TODAY the Lancashire Telegraph is calling for Steve Kean to step down as Blackburn Rovers manager.

Saturday’s humiliating home defeat to West Bromwich Albion was the last straw following a disastrous run of results stretching back months.

The club is now waist-deep in the relegation mire.

It is understood Kean’s future is already hanging by a thread and that a defeat against bottom club Bolton tomorrow would push him over the edge. So why has the Lancashire Telegraph taken the decision to call for his head today?

The reasons are simple: If Rovers do manage to pull off a positive result against Bolton, in our view, further procrastination could take place and that would be wrong because we believe the club has passed the point of no return. It is now surely clear that Kean has to go and one good result shouldn’t be enough to save him.

We are also calling for owners Venky’s to start running the club the way it deserves to be run or to put Blackburn Rovers up for sale if they are not prepared to protect its proud tradition.

A year ago last weekend, Steve Kean was appointed Rovers boss after Venky’s inexplicably sacked Sam Allardyce.

The club has been on a downward spiral ever since.

Kean’s record of just seven wins from 37 league games tells its own story and, with managers ultimately judged on results, Venky’s have to take decisive action and change the manager now.

Kean’s tenure has just been a symptom of the main problem at the football club and that problem is the inadequacy of Venky’s management.

They threw a managerial novice in at the deep end and have systematically failed to provide him with the support, investment and suitable structure, to turn their undoubted gamble into a success.

Large sections of Ewood Park once again called for Kean’s sacking after Peter Odemwingie’s late winner on Saturday and it is impossible to see how he would ever now get the crowd back on his side.

He needs to go immediately to unite Rovers fans.

But then Venky’s have to make sure they act decisively to bring in the right replacement and to give him the necessary support.

Some readers will question why it has taken the Lancashire Telegraph so long to call for a change in manager at Ewood Park.

The reasons are simple: Once appointed, Kean needed to be given time to develop the team (too often clubs descend into a downward spiral simply because of the impatience of chairmen and owners).

But it was also clear that Kean has never received the support he needed from the owners in the week by week management of the club.

Much of the present chaos at Ewood Park is down to the owners. They are the ones who have not invested the necessary funds into moving the club forward, who have not put a suitable management structure in place at Ewood Park and who have failed to communicate with supporters.

Co owners Anuradha Desai and Venkatesh and Balaji Rao have been conspicuous by their absence at Ewood Park throughout the season and they need to come to Blackburn now to start portraying their commit-ment to the club.

If they don’t believe they can now deliver on the promises they made when they bought the club, then they have to put Rovers up for sale.

We hope they can finally respond decisively and turn this mess around.