we are confident. We have been playing some good football, it’s been decent stuff. No one presses panic buttons around here. I have been in the game long enough not to do that.” Now I’ve yet to find a Reebok regular that would agree with any part of that statement.

Since Megson took over at the Reebok stadium, Bolton have played 92 games in all competitions under his stewardship. Incredibly, they’ve only won 26 of those matches. That’s a win ratio of 28.2% and Paul Hart who has so much to deal with and got sacked today had a win ratio at Pompey of 30%. With the fans baying for his blood, Bolton now face Fulham and Wolves away before Manchester City arrive and these are crucial games. The Christmas fixture computer has given them some tough local games and relegation six pointers, so things aren’t going to get any easier.

By once again blaming everyone else, Megson shows a thin skin to his limitations as a manager. As I mentioned earlier this year, Megson has a dreadful record as a manager, but keeps getting jobs. It astounds me how the same names keep going round and round and never achieving anything but the jobs keep coming. Mind you Megson claimed he’d been black balled after his dreadful spell at Nottingham Forest, which when you consider he only won 17 games out of 59, speaks for itself.

The dreaded vote of confidence has come, the fans are chomping at the bit to let him know just how little they think of him, attendances are falling, Megson is blaming the fans, the players and the club are second bottom. The question Bolton fans must be wondering is just how bad to things have to get at the Reebok before Megson gets sacked. We’ll find out soon enough if there is a happy ending in Horwich.

Well you’ve got to hand it to him, Gary Megson must have the thickest skin in professional football. I’ve seen him barracked by his own fans at 4 different clubs over the years and that’s some going, even in the fickle world of the football supporter. At a Nottingham Forest game, I saw fans come to blows trying to get to him, at Leicester I saw a fan throw his season ticket at him in his 3rd game in charge. At Bolton he famously finished last in an online poll with 1.7% of the vote behind A.N Other before being announced as manager.

It’s a weird situation when this kind of vitriol follows someone around throughout their career and he’s continually knocked noses out of joint wherever he’s been. Even as a player, whilst highly regarded, Brian Clough was disgusted with his pre-match ritual of throwing up before playing, so much so that he sold him on after only 4 months.

With the exception of the Leicester City job, out of his 8 managerial positions, he’s been sacked from 4 and resigned from 2. The two he left freely were Blackpool and Nottingham Forest, though for his own safety, I think he did well to get out of the City Ground alive. It’s the one thing that astounds me about managers, that whilst I appreciate the mangers success can only be as good as the tools at his disposal, why do so many bad managers keep getting work.

Now it may seem churlish to label Megson as a bad manager, but there is no doubting he is unpopular wherever he goes, with the exception of West Bromwich Albion. Albion were on a slippery slope when he came in and he got them in to the Premiership and they’ve been yo-yoing back and forth ever since, but good lord he plays awful football and that’s where the problem lies. My biggest criticism of him as manager of Bolton is his over reliance on the long ball game and consistently negative outlook.

The constant arguments between Megson and the Bolton fans took a new twist the other day when he said “We’re not Real Madrid”. I don’t think any Bolton fan is under the delusion that they expect the team to play as if they were, but surely Megson could try and pacify the fans rather keep coming out with statements that seem to deliberately antagonise them. With the players he has at his disposal, it’s not too far a jump for them to play football now and again.

The nucleus of a good side is there, with the likes of Matty Taylor, Sean Davis, Johan Elmander, the underrated Jussi Jaakelainen & Kevin Davies and Gary Cahill. Yet the negativity of the fans is beginning to drive a wedge between everyone at the Reebok Stadium. Did the Sam Allardyce reign give them a false level of optimism?

Some Bolton fans have never forgiven Megson for playing a reserve side in their biggest game for 50 years in the UEFA Cup. Megson’s idea was to rest the players for a Premier League game against Wigan the Sunday after, which they ironically lost.  That game against Sporting Lisbon was the high point of some Wanderers fans football lives and they resent the fact he didn’t care enough.Staying up was all that mattered and to some fans, that was a bridge too far.

No doubt, the most vitrolic Bolton fans are wanting him out, in 6 League and Cup games they’ve won two, both away from home. The win against Tranmere was no surprise, they are in big trouble already. If anything Megson would have been relived to see the pressure John Barnes is under at Prenton Park. The only win in the league was at troubled Portsmouth who can’t buy any luck at present.

