[Archived] Club Takeovers

[benhben]

It just been revealed that West Ham are the latest club to be on the verge of a take over from wealthy investors. Is anyone else worried that so many premiership teams are being bought out such as Portsmouth, Villa, Chelsea and west ham, all of which Bar chelsea were on a similar or lower level to rovers, that we will have to look for investment to compete for to upper reaches of the premiership. With no seemin interest, and being honest, Blackburn as a town isnt as attractive as a london club, it doesnt look likely. I would be all for investement but i know others are against it. What are your thoughts?

[modes98]

It's tricky as you feel like your selling out but with the amount of teams that now have rich backers it is a case of we need to find a investor and quickly!

You'll find that villa snap up all the decent available players in january and the rest are left with scraps.

[M-K]

But we had our go, and did (continue to do?) extremely well out of it.

[West Sussex Rover]

I am all for a complete takeover of Blackburn personally.

I have always thought Rovers were on the verge of big things, but the way they have reacted to being in Europe this season in the transfer market has been very negative.

With the acception of Benni i think our signings during the summer and just before the transfer window have been more than poor.

I think we are less than prepared for Europe and have wasted all of last seasons work by doing so...

There was talk of us being taken over by one of Romans Abramovich's friends in Russia last summer 05 but it never seemed to happen.

In conclusion, i think a team such as Rovers does have to move with the times... and a financial takeover is the best way to acompolish this in my opinion...

[Darth Paul]

At least when we had our turn we actually won something! No matter how much money these foreign sugar daddys plough into these clubs most of them will finish up empty handed.

Also at least Jack was a fan. It may not seem much to some but we can at least be proud that whilst we had a financial backer, we never sold our soul, like Chelsea, Villa, Pompey amongst others and even now West Ham with their new signings have done.

Even if Jack was still here and bankrolling us, we probably wouldnt get near to winning the title, instead we would be flogging millions just to get near where we finished last year on a shoestring...

In time there could be 20 foreign billionaires in control in the Premiership, but someone will still finish bottom. It may actually work out that all the money clubs end up taking points of each other and see games against ourselves and other "poor" clubs as less critical. Maybe we can continue to go quietly about our business, picking up points, and lets just see where we finish in comparison to all the less well run clubs who are mortgaging their future for a fruitless crack at the present...

[stuwilky]

I am all for a complete takeover of Blackburn personally.

I have always thought Rovers were on the verge of big things, but the way they have reacted to being in Europe this season in the transfer market has been very negative.

With the acception of Benni i think our signings during the summer and just before the transfer window have been more than poor.

I think we are less than prepared for Europe and have wasted all of last seasons work by doing so...

There was talk of us being taken over by one of Romans Abramovich's friends in Russia last summer 05 but it never seemed to happen.

In conclusion, i think a team such as Rovers does have to move with the times... and a financial takeover is the best way to acompolish this in my opinion...

Where do you want all this money you want us to spend to come from?

Who do you want us to sell out to? (given that we have unofficially been "on the market" for two years with no confirmed interest.

Do some Rovers fans have realistic expectations of the club given the lack of support from the people of the area.

[Drakefyre]

I volunteer to take over the club once I hit $300 million.

[thenodrog]

Could do with a russian billionaire taking over about 4 clubs in Lancashire shutting them down, building 4 supermarkets on the land before building a superb new ground and joining them together before banging a few heads from on here together and then getting bored and soddding off.

Edited September 1, 2006 by thenodrog

[Baz]

Im pretty much sure the clubs owners, the Jersey Trust would love to find the right buyer for Rovers. Someone who could drive the club forwards and spend a lot of money. Trouble is from an investors point of view, Rovers are well down the list of Prem teams waiting for this....

..Lack of support both in current and potential fanbase, being away from the major cities where the investors are more likely to want to travel too, unfashionable club...

[RovertheHill]

There are 3 types of "super-rich" investment in the premier league

1) a boyhood fan spending hard-earned money on the club he/she loves (e.g. Uncle Jack or the Boro fella)

2) a serial entrepreneur who is looking to make money from his investment (e.g. Glazer)

3) the "mega-super-rich" and their latest hobby/toy (e.g. Abramovich)

The fact is that number 2) will make some money and move on, and sooner or later number 3) will get bored or find a new hobby. Or decide that actually paying a player (or worse, 11 players) £125k a week for kicking a ball is obscene and decide to give all their wealth to charity, like Mr Buffett and Mr Gates have done.

So whilst it would be nice to get some investment, it's more than likely going to be short term.

On top of that, it's only a matter of time before G14 breakaway and start their Euro super-league. And frankly, the sooner the better so we can get some proper competition back into the league.

