Debate: were Blackburn right to sack Ince? I | Allardyce heads likely candidates | Commentary: Matt Dickinson | Commentary: Tony Cascarino | Graphic: Ince domino effect |

Six weeks. Paul Ince had been in charge of Blackburn Rovers for only six weeks when stories began to surface of dressing-room unrest, although if that was the first the press had heard of it, it is a fair assumption that things had hardly been going swimmingly before then. With that in mind, Ince may have done well to survive for six months.

David Bentley was one of the first to take umbrage at Ince’s training methods, the England winger reportedly storming off in disgust after being ordered by a coach to do 20 press-ups as punishment for having his arms folded. Bentley soon found an escape route via Tottenham Hotspur, which might help to explain his show of dissent, but subsequent declarations from players backing Ince have tended to ring hollow. The truth is that Ince was on a collision course with his dressing-room early on, and in the age of player power, there was only going to be one winner.

Some members of Blackburn’s board wanted Ince out after the 3-1 defeat by Liverpool at Ewood Park 11 days ago, although it was the abject display away to Wigan Athletic at the weekend that proved the final straw. If ever a performance reflected a manager who had “lost” the dressing-room, this was it.

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• Were Blackburn right to sack Ince?

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• Hard times no stranger to Blackburn's Ince

• Will colour or competence have final say on Ince?

Multimedia

• Were Blackburn right to sack Ince?

We will never know if Ince might have made a better fist of it had he made sounder judgment calls regarding his choice of backroom staff, but his decision to appoint Ray Mathias, his former No 2 at Milton Keynes Dons, and Archie Knox as his assistants left a lot to be desired, not least in the eyes of the players.

Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, claimed that Ince “couldn’t have a better No 2” than Knox before Blackburn’s 5-3 Carling Cup quarter-final defeat at Old Trafford this month, but it is clear that for players accustomed to the meticulous, scientific regime of Mark Hughes, Ince’s predecessor, the “old-school” training methods of Knox and Mathias were not to their liking.

Mathias attempted to dismiss claims yesterday that dressing-room unrest had contributed to a run of 11 league games without a win. “It is a load of rubbish,” he said. “There is no happier dressing-room than ours, you would go a long way to beat that.”

Maybe Ince thought that, because of his relative inexperience as a manager, he was making amends by appointing two coaches much longer in the tooth, although he would have been far better pursuing coaches in the mould of Mark Bowen and Eddie Niedzwiecki, Hughes’s trusted and visionary lieutenants who, not surprisingly, followed the former Blackburn manager to Manchester City.

Of course, Ince must look long and hard at himself. The criticism he received for not having any of the necessary coaching badges required of a Barclays Premier League manager was unfair — was he really supposed to turn down the Blackburn job on that basis? — but suggestions that he bunked off a coaching course to play golf did him no favours and hinted at a person whose managerial philosophy was very different to that of Hughes, his former United team-mate, who is almost consumed by the job.

Blackburn’s players often complained privately that Ince was not on the training ground enough, instead leaving Mathias and Knox to put them through their paces, quite literally.

The supporters, meanwhile, began questioning Ince’s judgment the moment he decided to give a short-term contract to Robbie Fowler, the former Liverpool striker, who was the subject of angry taunts from fans when he came on as a substitute against United in the Carling Cup.

Contrary to popular perception, Ince is a very personable and affable character. Yes, he has a high opinion of himself — although could you blame him for that given his record as a player and manager before his arrival at Blackburn? — but he is not quite the abrasive character he has been made out to be. Still, he must ask himself how he turned a team that finished seventh last season into one flirting with relegation six months later, especially when Bentley and Brad Friedel — who was replaced by Paul Robinson, an England international — were the only significant departures last summer.