League Championship club Blackburn Rovers has sacked Manager Michael Appleton just 67 days after he replaced Henning Berg, according to Simon Rice of the London INDEPENDENT. The decision "follows a 1-1 draw with Burnley over the weekend and last week's exit from the FA Cup in a quarter-final replay with Millwall." It represents a "second short managerial stint" at Blackburn. Appleton's predecessor Berg was in charge for 57 days. The decision "will also lead to questions about the management of the club," which is owned by Indian poultry giants Venky's. Since taking over the Lancashire side, it has sacked four managers and overseen relegation from the Premier League (INDEPENDENT, 3/19).
DEFINITION OF INSANITY: In London, David Conn opined Venky's can now be identified "with Albert Einstein's famous definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." There "can seem no other explanation for what they have done to the famous Lancashire club than that it is all madness." The wholesale sackings or resignations of the stable and highly regarded group of directors and executives Venky's inherited are "deeply relevent." The club's attendance averaged 14,665 per game this season, down from 25,008 in '10-11 when the Venky's were "first in charge." There "must be more to it than madness, but there is little sense in it; another manager gone, a haemorrhage of money, and a draining away of broken-hearted support" (GUARDIAN, 3/19).
