These last 10 days have been a hard time to be a Blackburn Rovers fan.
Only last Monday, nine days ago, Rovers new owners, known as Venky's, sacked manager Sam Allardyce after only a month at the North West outfit.
The decision was clearly not made after the 2-1 defeat to Bolton Wanderers the day before; this was Venky's plan.
The strange thing is, Rovers fans were willing a takeover only six weeks ago, after a lack of money from the Walkers trust over the last few seasons, left by long term owner Jack Walker upon his death in 2000.
He would definitely not have approved of the way the new owners have taken to business and to sack both the manager and assistant without the fans hearing the reasons is unacceptable.
The fans, players and staff need to know who Venky's are and why they have sacked one of the most respected managers in the Premier League.
The Indian Chicken farmers stated that Allardyce did not match their long term goals for the club, something which first team coach, Steve Kean, did, despite not having any experience of management at any level.
Kean himself looked blameless at the weekend, despite stating he wanted the job full time, as Rovers slumped to a 1-1 draw against bottom club West Ham United, whilst hardly playing the open, entertaining football that the owners demanded immediately.
The fans will expect better and it's not a club where, like United, they will fill seats whatever the game, whoever the owners. People simply won't turn up and watch the team.
After the weekend and with the current situation, I wouldn't blame them one bit.
Not only that but this morning, Christopher Samba, on-field captain at Ewood Park, said that he does not want to be part of a club where the players don't know what is happening. You can read what he said here in the Press Association release.
Samba has hit out at the owners after a lack of communication with the players.
Credit; here
Samba has hit out at the owners after a lack of communication with the players.
Credit; here
The comments add to those of David Dunn and Ryan Nelsen, who both criticised the decision to sack Allardyce, after he guided the club to a 10th place finish last season.
It's slightly worrying that no-one seems to know anything about Venky's. Their website, here, doesn't tell us anything about how they have got the money to put them in their current position, or anything about the individuals.
It's slightly different to when Hicks and Gillette took over at Liverpool, and the situation could end up far worse.
I found another interesting read this morning by Guardian football finance expert David Conn, who came to talk to Sports Journalism students at UCLAN last year.
Rather than grilling Venky's, he has looked more into how a football agent, Jerome Anderson, has guided the company on their takeover through partner company, Kentaro.
You can read the article, which is thoroughly recommended, here, where Conn progresses to say that Steve Kean himself is represented by Mr Anderson.
If that's the case, it would explain how the caretaker manager has reached his current heights without the owners exploring new managers, with the likes of Martin O'Neill currently unemployed.
When you read this article, you realise, that perhaps Venky's have been ill-advised rather than doing wrong themselves.
It seems that all football agents care about is their back pocket, and that's transferring to football in general in a huge way.
I'm one hundred percent sure that Kean would not be the choice of any of the fans, and would almost definitely not have the presence to bring in big name signings, in January or the future.
That might be one thing the Lancashire club needs if Samba, without question Rovers' best defender, leaves, as he says he will.
Losing your best players is never the way to get to the 5th place position that the owners are expecting over the next few years.
Perhaps they don't realise how competitive the English football system is and, if the players aren't informed about what's going on, I could see more than just the big French centre back leaving.
The phrase get out while you can springs to mind.
Maybe that would send the right message to the owners, who were booed when their logo was displayed on the big screen on Saturday.
If only they could come out and say what is happening, then I'm sure they would at least gain the respect of the fans and players, rather than leaving the football club, which I see as little more than a branding franchise, in tatters.
Rovers is not the same club it was when it won the title, but the history is there. The one thing missing at the moment is the future and maybe that should be sorted soon.
Is it time the Premier League stepped in to stop business tycoons buying football clubs?
Should the fit and proper person test be more vigorous?
What will happen to Blackburn Rovers?
Please discuss below.
Though having foreign owners is based on having a free enterprise system and Arabs as a group aren't wealthier then other ethnic peoples, maybe even poorer but you've got all these Shieks and Sultans with endless amounts of money, I mean it could come down to 20 PL teams owned by 20 Kuwaitis, Saudis, Bahrain, Qatar people. Now that doesn't seem right and it doesn't seem fun either.
ReplyDelete