OKAY, SO Manchester United may have been held to a 2-2 draw by David Elleray last week, but there can be no doubt as to the biggest story of the footballing fortnight.
At the time of writing, Blackburn Rovers required two wins from their final two fixtures, plus a Southampton slip-up at home to Everton, in order to preserve their seven-year Premiership status. They have two chances of doing so, and slim is out of town.
By now, they will have played Manchester United at Ewood Park, a game which has already given the sportswriters of Britain food for tautologies in terms of the Kidd/Ferguson showdown. A United win, the most likely outcome, will have sent Rovers down.
The ideal scenario, though it looks unlikely at this stage, would be for Blackburn to die roaring while Charlton stay up. There would be a certain amount of pleasure to be had in witnessing the nouveau riche arrivistes descending at speed into the abyss of Division One, while the paupers with whom they have been forced to slum it all season avoid the drop.
Even if there was not the rich man/poor man angle with regard to Blackburn and Charlton, most sensible people will not be sorry to see the back of Rovers.
The slur of buying the title has been aimed in the direction of many sides, sometimes accurately, sometimes not. It s something with which perhaps the two best teams of the modern era Liverpool s 1988 side and Alex Ferguson s Manchester United have both been charged. But the accusation carries the most weight when levelled at the west Lancashire club.
Blackburn were one of the least impressive sides ever to win the league, and are regarded by many as perhaps the most limited champions since Alf Ramsey somehow guided a very mediocre Ipswich side to the title in 1962.
They weren t quite a one-man team, as has been previously asserted, but Alan Shearer, the one man, was well served by only two or three other individuals: Colin Hendry, Tim Flowers and, at a push, Chris Sutton.
The rest was a case of mediocrity having its day in the sun. The reality of Mark Atkins, Ian Pearce, Nicky Marker and Lee Makel ending up with championship medals makes France s Stephane Guivarc h and his status of World Cup winner look like a case of natural justice.
On the day that Blackburn claimed the Premiership title in 1995 with a 2-1 defeat at Liverpool, there were wonderful scenes in the Anfield stands as many Reds fans attacked some of their own number for wearing Blackburn shirts in solidarity against Man United. You wouldn t know it from their antics last week, but the Liverpool fans have a (largely deserved) reputation for knowing class when they see it.
The Blackburn side wasn t adequately strengthened in the wake of the championship victory, a factor which hugely influenced Alan Shearer s decision to leave the club a year later. Four years on from the jubilant scenes at Anfield, only Tim Flowers, Chris Sutton, Jeff Kenna and Jason Wilcox remain from that team.
Player after player followed Shearer in through the out door: Given and Batty to Newcastle, Berg to Man United, Le Saux to Chelsea, Ripley to Southampton, and, eventually, even the great stalwart Hendry to Rangers, where he must be wondering why he bothered.
The replacements were just not up to scratch. And although Roy Hodgson gave Rovers a false dawn with a terrific first half of last season, it has been clear since 1996 that they would never again be even peripherally involved in the title race, although Shearer would have more reason to feel vindicated over leaving them had he not joined Newcastle United.
By the end, Hodgson had quite simply lost the run of himself. Was there another top-flight manager in the country who would have paid four million pounds for Nathan Blake, or five and a half million for Christian Dailly?
These transfers, plus the horrific case of Kevin Davies (a dividend of one goal for #7.5 million), helped to turn an average side into a bad one. Last weekend, Blackburn were given the task of defeating Nottingham Forest, demonstrably the worst team in the division, at home. That they couldn t manage a draw even with a man advantage for the entire second half proves that they simply don t deserve to play top-flight football next year.
As they prepare for life in the Nationwide, Blackburn can forget about nurturing any hopes of becoming a temporary dreadnought of the lower divisions ` la Man City. There is certain to be another huge exodus from the club this summer, and a season (or more) of dull football, dispiriting fixture lists and low attendances beckons.
Not that they could fill their ground even when they were in the Premiership. When defending their title in 1995-96, a bad run of form at the start of the season resulted in a half-empty Ewood Park for the club s first ever Champions League fixture, against Spartak Moscow. The fans chant of Where were you when you were shit? possesses more resonance for Rovers than most they had an average gate of just under eight thousand in their promotion season in 1992 and they can expect more of the same in 1999-2000.
More than any other team, even Manchester United and Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers epitomise what British football has become in the 1990s. I could be wrong, but I d hazard a guess that few will mourn their descent through the trapdoor. n