[Archived] Williams & Co

[unleaded]

Williams desearves his own Topic after this latest Comedy show..........I for one think JW is not Good for BRFC any more and needs to think about Retiring..........Some of the things He should Explain:

Why is the wages-to-Income problem not come down when he knows this has been the problem for the last Few seasons...........so much so that you ended up with Benjani on a Pay as you play Deal!!..Why? because we are stuffed so much with the likes of Richters,Roberts,Zurab,Flynn,Andrews that no other clubs can afford them....

-Benni Money?

-Why Allow Sam 3 Right Backs?

-Wheres the Money gone which they have been bidding for these Mystry Strikers All summer long............This Saga was a total disgrace and i have never seen anything like it......What did they get in the end for their seceracy?

I can go on and on but hope Williams doesnt.

[1864roverite]

Utter crock of crap.

Ask some useful questions to which you might get answers and then you may learn how to run a football cluib like Rovers.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Absolute rubbish

For all JW has done for this club. One bad transfer window and look at you. Fickle fans??? Get a grip.

[Mr. E]

You will be attacked badly for this, but I agree to some extent. He has been a great servant for Rovers, and it'd be doubtful if we can find anyone who else who has Rovers' best interests in mind, but this window has been a massive failure all-around and everyone has to take the blame. When it comes to dealing with the trustees, it seems like he has been defeated almost every time. When we need something (reasonable) we usually don't get it, and it is the chairman at the end who has to take the responsibility. It's a hard job, but then again its a high position too.

[rebelmswar]

Ok, no one can say I have any problems with Mr. Williams, but I do have some questions that I would like answered.

1)Whom were we bidding on?

2)Exactly what money paid for Salgado wages?

3)Why are we constantly told that money is being saved for some other time?

4)Where does said money go when that time arrives?

5)What is our fallback plan if the takeover does not happen?

6)Will the trust help us if that happens?

7)Where exactly did the money for Benni go?

8)Why could we not complete the deal for Popov?

9)Where did the extra placement money go?

[Ben-2000]

Williams has done well for this club, having to balance the books these last few years. As far as i'm concerned he's always been open and honest with the fans in his past interviews.

He has always conducted business in the right way - no point in coming out to say we're after x,y and z until something concrete happens (eg Diouf, Benjani).

[beerwins]

I agree with the all the questions and would like them answered but wanting JW to retire, nah im sorry thats too much, he has kept us water tight for a long time and long may it continue.

Are you a Rovers fan? Its just the line "so much so that you ended up with Benjani on a Pay as you play Deal!!" surely it would read we and not you unless your trying to stoke a fire.

[rebelmswar]

I agree with the all the questions and would like them answered but wanting JW to retire, nah im sorry thats too much, he has kept us water tight for a long time and long may it continue.

100% agree.

But someone has to have him hobbled and I would like to know whom that is.

[Hughesy]

Lets blame JW for backing his managers & not giving out bags of cash that he doesnt have?!?!? Yeah ok - he's not Ken Bates!

Take into account we are a long way through a takeover & it sounds even crazier!

Disappointing to see such frustration come out from one of the better posters on this board.

[daren]

For all John Williams is the chairman of the club, he's still an employee. I personally believe (and bear in mind that it IS a belief) that this transfer window came down to overvaluation of players (thanks, Man City!) and the Trust being entirely unwilling to release any funds while a sale is so close. Williams can't spend what he hasn't got, and it appears that within the confines of the cash available no-one was willing to sell. There's also the question of the wage budget, which, by all accounts, is too high - bringing in further players without shifting people (which only happened today) may not have been practical.

Frustrating as hell, though.

[Amo]

John Williams, for all his hard work, is not above reproach, nay, no one connected to Rovers is. That's why, when you blindly follow every facet of the club, such as certain members do, you end up digging a hole for yourself.

Case in point:

Lets blame JW for backing his managers & not giving out bags of cash that he doesnt have?!?!? Yeah ok - he's not Ken Bates!

In that case, blame Sam for bringing in THREE right-backs, two of which he didn't need. Two of them on first-team wages and another one who we're paying for through the nose. Blame Sam for playing Keith Andrews, because John Williams had to stick to his end of the bargain and give him a new contract. Blame Mark Hughes for wanting to keep a decent squad defender (Zurab), meaning JW had to pay him over £30k a week.

Where does the buck stop?

[BPF]

Williams desearves his own Topic after this latest Comedy show..........I for one think JW is not Good for BRFC any more and needs to think about Retiring..........Some of the things He should Explain:

Why is the wages-to-Income problem not come down when he knows this has been the problem for the last Few seasons...........so much so that you ended up with Benjani on a Pay as you play Deal!!..Why? because we are stuffed so much with the likes of Richters,Roberts,Zurab,Flynn,Andrews that no other clubs can afford them....

