Michael Appleton appointed new manager of Blackburn Rovers

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Rohan Swamy: Jan 14 2013, 00:40 IST

While the shadows lengthened at Ewood Park and the fans’ unrest surged post the sacking of Blackburn Rovers coach Henning Berg, the team management finally appointed Michael Appleton, who headed Blackpool, as the manager of the team.

Berg was sacked just 57 days into his tenure on December 26 after a string of poor performances. There were rumours that former Aston Villa coach Kevin Mac Donald would fill in his shoes.

B Venkatesh Rao, Joint MD of VH Group that owns the club, had said during an event, “We will do away with the positions of manager and assistant manager and will only hire a coach and an assistant coach for the remaining season. More than the revenue losses, it was the fame of the club that was at stake and we had to take steps.”

However in sharp contrast to Rao’s earlier statement, an official release from the club on Saturday said that 37-year-old Michael Appleton has taken over as the club’s new manager and will be joined at Ewood Park by assistant Ashley Westwood.

“After a day of discussions with Blackpool FC, Rovers were granted permission to negotiate with highly-rated duo on Thursday. They arrived at Ewood on Friday morning, accompanied by their lawyer, before putting pen-to-paper on two-and-a-half-year deal,” said the release.

Rovers’ managing director Derek Shaw said, “They are both highly regarded in the game. We will do everything to support them in our quest to make an instant return to the Premier League.”

Rao had

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Get out of Ewood.

Tony | 14-Jan-2013Reply | Forward

The Venkys ownership of BRFC is nothing short of an outrage to the supporters of the once great club. They have systematically destroyed it and left nothing but a rotting corpse in it's place. For the survival of the club the Venkys should sell the club and allow someone who knows something about the game of football to run it as a football club should be. The Venkys should be ashamed of themselves for what they have done. They are an absolute disgrace. How they can call themselves business people is a mystery to the people of Blackburn. My dog could have made a better job of it than these clowns. PS, take the number one clown Shebby Singh with you when you leave.