Analysis: James Ducker I Debate: were Blackburn right to sack Ince? I Souness leads contenders to replace Ince I Garner: Blackburn right to sack Ince I

The writing looked to be on the wall for Ince after the chairman's comments this morning. Was there only ever going to be one decision by the directors?

There have been a number of directors who have wanted him out for well over a week now. John Williams has been one of those fighting Ince's corner but I think part of the problem was the manner of the defeat by Wigan, which really suggested this was a manager who had lost the backing of his players.

I think the directors have looked at the fixtures coming up, against the likes of Stoke, Sunderland and Fulham and thought "we want to get points on the board from these", rather than stick with Ince and not get many points from what are winnable games. I am all for managers being given time, and I think it's a real problem these days, but I just look at Blackburn's situation and I think they have probably made the right decision for a number of factors.

I think the wage bill at the club is around 85 per cent of their turnover. So if Blackburn go out of the Premier League they are not coming back. There would be a fire sale and we would probably never see them in the top flight again.

But at the heart of Ince's problems has been his back-room staff. Had he appointed forward thinking coaches I don't think he would have had as many problems as he had. Part of the failings of his management has been bringing in the likes of Ray Mathias and Archie Knox, who were very much of the old-guard and that has ruffled the feathers of a number of his players.

I don't think Ince has done that much wrong, but if the people around you are not respected or disliked then you are in for a battle. And so if you couple those factors together Blackburn have probably made the right decision.

Matt Dickinson this morning wrote that the directors should be held responsible for appointing Ince in the first place. Do you agree they should be the focus of any blame for the club's problems?

Ince has been crucified and you have got to ask questions about his lack of qualifications and whether Blacburn made a mistake in appointing him. I don't think his appointment was a bad one, because there weren't too many other viable candidates at the time.

But I was surprised the board allowed him to appoint who he did. Coming on the back of Mark Hughes, whose back-room team all had their Uefa Pro licences and were very forward-thinking and advanced in the way that they viewed the game.

Ince went back to old-school figures in Mathias and Knox, but what do you do? You have to back your manager's appointments, but I think that didn't help matters and probably undermined him as a manager. I wonder if he had a different team working alongside him whether they would be in this position.

Who could be next in the hot seat at Ewood Park? Souness seems to be favourite - what do you make of that?