Paul Ince's Appointment: Power to black talent

[Ibtisam]

What is so significant about Paul Ince's appointment at Blackburn Rovers? Alan Dawson looks at what the former Manchester United man's installation at Ewood Park means...

 

What is so significant about Paul Ince's appointment at Blackburn Rovers? Is it that another of Sir Alex Ferguson's protégé’s will be looking to scalp his old boss this season? Perhaps it lies behind another lower league manager building up his pedigree sufficiently enough to be considered for one of the bigger roles? Maybe it is the fact that Paul Ince may not be the first non-white Premiership manager (Jean Tigana and Ruud Gullit were before him), but he is the first black English manager in the top flight - an accolade that is somewhat fitting for the first black footballer to captain the English national team.

 

 

You had a feeling that it was somewhat inevitable that Ince would achieve this position in his career. He joined Macclesfield Town as a relatively new manager while they were languishing at the bottom of the table, 7 points adrift from their nearest rivals. On the last day of the 2006-07 season, they avoided relegation and Ince moved on to Milton Keynes Dons where he won a hat-trick of League Two ''manager of the month'' awards in October and December 2007, and then again in April 2008. With MK Dons he also won the Football League Trophy at the end of March defeating Grimsby 2-0 in the process.

 

The 40-year old coach is outspoken about issues involving the employment of black coaches. Ince has been openly critical about what he perceives as inherent racism at boardroom level, citing ''a generational thing'' standing between himself and the opportunity to work at a higher level. Eighteen months ago, Ince also said: ''Maybe black managers will have more of a chance with foreign owners coming into the game, people who don't really see this as an issue. No one ever talked about the likes of Keith Alexander and Leroy Rosenior [when jobs were available]. Keith did extremely well at Lincoln, got them into the play-offs three times, but no one's willing to give them a chance to go higher.'' Keith Alexander may have done well at Lincoln, but judging from his playing days he was a journeyman of lower league clubs, at best.

 

What plays in Ince's favour is his experience of the Premiership as a player, and as a leader. If one looks at Roy Keane, who granted, may have had it slightly easier to find employment seeing as his boss is his former international colleague, but he also took over a club propping up the rest of the league, only to transform their fortunes and see himself arrive in the top tier, albeit with the same club. What they both have in common is their former get-stuck-in attitude, their leadership credentials, and of course, the added bonus of being surrounded by talented footballers and learning off the better coaches for the best part of their careers.

 

 

Who then has walked similar paths to Ince, only to be blocked by a white ceiling? Colin King had all the qualifications required of a professional coaching role in football, but never worked in football management. He says: ''At 17 years of age I tried to get into a professional club and was told that niggers couldn't be in the game and so I went down the coaching route and I got all the qualifications. I wrote to a lot of clubs asking for coaching jobs but nobody ever responded.'' John Barnes also experienced a similar fate. He had an unspectacular spell at Celtic, over 8 years ago, and since then has attempted a media role. Barnes says: ''I have tried for about four or five jobs, I have also had Graham Taylor and Terry Venebles, both former England managers recommend me for an interview. But it brought nothing.''

 

Have large strides been taken in the current decade to ensure black candidates are treated in equal esteem as their white counterparts, then? After all, one in four current footballers are black, yet this only equates to about one in thirty in management. There is however a notable age gap between these two statistics. The older black coaches and managers would have been more of a minority during their own playing days, as opposed to today. Also, over the next five years and beyond, when the current crop of (captain material) black players are seeing less pitch time, surely more will throw themselves into coaching and management. David James, Sol Campbell, and Rio Ferdinand, for instance, all take on leading roles whether for club and/or country and would be more fitting to retain a hands-on role in football, as opposed to pursuing a career in the media, like Ian Wright or Les Ferdinand.

 

What is for certain is that players like Viv Anderson broke down the race barriers in football so that the current generation of black footballers are simply known as footballers, without having to note their skin colour. Perhaps Paul Ince can break similar labels for future managers, and if he did, this achievement would be deemed more important from a social standpoint than all his trophies combined.

 

http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=747196

[N.O.R.F]

Not a bad player but a coach??? Big surprise!

[NGONGE]

^^ He's done well with his last two teams. If Roy Keane can do it why not the guvnor himself, eh?

[nuune]

Roy Keane never had any managerial experience, and look how he is doing now, top flight with his team,

 

And this fella can do better job than Keane, he needs to trust himself and have confidence, alot of blackies lack dat

[N.O.R.F]

Originally posted by NGONGE:

^^ He's done well with his last two teams. If Roy Keane can do it why not the guvnor himself, eh?

I just don't like the guy,,,,,hope he doesn't become the first managerial victim

[MZanzi]

He'd arguably done more than someone like southgate at middlesborough, Ince compared has worked his way up from nothing to the position as two players from a similar era and profile. Best of luck to him.

 

I always liked him as a player. He was tough on the pitch and will command respect.

[Fabregas]

A black manager @ "BlackBurn". tolow were does the name come from?