sport

INCE LAMENTS RAMOS' PLAYER PLIGHT

Ince - blames players.

Paul Ince has pointed the finger at the Tottenham players for their part in Juande Ramos' downfall and claimed their attitude under the Spaniard "was a sad indictment".

Blackburn travel to Tottenham on Sunday but Ince was unconcerned about stoking up the contest by his criticism of the Tottenham squad for only starting to play once Harry Redknapp had arrived.

Ince said: "It's a sad indictment really when you think that they are the same players who worked under Ramos.

"I don't care whether you get on with the manager or not or whether you don't like the players. At the end of the day you have to have pride in your own self.

"If you can perform like you can for Harry but can't do it for Ramos then the players have to look at themselves.

"But Harry is a fantastic manager and I'm looking forward to meeting up with him."

It is a vital contest for two sides in the bottom three, and both coming off disappointing defeats. Ince in particular was furious after his side lost at home to Sunderland last week.

He added: "I was very disappointed in the second half last weekend, it's the first time that I've seen a team of mine capitulate.

"It's the first time I have been angry with them too. But the players were disappointed too and they want to put it right."

Meanwhile Ince has called for the November international friendly date to be scrapped, saying this week's games had deprived Blackburn of a chance to consolidate the squad ahead of the match.

Ince added: "It's ridiculous, we have enough injuries as it is. It's nonsense - Roque Santa Cruz went all the way to Oman and didn't even play.

"Andre Ooijer is 34 and played 90 minutes for Holland. When I spoke to him before he left he said he was only going to play 45.

"This is the problem, they have to have some understanding of our situation and the last thing we want is one of senior players to be playing a friendly for 90 minutes.

"You can see why club managers get irate when people are not sensible.

"I do believe it should be scrapped. The timing of it is ridiculous considering the Christmas period is coming up.

"It's so demanding on the players, especially for a club like us who have not got a big squad and cannot rest players."

Ryan Nelsen and Martin Olsson will return for Blackburn after recovering from illness, and strikers Benni McCarthy and Santa Cruz should also be available.

Brett Emerton (hamstring) and Vince Grella (calf) are still out along with long-term absentees David Dunn (Achilles) and Steven Reid (knee).

Ince has also confirmed he is considering offering Matt Jansen a way back in to football - the former Rovers striker retired 18 months ago.

"He's fit and he's still got great feet - when he retired from football it was not due to any injury. Who knows - we can't spend £9million on a player so if he can slot into our first team then it might be a good surprise for us," said Ince.