Yet when Megson starts a home game playing with one striker what does he expect? By playing negative football at home, he promotes the negativity in the stands. Each fuels each other, Megson is now scared to lose games, the fans expect defensive, boring football. The fans boo, he complains about lack of support.  Trouble is, if Megson does go, who on earth will they bring in to replace him?

Bolton Manager Gary Megson

In October 1999 Sam Allardyce breezed into his office at the Reebok Stadium to take over a club at the foot of the first division table. Amazingly, he guided Bolton Wanderers to the play-off semi finals the same season as well reaching both domestic cup finals.

The following season Wanderers finished in third place and again competed in the play-offs – this time they dispatched Lancashire rivals Preston North End 3-0  in the final. Allardyce had led Bolton to promotion in his first full season.  The first two years in the Premier League were understandably spent fighting off relegation which they did successfully. What we didn’t expect was for the Trotters to then finish in the top eight four season’s consecutively - qualifying for the UEFA Cup twice in the process and even achieving sixth place in 2004/05.

These highly succesful seasons in the Premier League owe no small part to Wanderers’ success in the transfer market. During this era Youri Djorkaeff, Jay Jay Okocha, Fernando Hierro, Ivan Campo and Nicolas Anelka all donned the the white shirts of the Lancashire club. Not only did Bolton qualify for Europe, they made it to the League Cup final in Cardiff where they were beaten by Middlesbrough. 

However those days of European qualification, cup finals and regular top ten finishes seem like a distant memory. When Big Sam left to take over at Newcastle United in April 2007, Bolton turned to his assistant Sammy Lee. Lee’s tenure was disastrous. Despite ensuring qualification for Europ in the month after taking over his name sake, Little Sam lasted lasted until October of the next  season with just one win to his credit. In stepped Gary Megson and the continual battle against relegation. Despite the direct style of football not really changing since Allardyce’s reign, it seems poor signings have led the club to the position they are in.

Johan Elmander arrived at the club in 2008 for a whopping fee of £8.2 Million from Toulouse with Daniel Braaten going the other way. He has managed a pitiful 5 goals in his 28 games for the club. For the sake of pointless statistics that is £1.64 million pounds per goal, tad expensive for a centre forward you feel?

Gary Cahill was signed last season from Aston Villa for £5 Million. Now I want to go on record and mention that I watched Cahill on loan for Sheffield United in the same season and make 16 appearances for the Blades. He looked an outstanding player in the Championship but £5 Million quid is a big fee when you consider that Everton landed Phil Jagielka for £4 Million.

Bolton were once incredibly shrewd in the market but have splurged on mediocre players since the days of Sam Allardyce. Add Gretnar Steinsson (£3.5 million), Danny Shittu (£2 Million basic) and we add further weight to the issue.  Matt Taylor has been a reasonable acquisition, a tad over-priced at £4 million but at least he has 10 goals to his credit. Yes, the £8.2 million striker Elmander has been out-scored by a left back/midfielder.

I know that transfer fees for players are forever spiralling upward, but does anyone out there not think that Allardyce wouldn’t have spent that cash better than Megson? Considering that the Trotters sold Nicolas Anelka to Chelsea in January 2008 for £15 Million those transfer funds have been poorly distributed. Maybe Bolton saw Megson a fit appointment in relation to his direct style of physical football – it can’t have been his charisma. A quiet character by the name of Neil Warnock once commented on Megson releasing an auto-biography by saying ”Oh he’s writing a book is he? Well it’ll be the best f**king cure for insomniacs that’s ever been published”.

I  fear that Bolton, a good family club may join the likes of Southampton, Coventry and Middlesbrough in domiciling in mid-table anonymity for years before finally suffering the drop. Bolton have been good for the Premier League and have been a model for other promoted clubs to base their for model for success on. However with the current man in charge I cannot see Wanderers firing back up the table – particularly if they don’t replace Kevin Nolan.

Allardyce's Arrival Has All But Staved Off Relegation

Who else could have saved Blackburn so effortlessly? Sat second bottom of the Premier League, five points from safety with just 13 points from 17 games, Sam Allardyce succeeded Paul Ince as Blackburn Rovers’ manager, and in less than 20 games he has made them all but safe – almost in second gear.