[ihateburnley]

I'm sure one day the brfcs.co.uk fans consortium will buy a major stake in the club! If we all put a tenner in, and we invest it in shares - who knows we may one day be running the club.

Vinjay and Rover The Moon could be negotiating our transfers

[Ste B]

Could do with a russian billionaire taking over about 4 clubs in Lancashire shutting them down, building 4 supermarkets on the land before building a superb new ground and joining them together before banging a few heads from on here together and then getting bored and soddding off.

In which case, I would stop watching Football, because as far as i'm concerned its Rovers or nowt. Would rather be the equivalent of a Stanley or AFC Wimbledon fan trying to get back where they were before than support some Franchise FC.

Doesnt mean that Noddys proposal isnt a sensible business proposition, but to me football has always been about the Heart ruling the Head.

[Wolves_Rover]

Gotta agree there

Football would have no heart and without it, what's the point...?

[cletus]

When Uncle Jack took over at Ewood, Wolves had their 'sugar daddy' as did Derby & Newcastle. Only one of these clubs has actually won anything, thankfully it was our club

....Now it seems to be be the turn of some other clubs...Villa, Pompey, West Ham, Chelsea.

No matter how many millionaires throw money at a football club....only one can win.

I seriously doubt a 'small' unfashionable club like BRFC could get so lucky twice.

It`ll all end in tears.

[Perth_Rover]

I'm sure one day the brfcs.co.uk fans consortium will buy a major stake in the club! If we all put a tenner in, and we invest it in shares - who knows we may one day be running the club.

Vinjay and Rover The Moon could be negotiating our transfers

Haha, how about every member one the board here puts there savings together and buys the club?? We might need a few more members first

[Fife Rover]

There are 3 types of "super-rich" investment in the premier league

1) a boyhood fan spending hard-earned money on the club he/she loves (e.g. Uncle Jack or the Boro fella)

2) a serial entrepreneur who is looking to make money from his investment (e.g. Glazer)

3) the "mega-super-rich" and their latest hobby/toy (e.g. Abramovich)

The fact is that number 2) will make some money and move on, and sooner or later number 3) will get bored or find a new hobby. Or decide that actually paying a player (or worse, 11 players) £125k a week for kicking a ball is obscene and decide to give all their wealth to charity, like Mr Buffett and Mr Gates have done.

So whilst it would be nice to get some investment, it's more than likely going to be short term.

On top of that, it's only a matter of time before G14 breakaway and start their Euro super-league. And frankly, the sooner the better so we can get some proper competition back into the league.

Out of that lot I would only welcome a category 1) and as SteB says further down the page, I would rather see Rovers fold and become just a beautiful memory than see them "prostitute " themselves in category 2) & 3).

[they_think_its_all_rover]

If we ended up with someone else taking over the club, I don't think it'd be a bad thing, as we could be the fans, that in the future would be able to remember the good ol'days of Uncle Jack. I think a takeover would stop us looking like a club that in the future will start to decay because of no money. I'd prefare it to be someone who supports the club, but either way, a takeover would bring back excitement to Ewood Park and the fans with it!

Just look at Portsmouth! no-one gave a crap about them before, now everyone is talking about them being an exciting club and their fans are buzzing off this.

If you think it wouldn't bring excitement... don't you think it'd be exciting to see us attracting/being able to afford players such as; Wayne Bridge, Jermaine Defoe, SW-Phillips e.t.c. rather than being a club that has to let it's players go due to clauses in contracts and practically begs a want-away aussie to stay?

[they_think_its_all_rover]

Fife Rover: Wouldn't it be like the same with a woman you love?

i.e. Would you rather her have say, a magic potion to make her stay young forever, become really fit and get massive tits....

OR... get old, wrinkly and DIE!

[M-K]

... don't you think it'd be exciting to see us attracting/being able to afford players such as; Wayne Bridge, Jermaine Defoe, SW-Phillips e.t.c. rather than being a club that has to let it's players go due to clauses in contracts and practically begs a want-away aussie to stay?

The whole point of football for me is following Rovers. If I want to see the best players, I'll watch the champions league, but I'm glad we're not Chelsea. I think I prefer us having players I can vaguely identify with, rather than watching a manager fish £20m out of a bottomless pit of cash, blow it on a nobody like SWP and have no problem leaving him in the stiffs when he turns out not to be up to the job.

We're a proper club. I don't care if we can't compete with Man Utd or Liverpool. It never bothered me in the 80s.