-Benni Money?

-Why Allow Sam 3 Right Backs?

-Wheres the Money gone which they have been bidding for these Mystry Strikers All summer long............This Saga was a total disgrace and i have never seen anything like it......What did they get in the end for their seceracy?

I can go on and on but hope Williams doesnt.

It's a shame that School's haven't gone back yet. If they had, you wouldn't have +3 on this.

Blackburn Rovers have very little money and have to punch above our weight and in order to tempt players we have to sometimes inflate salaries.

We buy players who are often only good for short periods of times but they are often brought in when we are desperate and they were the best we could get at the time.

Grella & Andrews are both donkeys that Ince brought it. If I'm not mistaken, Sam was JW's first choice until the fan's backlash resulted in a change of opinion.

We are one of the best run football clubs, in the world. I'm happy with that. Anyone that isn't is either:

1. Terrible with money

2. Under the age of 16

3. An idiot.

4. A religious user of Football Manager.

I can't believe people are so surprised that we had no funds, our current owners are in the process of selling us.....

[Seggie]

The way I'm looking at this is why buy players we will probably want to move on at the end of the season, its like going to KFC and not getting chicken. The Trustees must be confident of a sale otherwise Im sure cash would have been released. Benjani's deal isn't that bad and Salgado's deal was made with the best interests of the club at heart and for last season in the end it paid off, he seems good to have in the dressing room and its players like him who will rub off on the young players we have that have massive potential so in the long run we will benefit more from paying him a little bit more.

I bet Portsmouth fans wish they had a John Williams before their troubles began and I think having him stay on in the role if the takeover goes through he should stay on because he'll resist overspending on lesser players and managing a wage budget appropiately which is what the Chairman or MD of any business should be doing.

[roversfan99]

Also about Andrews, did we really need to offer him the carrot of a new contract? He would of been delighted to step up three divisions, and im sure his original contract was better than the one he had at MK Dons.

I also do agree that Hughes/Ince must take some of the blame for asking Williams to offer squad players like Zurab and Roberts new contracts so readily, and for Allardyce who has signed a few short term players like Basturk and Van Heerden that havnt worked out.

[koi]

No. JW is only acting on the shareholders behalf and it's clear the shareholders (the trust) have had enough.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Unleaded is going to have some vitriol thrown at him for this thread but I have to say I can understand Unleaded’s point of view here. Even though JW has made mistakes in recent years, overall he has done a pretty good job and don’t think getting rid of him is the best option to take.

On the wages issue there is no doubt that we have overspent on some players. But what’s does JW do? He has to strike a balance between pleasing the manager and running the club. He could have been tougher but then what would the consequences have been if he had said no, would the manager have walked? For example I think signing Salgado was a huge financial mistake and I wouldn’t have let Sam do it. But JW had to make the tricky decision, please the manager or turn him down possibly leading to a destruction of their relationship.

In regards to the Benni money, its just one of those things at Rovers I’m afraid, money disappears when we get it from player sales. I suspect the new contracts for players like Pedersen, Jones, N’Zonzi and Hanley is probably where the money went. In Pedersen’s case people know my views, but securing the futures of some of our younger talents and hopefully getting more money in the future for Jones, N’Zonzi and Hanley might turn out to have been a good strategic decision by JW.

The three right backs was a mistake, but If anyone is to blame for the poor decision making on this issue the blame is more on Sam’s shoulders imo than JW.

I can understand why you have become so disillusioned Unleaded, your not the only one who is far from happy with the way the club is being run. However until our financial situation changes and we get owners who want the club and are willing to pump money into it nothing much is going to change.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

John Williams, for all his hard work, is not above reproach, nay, no one connected to Rovers is. That's why, when you blindly follow every facet of the club, such as certain members do, you end up digging a hole for yourself.

Case in point:

In that case, blame Sam for bringing in THREE right-backs, two of which he didn't need. Two of them on first-team wages and another one who we're paying for through the nose. Blame Sam for playing Keith Andrews, because John Williams had to stick to his end of the bargain and give him a new contract. Blame Mark Hughes for wanting to keep a decent squad defender (Zurab), meaning JW had to pay him over £30k a week.

Where does the buck stop?

Why do we have to BLAME anybody??

Why cant people just ACCEPT that these are the circumstances under which this football club have to operate????

We dont have much, if any cash to spend, nobody is happy about it, nobody wants it to be that way but it is!

