I DON’T buy the one about Paul Ince being under pressure because he is ex-Manchester United or because of the colour of his skin.

The bottom line with Paul – and any manager come to that – is results.

Rovers are sinking towards the foot of the Premier League and that is the most relevant factor at play here.

I saw Blackburn at Old Trafford in the Carling Cup last week and they were awful, so I’m not in the least bit surprised by their current run of results.

I’m afraid you have to conclude that he was probably promoted too far too quickly to be able to come into Blackburn and hit it off straight away.

People like Paul Ince and Roy Keane have gone into management and suffered a rude awakening after their highly successful playing careers.

Too many young managers just haven’t served a proper apprenticeship and boy are they learning the hard way.

Perhaps they go into management thinking it’s mainly about 90 minutes on a Saturday afternoon.

Well, of course, that’s where you are ultimately judged, but there’s a hell of a lot of groundwork to go into that 90 minutes.

I don’t hear of too many of these younger managers, particularly those coming from successful careers, jumping in their car and travelling the motorways looking at games in all weathers.

It’s back home and put your feet up in front of the fire.

Not too many managers at the highest level have to get out there and graft for bargains because of all the money swilling into the sport from television.

But, as Keane has now found out after blowing a reported £70-odd million on players, you can still get it horribly wrong if you don’t do your homework first. Put his signings up for sale today and you’d be lucky to get £10m for them.

The other problem for managers like a Paul Ince or a Roy Keane is that there aren’t too many players like a Paul Ince or Roy Keane about.

They just don’t exist anymore and so, even with all that money to spend, you have to shop that bit harder and better than your rivals to bring in better players than they have.

Keane failed to do that and look where he and Sunderland are now.

Today’s so-called top players just don’t have the same hunger anymore and it’s all to do with money.

When Ince left me at West Ham to go to Manchester United he knew he had to be successful and win things to really cash in. If he made the same move now, he’d be an overnight multi-millionaire the moment he put pen to paper.

So it’s a tough old world out there for up-and-coming managers, but too many of them are making it even harder for themselves.

Football not immune to global financial crisis

IT’S a sign of the times when Portsmouth can no longer book the five-star hotel of their choice when travelling to Germany in the UEFA Cup last week, or when they have to change airline because their original choice has gone bump.

Football isn’t immune from the economic catastrophe hitting many businesses – and I don’t just mean inconveniences like Portsmouth suffered last week.

That particular club is strapped for cash and one of three or four clubs up for sale at the moment as football also tip-toes towards the bread line.

The one saving grace for football is the amount of money rolling in from TV – at least for the moment – but clubs have to decide how better to spend it.

At the moment, far too much is pouring out of the game on players’ wages and agents’ fees. There will be a price to be paid if they are not careful, particularly in the current financial climate.

The balance has to be addressed if the plight of the High Street banks and shops isn’t going to infiltrate football, even at the highest level.

New owners have come into the English game thinking there are fast bucks to be had and ended up getting the shock of their lives.

You don’t see too many genuinely prospective owners fighting over one another to take over at Portsmouth, Newcastle, West Ham or Everton...to name but four obvious examples of clubs needing fresh investment and ideas.

And for the likes of Portsmouth, Everton and Liverpool, there is the added burden of having to find a new stadium in the next year or two.

Whoever ends up running the bigger clubs in our game, they must end the kind of financial lunacy which comes with some of their more ridiculous decision-making.

Bringing in someone like Denis Wise to Newcastle on a salary said to be as much as £800,000-a-year, when you already have a popular and experienced manager in place, can only end in tears.

When will people learn?