He took Bolton up, took them into Europe and developed them into a club so stable that even Gary Megson can keep them afloat with ease. His over-eagerness to join Newcastle perhaps has meant that he probably will be firefighting with clubs like Blackburn forever, but even that “marriage made in hell” was not as bad as first seemed: Mike Ashley sacked Allardyce with the Toon in the heady heights of 12th place, and subsequent failings have shown that Big Sam’s performance - in the cold, hard textbook of results – was in fact a relative success as he seemed - initially at least – to be able to wring the best of Mark Viduka and Obafemi Martins (the latter’s brace at Bolton on opening day the highest peak of his short managership). Ashley’s happiness to jump into bed with the fans meant that he immediately replaced Sam with Kevin Keegan – a man who, even four years previously had looked to sign a host of ageing nineties’ superstars for Manchester City (Robbie Fowler, Peter Schmeichel, David Seaman, Michael Tarnat, need I go on? ) and whose work in football for three years amounted to running a childrens’ “Soccer Circus” in Glasgow. It was like replacing Fabio Capello as England manager with Glenn Hoddle – and it was shabby treatment for a manager who, whilst not putting any trees up was definitely not going to make Newcastle relegation candidates.

Of course there are mitigating factors: Newcastle were in a shocking run of form, and the “brand of football” issue raised its ugly head once the results started to turn. He is oft-mocked for his “agricultural” style at Bolton, but with signings like Youri Djorkaeff, Ivan Campo, Nicolas Anelka and Jay-Jay Okocha, can you play completely long-ball football? His football tends to be direct, of course, but his organisation and motivation of players is second to none – at Bolton he came away with two draws from three games at Stamford Bridge during the José era, and with consecutive wins at Old Trafford in his first two seasons in the Premier League, surely he was the man to take Newcastle to the level they had slipped from since Bobby Robson left in 2005. I guess Mr Ashley had other ideas.

So Sam ended up at Blackburn. What had become (under Ince) a gung-ho football team with a brittle underbelly, became a drilled, structured outfit with an underbelly made of titanium. Benni McCarthy went from the outskirts of the side to a prolific Premier League goalscorer, Jason Roberts went from an Ade Akinbiyi impression to a spirited strike partner, and Ryan Nelsen has remembered how to defend: In other words, Blackburn are now a worthy Premier League side, who, with Big Sam at the helm can perhaps look towards Europe next season – after all, since Allardyce’s arrival, they have taken 27 points from 19 games, which is European form and would place them comfortably in seventh if taken over a whole season. He is no Mourinho, no Benitez, no Ferguson, but he has sparked a remarkable revival from a team on it’s knees, and – this becoming an increasing Big Sam trademark - has got the best out of a (relatively) small Premier League club.

Buoyed by Mark Hughes’ overachievement and shrewd signings, Blackburn had been living in a fantasyland of consistent contention for Europe.  Paul Ince transported them rudely back to small city reality.  Blackburn took an admirable risk, hiring the Premier League’s first black manager, but, in this instance, it clearly backfired.  You know things are dreary when Sam Allardyce becomes Midas.

Form: Sam Allardyce has revolutionized Blackburn.  Since he took over Dec. 17, the club has won or drawn ten of their thirteen matches, a noticeable improvement from Ince’s brief reign.  Of the three losses, two came in no shame affairs away to a resurgent Arsenal and Manchester United.  Aston Villa gave them their only home defeat.  Characteristic of an Allardyce team, they will battle in every match.

Schedule: Blackburn have a reasonable run of games to get points.  Their home ties against Tottenham, Wigan, Portsmouth and West Brom are all winnable.  Their away fixtures are a bit tougher, traveling to Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Stoke City.  Though, given the Allardyce style, it’s not inconceivable they trip up a similarly physical Liverpool or Chelsea side.

Injuries: Injuries could play a role for Blackburn, where they need help, scoring goals.  Benny McCarthy is probably questionable with his hamstring injury.  Roque Santa Cruz seems keen to return against Tottenham, with just four goals in 17 appearances leaves much to be desired when he is fit.  Diouf could help out, so could Morten Gamst-Pedersen, if he rouses from his season-long doze.

Prognosis: Blackburn will not go down.  They are a comfortably mid-table team placed in a whole because of Ince.  Cynical Sam’s style evokes neither beauty nor romanticism, but it’s effective.  For Blackburn this season, it will also be lucrative, keeping them in the league.  Newcastle may climb out, but not at Blackburn’s expense.