How come there are so many people who are desperate to point blame at either the manager, the chairmen, the board, the trustees for not spending cash we dont have???

Blame Hughes? what, for buying arguably the best Rovers 11 this side of the millennium on an absolute pittance and then selling it for around £40m +???? Yeah lets blame him.

Lets also blame Williams for cutting season ticket prices, for investing money into the club to keep it stable before spending it on transfers, lets blame him for these horrible foreign investors who are clearly mistaken when they think that we are one of the best run clubs in the league.........

One poor transfer window and half the people on here lose the complete plot. We're lucky to have the people in charge that we do, we could EASILY be a midtable championship club right now, if not lower.

[Seggie]

If I'm not mistaken, Sam was JW's first choice until the fan's backlash resulted in a change of opinion.

His biggest mistake imo, Im sure as a business man he knows he should have stuck with his instinct and got Sam in the first place.

We are one of the best run football clubs, in the world. I'm happy with that. Anyone that isn't is either:

1. Terrible with money

2. Under the age of 16

3. An idiot.

4. A religious user of Football Manager.

I can't believe people are so surprised that we had no funds, our current owners are in the process of selling us.....

I resent that, I play Football Manager

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Also about Andrews, did we really need to offer him the carrot of a new contract? He would of been delighted to step up three divisions, and im sure his original contract was better than the one he had at MK Dons.

I also do agree that Hughes/Ince must take some of the blame for asking Williams to offer squad players like Zurab and Roberts new contracts so readily, and for Allardyce who has signed a few short term players like Basturk and Van Heerden that havnt worked out.

The players like Van Heerden/Basturk were gambles. Like Santa Cruz was, like Bentley, Warnock, Samba, Nzonzi - remember when we signed the latter two?? For what £1m together??

You cant have only the first 11 earning premiership wages and the rest earning not much in comparison. You have to pay competitive prices. Roberts was paid what any average premiership striker is paid. For us its alot, but we have little option if we want a premiership calibre squad.

[Amo]

If I'm not mistaken, Sam was JW's first choice until the fan's backlash resulted in a change of opinion.

Actually, Shearer was. Then Ince. All that spin during Allardyce's press conference was an attempt to save face.

Why do we have to BLAME anybody??

You just lost the game.

[Moppy]

Can't believe this has even been voiced. We are lucky to have him, this club would be in a LOT worse state without him.

[rebelmswar]

Who cares they will still get my money.

[donis1410]

I feel that this debate is why people join forums, such a mass of opinions, it is entertaining to watch and great to join in.

MY feelings are that I have the upmost respect for the way that JW has run this club as, in general, he has managed to keep us from going the way of clubs like Portsmouth, paying over the odds for players and allowing them to have completely ridiculous wages. Wait before you say anything because yes some players at this club are on more than they should be but hey, tell me a footballer that isnt on more than they should do, shall we blame the FA, UEFA or FIFA for not puting a wage cap in place in the mid-late 90's when they had the opportunity? Would I have him step down or be sacked??? NO WAY

We moan that there isnt the money to place into the squad and we ask questions of where money has gone from players that we have sold for very decent amounts, and yes I would like to know the answer to this question too, but we have some of the cheapest season tickets and tickets in the top two tiers of english football which means less income for the club and even then we still dont get as greater attendences as we should at ewood, what do we want more money for players or cheaper tickets, we cant have it both ways. If I lived close enough to blackburn I would invest in a season ticket for the club i support no matter what the price....but hey thats me and my opinion.

The most important thing now is that the squad we have, which is pretty much untouched from last season, comes together and continues on from the finish to last season and the start we have made this season and does its best for the club and its fans and we do the same to get behind the team, because without support from either side we wil achieve nothing.

[Shabani]

The only think i'd blame JW for is allowing Sam to sign 3 right backs, when we already has Emo and Andrews to play there.

Apart from that Unleaded's post is knee jerk tripe

[AspRover]

If you think the club is in a state with him then thats fair enough.

Without him we'd be screwed. In the bankrupt, relegated, administration, liquidation kind of screwed. Do you ever read the accounts? The man's performed little short of miracles on our income.

Asside from the Ince debacle most of the issues that you've raised relate to his willingness to trust the managers and to back them with whatever he can raise - who says he didn't question the three right backs? Sam thought we needed them, so JW found the money to buy them (going against his judgement - he wanted to reduce the wage bill by £5m at the time, lest we forget, some on here were pretty vehement in their criticism of that... Probably a few of the same who now are having a go about him letting the wage bill get too big).

Yes this transfer window's been rubbish, but I don't think we're close to relegation material.

Now lets wait and see how the takeover pans out, and in the mean time chill the fornication out.