Paul Lambert is the leading contender to replace Gary Bowyer as the manager of Blackburn Rovers with Venky’s, the owner, seeking experience to lead the club out of the Championship.
Bowyer was sacked on Tuesday after 32 months in charge with Rovers 16th in the table having won only three league games this term. Potential replacements are believed to have been under consideration for a while and Lambert, who has been out of work since losing his job at Aston Villa in February, has been approached.
The 46-year-old took Norwich City into the Premier League in 2011 on the back of two successive promotions and that pedigree appeals to Rovers.
Lambert wants Alan Irvine, the former West Bromwich Albion manager, to join him as his assistant at Ewood Park. Irvine played for Blackburn at the end of his career and also had a successful spell as the club’s academy director.
Venky’s next appointment will be its fifth permanent manager since buying Blackburn in 2010 and sacking Sam Allardyce. The Indian-based owner has opted for inexperience in the past – with Steve Kean, Henning Berg and Michael Appleton given the job before Bowyer took over permanently in March 2013 – but appears set on a change of direction.
David Moyes, a friend of the Rovers managing director, Derek Shaw, has also been linked with the vacancy but the Scot may take time to consider his options having been dismissed by Real Sociedad only this week.
Despite this season’s struggles, Bowyer is widely credited with restoring stability at Ewood following the turbulence of relegation from the Premier League in 2012 and the division of the Kean era. The 44-year-old steered Rovers away from relegation danger in the Championship during his second spell as caretaker manager and, having landed the job on a permanent basis, had been unable to sign players for a fee since January because of a financial fair play embargo.
Bowyer’s backroom team of the assistant manager Terry McPhillips, coaches Craig Short and Tony Grant plus the goalkeeping coach John Keeley have also been dismissed as Rovers look to appoint a manager before their game at Preston North End a week on Saturday.
