"A fantastic feeling" is how Paul Ince described his meeting with the Blackburn Rovers chairman, John Williams. "I thought to myself: 'Two years ago, I was at Macclesfield booking coaches to go down to Boston and making sure there were ham sandwiches for the trip. And now this.'"

His words carried all the optimism of midsummer and yesterday, less than six months on from his appointment, Ince met Williams again. The talk was once more of money but not of transfer budgets or wage structures, but instead of compensation packages and contract terminations. The first black Englishman to manage in the Premier League had been sacked after 21 matches.

The reaction in Blackburn, judging from the comments posted on the Lanca­shire Evening Telegraph's website, was an outpouring of relief. The argument for giving Ince "one more game" was draining, repetitive and convinced nobody. The men who ran the trust set up by Blackburn's late owner, Jack Walker, and control more than 99% of the club were determined Ince should not get one.

Few clubs can withstand relegation but Blackburn are peculiarly vulnerable. Since winning promotion to the Premier League under Kenny Dalglish in 1992, they have never made a profit. In terms of operating to stadium capacity, only Bolton and Middlesbrough are emptier than Ewood Park. On the last available figures, 85% of their turnover goes on the wages of players, some of whom — because of Blackburn's success under Graeme Souness and Mark Hughes — are on contracts that are not geared for relegation.

For the past 18 months, the trust, formally known as the Jack Walker Settlement, has been attempting to sell Blackburn without securing any firm offers. Were they to be relegated, even the tentative interest from Chris Ronnie, the chief executive of JJB Sports, would all but disappear. "The problem is that Blackburn Rovers have two boards, the initial board and the trust board," said the club's former striker, Kevin Gallacher. "John Williams and his board were trying to help Paul as best they could but they were coming under pressure from the money people."

Ince's euphoria on being confirmed as Blackburn manager was short-lived. ­Williams admitted the club had "worked our bank borrowings to the maximum" to support Hughes. But there was never a chance that David Bentley would stay or that they could resist serious offers for Roque Santa Cruz in January

It was also hard to see how Ince could improve on Hughes' record. In terms of wage bill, Blackburn are ranked around 12th in the Premier League but had finished seventh, 10th and sixth in their previous three campaigns. Now there was less money, although Ince's transfer record was still unconvincing. Keith Andrews, signed from Milton Keynes for £2m, did not adapt while Robbie Fowler's most recent experience of football was to be booed by both sets of supporters as he came on at Old Trafford.

Almost immediately the new regime's training methods were compared unfavourably with Hughes' more rigid and structured approach. "Paul was very disappointed in pre-season that one or two people came out and said they were not happy," said Blackburn's defensive coach, Nigel Winterburn. "It happens at football clubs: people are scared of change.

"It happened to me at Arsenal but if you have faith in your ability, you will come through. Training was much better towards the end but that doesn't mean stuff stopped leaking out." As rumours grew that Souness would return with Tugay Kerimoglu as his assistant, the veteran Turkish midfielder was addressed jokingly as "gaffer" at Brockhall training complex.

Ince admitted that returning to the Premier League came as a shock. At Maccles­field and Milton Keynes he had been able to lead through sheer force of personality, but shortly before his dismissal at Blackburn he talked of the weight of ­Premier League egos. "It's harder to manage them. Now it's about how much you can get, what you drive," he reflected. "In my time it was all about winning."

It still is. When Ince took over at Maccles­field, he looked around a club that was last in the Football League and told himself that if he failed here, he would never get another job. He failed at Blackburn but Ince will return, perhaps in more promising circumstances.