All dressed up with nowhere to go

Life at Ewood Park has gone from bad to worse since Alan Shearer (left) moved to Newcastle. As he prepares to face his former club today, Glenn Moore asks what has gone wrong with Blackburn Rovers

As a harbinger of revolt, it was hardly in the Paul Revere class. A boy barely into his teenage years stood, somewhat diffidently, in the lower seats of the Blackburn End holding a home-made banner. It read "Harford Out". One wondered if his mum had noticed the sheet was missing.

Supporters filed out around him. It was moments after Rovers' home defeat by Derby on Monday and their countenances were gloomy, but none stopped to join him. True, there had been a few boos when the final whistle had blown, but they were comfortably outnumbered by the cheers which acknowledged the team's effort, if not their result.

But if Ewood Park's plastic seats do not host a rebellion, what of the wood-pannelled boardroom - a carefully reconstructed relic of the old Ewood, before Uncle Jack came along with his dreams and his millions? Sixteen months ago Jack Walker held the Premiership trophy aloft at Anfield after Blackburn had won their first title in 81 years. Now they are one from bottom with a solitary point from five matches. In such situations the fixture computer usually reveals a sadistic streak. Sure enough, Blackburn today visit Newcastle and Alan Shearer.

Imagine, for a moment, you are Carlos Kickaball - Alan Sugar's stereotype foreigner. You are unhappy at Inter Real and your agent tells you Blackburn Rovers are interested. Two months ago that meant playing alongside the hero of Euro 96. It once meant a personal chat with Kenny Dalglish. Now it means a bloke called Ray Harford trying to sell the idea of partnering some guy called Chris Sutton.

Interested? Jurgen Klinsmann, Pierluigi Casiraghi and Patrick Kluivert were not. Neither, it appears, are Oliver Bierhoff and Martin Dahlin, the latest targets. True, Yorgos Donis signed, but then admitted he had done so to play alongside Shearer.

This is Harford's problem. He is a fine coach but, unlike Dalglish, he did not win 102 caps for his country and he did not win the European Cup. Shearer, Tim Flowers, Tim Sherwood and Graeme Le Saux all signed for Dalglish, not Blackburn. His name gave Blackburn the kudos. The departures of he and Shearer appear to have signalled Rovers' decline just as their arrivals signposted their success.

Unlike Shearer, Dalglish was pushed before he jumped - but Blackburn had little choice. They could put up with his golf-orientated interpretation of the role of director of football, but they could not have him becoming, albeit unwittingly, a focus of discontent. Dalglish's P45 was on its way as soon as some supporters began to call for his return as manager during the opening-day home defeat to Spurs.

Dalglish's departure, though it has weakened the club's pull, has made little difference to the day-to-day running. He and Harford had virtually ceased to communicate on club matters and his appearances at Brockwell, the training centre, and Ewood had become rare.

Nor was he involved in transfers. Responsibility for them had long passed to Walker and Robert Coar, the chairman. Harford suggests possibilities then they attempt the deals. The system is similar to the one which brought Bruce Rioch's downfall at Arsenal and, in terms of attracting big names, even less successful. Shearer's departure was even more confused. Everyone in football seemed to know that he had decided it was time to leave except Walker and Coar. Walker offered a week of his earnings against a week of a reporter's that Shearer would stay. The reporter regrets not accepting the bet.

After Dalglish left, Harford faced a public meeting. The mood was grim yet he won them over. It was hard to see how he had done it, until I heard him this week. Howard Wilkinson had just become the season's eighth sacking and Harford knew he could be the ninth. "I do not understand the reasoning behind those sackings," he said. "You have a game plan in the summer and to abandon that after five games seems strange. Ours was jeopardised by Shearer going so late." Having waited until after Euro 96 and for Shearer to have a holiday, Rovers found likely replacements had already moved by the time Shearer left. Chris Sutton and Graeme Le Saux were injured, then so were Kevin Gallacher, Jason Wilcox and Paul Warhurst.

"You miss those players," added Harford. "You end up putting square pegs in round holes. I could bring in a couple of kids but, if the senior players are struggling, what will it do to the kids?

"I will discuss what has happened with Jack and the board. If they come to the conclusion I should go, so be it. I do not feel I should resign, it is a long-term job. I would not fight it if they felt I should go. I wouldn't say I'm doing a great job - how can I? I'm not winning games. I've no defence, I've only got excuses with the injuries."

There was more of the same. Honest, realistic and eminently plausible. Harford has been a victim of circumstance. Given an injury-free run and some new players, one can imagine him turning things around.

But what new players? His signings to date have been ordinary. With wages high everywhere Jack Walker's millions have lost some of their allure.

When Rovers won the title it seemed proof that money could buy success. Yet they now find they cannot spend it. The area is unglamorous, the football success too recent - or too distant - for any players to have grown up dreaming of the blue-and-white halves.

It is not just players who are staying away. The crowd was below 20,000 at Ewood on Monday night, the lowest league attendance since February 1994 when Wimbledon were the visitors and half the ground was rubble. It was nearly 8,000 below last season's average, the first wave of fickle fans - those who have known only success and expect it by right - are turning their backs.

They leave a patient hard-core. To those who had watched Blackburn for years, the last five seasons have seemed like a miracle. In April of last year, as they prepared to celebrate their title, Malcolm Doherty, the Labour leader of the council and a season-ticket holder for 25 years, told the Independent: "Sometimes I sit in my seat in the Walkersteel stand and look round this ground, and I wonder if I am going to wake up and find it has all been a dream."

It was real and it was briefly glorious but, unless Walker can attract someone like Johan Cruyff to the club, it may now be over. To misquote another faltering Lancastrian phenomenon, it was like a champagne-drenched supernova in the northern sky.