Last chance for Steve Kean at Blackburn

Blackburn's beleaguered manager Steve Kean may be entering the last chance saloon

Put simply, Steve Kean is a dead man walking at Blackburn Rovers.

In fact, the only thing keeping him in a job at the moment - indeed the only thing which landed him the job in the first place - is the incompetence of the club's owners.

To sack Sam Allardyce midway through last season was nonsensical, and to replace him with a coach with no experience of management was crazy in the dog-eat-dog world of the Premier League.

Young coaches like Kean deserve their shot at management, but not on the basis that they are a "positive man", as Indian owners Venky's put it when he was appointed.

Rovers would have been a comfortable mid-table side under Allardyce, but under Kean they have become nothing more than relegation fodder. Relegation this season seems inevitable unless a change is made.

Fans are revolting against Kean and the owners, with the last two losses - heavy defeats to Newcastle and Manchester City - doing nothing to appease them.

The fans cannot be blamed for speaking out given Kean's record - six wins in 28 league games - but the risk is the poisonous atmosphere they are creating may have a detrimental impact on the team.

They can see their club's Premier League life slowly slipping away, with recent statements from Venky's doing nothing to reassure fans.

It seems they don't have the first idea about how to run a football club and which decisions need to be made.

Kean will be unable to win over the doubters for some time yet as they have become sick of his constant public positivity in the face of criticism. He needs to tell it like it is.

Some Blackburn fans have made their feelings towards Kean clear

In the summer, he proclaimed Blackburn would be a Champions League outfit by 2015, a foolish statement which will continually come back to haunt him for the rest of his reign at Ewood Park.

There is no evidence Venky's have the funds required to launch anything like a top four bid, no evidence to suggest Kean is good enough to get anywhere near that level and certainly not the required level of talent on the playing staff.

Their 4-3 win over Arsenal earlier this season was a rare highlight of Kean's reign but even that highlighted the deficiencies of the team.

Rovers are so soft at the back it is farcical.

With top defenders like Scott Dann, Christopher Samba and Ryan Nelsen, they shouldn't concede anything like the number of goals they do.

There is clearly something fundamentally wrong, in the tactics or the mindset, that Kean simply cannot turn around.

As if his position was not weakened enough by fan protests, the recent sacking of his assistant John Jensen over his head has made his position almost untenable.

Blackburn have a crucial game this weekend away at Queens Park Rangers and the fear for Kean must be that he cannot afford a defeat.

He has just took his side to India to spread the name of Blackburn Rovers on the sub-continent and to meet the club's owners, who surely must have told him recent performances and results are not good enough.

Kean always tries to put a positive spin on everything, but even he must realise the situation at Ewood Park is perilous.

QPR away represents a real chance of picking up some points but also poses a real danger.

Neil Warnock's QPR are sure to cause Blackburn problems

Rangers have been decent since Tony Fernandes bought the club - despite their recent pummelling at Fulham - but haven't been scoring enough goals.

However, all that is likely to change soon when the likes of Adel Taarabt, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joey Barton click into gear, and it could just be that Blackburn are the first team to bear the brunt of that.

They are sitting second from bottom with just four points from seven games and if they pick up nothing from Loftus Road, they run the risk of propping up the division.

Even if they do pick up one or three points this weekend, it will not be enough to convince most Rovers fans that Kean is the right man for the job.

Fresh protests are planned for upcoming games and that is a tad unfair on Kean, thrown in at the managerial deep end.

It should be the owners who get most of the stick for appointing the Scot in the first place.

Former Rovers boss Hughes may be the ideal man to turn things around

They are clearly clueless about football as an experienced manager - Martin O'Neill, Alan Curbishley or Mark Hughes, for instance - is desperately needed to turn things around.

All clubs need stability and so in that respect it may be prudent of them to stick with Kean, but most would agree that if something is not done fast there will only be one outcome for Blackburn this season: relegation.

Kean will never be able to fulfil his promise of Champions League football and so he will always be fighting a losing battle.

There is an argument that his hands have been tied since taking over from Allardyce, with the marquee signings which were promised and large transfer budget not materialising, while he had to watch as star defender Phil Jones left for Manchester United in the summer.

Kean has got the best out of young talent Junior Hoilett and has introduced exciting prospects Ruben Rochina and Mauro Formica to the team, but even this cannot save him with the supporters.

Fans care about results and performances, and as a collective, Rovers have simply not been good enough under Kean.

Blackburn is a great, family club and their fans deserve better than they are getting at the moment, both in the boardroom and the dugout.

Their supporters experienced the ultimate high when they won the Premier League under Kenny Dalglish but they may be about to reach the ultimate low under another Scot.

Relegation to the Championship is a real prospect the way Kean's team have started this season so despite Venky's loyalty towards him, they cannot afford to let their team slip into the second tier.

Lose at QPR and the board may be forced to act.