[gumboots]

Quite agree. Have never supported a fashionable club and never wanted to. Quite enjoy watching lower league football where you know that the players aren't on huge wages and do have mortgages to pay like the rest of us. I don't want Rovers to go down the leagues obviously but certainly don't want our club to become one where the players are so far from the ordinary people that they can't understand any of our concerns or give us anything to identify with. At the moment we seem generally (with a few exceptions) to have players who haven't got too carried away with their own status and still semm to realise they owe the fans respect. Throwing money at a club often changes that.

[Blueboy Downunder]

the two boys that have signed for west ham this week, well there is more to it than just a couple of new players on transfers. 12 months ago there was a company that wanted to buy out the hammers, but for whatever reason, it did not happen. the company in question is MSI, an international management company ( i believe). this year, the same company have come back to west ham, and west ham have turned around and agreed on the previso that tevez and mascherano sign for the hammers. if you are putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 4, then you would be right in thinking that these two players are managed by MSI. now for all of you that are wondering why on earth these 2 lads did not go to any of the massive english clubs...then you now know why. expect by the start of next season for the boleyn grounf to be re-developed withe the corners filled in (maybe) and for west ham to have been bought out by MSI.

having read the interview with tevez on the bbc website and his reasons for going to west ham, what crap. he went there because his management company have told him to.

[Darth Paul]

The last couple of posts are spot on. Rovers are Rovers, if you dont like it you may as well follow another club, such as Chelsea, or Barca, or the Harlem Globetrotters...

Even if the club were given £100 million to spend on players in the last transfer window, I would put my mortgage on us not winning the league or maybe even finishing in the top four. All we would have is an even worse case of overpaid, souless Prima Donnas, sucking more cash out of the club. No one likes that happening now, so how would we feel if the players were on twice as much?

I would love to see more top players at our club and have been (quietly) disappointed with the activity over the summer, but at least we are a steady, honest club and that counts all the more every time we win, or nick a draw with a last minute equaliser, or go on a cup run before getting knocked out way before the final. The Walker years were all the sweeter because they were the Walker years and not the Abramovich years, or the Bill Gates years or whoever, because it was about a lifelong love of football that funded it, not a billionaires latest craze.

Chelsea, Man Utd, Spurs, Liverpool, Arsenal, Pompey, West Ham, Aston Villa and Newcastle etc will never ever recoup their money and for at least a couple of those clubs it will spell doom ultimately. We all know that the current financial climate of the Premiership cannot be self sustaining, regardless of what TV deals may be struck.

I enjoy going to Ewood every week, regardless of whether we are going for the title or not. The alternative is having a few years now of multi billionaire mercenaries, and a false belief that we are really enjoying it, whilst never reaching the pinnacle of 94/95 (as 90% of these clubs never will) and then the club going kaput, leaving Saturdays for gardening and taking the wife shopping. Or we can carry on as we are and we will be fine for decades to come, and our grandkids can enjoy themselves moaning in the pub over a £20 pint of lager about how unambitious we are, then asking their Dads who Portsmouth were...

[Darth Paul]

Or how about this for an anology if it helps...

Being Chelsea or Pompey etc is like being the guy who goes to Las Vegas for a week, taking his life savings, before blowing the lot on roulette, cheap hookers, drugs and the rest, before crawling home to his Mrs with his tail between his legs, bankrupt and with a considerably shortened life ahead of him. The kids want nothing to do with him, go to live with an uncle and it takes the family generations to recover.

Rovers are the guy who works hard, saves up, goes out for a few good beers every Saturday with his mates, has a holiday every year with the Mrs, before retiring early to his Villa in Spain to play golf for the next ten years, mortgage paid and with no debts and regrets...maybe a nice litte pot left over for the kids when he croaks it.

(Burnley are the guy who never went to school, never earned a penny, lived in a cave with his sister for his wife, before eating her and his odd looking kids and popping his clogs in an unmarked grave, forgotten and mourned by no one! )

[Fife Rover]

Fife Rover: Wouldn't it be like the same with a woman you love?

i.e. Would you rather her have say, a magic potion to make her stay young forever, become really fit and get massive tits....

OR... get old, wrinkly and DIE!

When you get to my age young fella, you will know the answer to that one

[neekoy]

Or how about this for an anology if it helps...

Rovers are the guy who works hard, saves up, goes out for a few good beers every Saturday with his mates, has a holiday every year with the Mrs, before retiring early to his Villa in Spain to play golf for the next ten years, mortgage paid and with no debts and regrets...maybe a nice litte pot left over for the kids when he croaks it.

Problem being is that we are still along way from reaching retirement age and it is a matter of perception if that is actually a good life to lead. Me personally I would rather leave the Villa alone and just buy Spain