[Archived] An open letter hoping to unite all Rovers fans‏‏

[Atko Aggro]

Hi everyone,

I'm a new board member at BRFCS. I've never posted to a forum before. Apologies, for the rant.

I've been a Rovers supporter since Bobby Saxton was in charge, was a season ticket holder on the Nuttall Street enclosure/Jack Walker for 16 years and whenever Rovers play my world stops to watch/listen/follow a text update/hold my breathe. My first game was a cup match against Man Utd when I was seven. We lost 2-1, were outclassed, and I was hooked! The only match I've not been able to follow live in some way in 30 years was when my brother selfishly got married. We beat Villa 4-0! The marriage failed.

I've been to Wembley three times (we won the one that counted!), Cardiff (brought back a cup), pre-season tours of Scotland numerous years in a row including Shearer's first Rovers game, the reserves (God bless the man who once screamed at Alex Ferguson "We're gonna catch you Ferguson!" for an entire reserves match!) and even as far away as Trelleborg to watch the magical blue and white halves limping out of Europe against part-timers.

I was there when we won 4-1 against Crystal Palace in the first leg of the play-off final. As we left the ground my dad muttered 'We shouldn't have let them get that goal'. I was there that night at Palace when we shipped the other three goals and sat with my dad in our car, Rovers scarves out the window, amidst bedlam caused by 20,000 newly promoted Palace fans. They make a lot of noise banging on your car roof when you're a disappointed and shocked kid.

There was even once a golden day when my dad and I drove slowly through a crowd of stunned Rovers fans down Bolton Road, our arms out the window with everyone else who'd also won the Premier League that day giving us high fives.

Blackburn Rovers is my football club. I could never have another, but what's been happening to it over the last year has been tearing me apart. It gets worse by the day and I can't take much more.

One of the worst things about it all is that we've become so divided. Talk of punch ups in the stands between Rovers fans is about the worst thing I could imagine. Even Grabbi's performances didn't lead to civil unrest for goodness sake. At the end of the day we're all Rovers fans because we love our club. How we choose to express that is our free choice, but everyone needs to always remember that we're united in our need to see Blackburn Rovers survive and thrive.

I've followed this board every day as an onlooker since summer and it's reached a point where I can't stay silent any longer and need to add my voice. Sorry it's so long winded but there's some things I need to say. Firstly, thank you Glen and Simon and everyone who has helped with the protests. Whether you agree with them or not, and I know most of you on here do, what they/you've done is daring, bold, selfless and speaks volumes for your genuine passion for our club. No money could buy you guys, yet no transfer would be too high. Glen, you should be on the board of Rovers. You have my vote.

Secondly, I have an idea for how we can unite and still protest. Maybe this is simplistic, but sometimes it's the simple idea that's needed. The fans are split over whether protesting will harm Rovers performance on the field or not. That seems to be the crux of the arguement for those abstaining from protesting. They won't boo, they won't shout, they just want to support the team. Those of us who support the protests, and that means me, believe you have to risk upsetting the team to get rid of the worst manager our club has ever had.

The protests have been magnificent so far, but if it doesn't happen during the match the world is not watching. The club has banned banners (disgraceful) and even turned the PA on to drown out the Tottenham protest (the most insulting thing the club has ever done to its fans), but it cannot stop everyone chanting for the 90 minutes.

Well what if there's a slogan that can be chanted during the match, that everyone could agree on, even those determined to voice their support for the lads in blue and white? Something simple that we can all get behind. So...how about this:

Support the team,

Sack Steve Kean

Support the team,

Sack Steve Kean.

Unlike this post, it's short, simple and to the point. No one could forget it, it's catchy. Most importantly it gets the message across that we need a new manager immediately and it tells the boys to play their hearts out. Maybe, just maybe, this could unite the fans. Surely even Roversmum would be up for chanting that?

If anyone has time it could be put on leaflets and handed out before the game, taped onto Rovers shirts (on the front for the cameras and on the back for other fans to see it, thereby broadcasting the message). It could be plastered on the LET forum, and 100% forum. It could even be leafleted in pubs before the game or on Friday for anyone who doesn't read forums. It could certainly make its way onto banners for the sit in. After all, if he's not gone after Chelsea people might pick up on it as a chant for the Wigan game.

I'm ashamed to say after all that that I can't be at the Chelsea game. I wish I could. I will be following it live as ever and chanting for the head of Steve Kean throughout (as well as supporting the team!).

I hope that this can in some small way be a contribution towards restoring some harmony among us. If we stand together, united as one footballing family then, and only then, will Venkys have to listen to us.

Above everything else though, please everyone stay safe for the protest. Somethings come before even Rovers.

Atko Aggro

[/img]

[onlyonejackwalker]

Hope you feel better now!

Only joking, many of us feel the same way. And yes the divides between fans has been going on for way too long and until such time as the club is totally united we run the risk of losing our place amongst the PL elite.

Sack Steve Kean = Unite the fans (at least temporarily).

[Bluefudge]

Arko Agro.......

Share your thoughts, you are the same era as me....

Palace second leg, can still feel the tears run down my face at Selhurst!!!!! Glad all over blasting out !!!!

Rovers are in my heart, and soul !!

Love Rovers

Hate what we have become.

Together we are stronger !!!

[Jock]

That bloody 'Glad all over' song still turns my stomach. Then some idiot started playing it at Ewood a couple of years ago.

[Bluefudge]

That bloody 'Glad all over' song still turns my stomach. Then some idiot started playing it at Ewood a couple of years ago.

Had to undergo therapy.....

[Ivorsemion]

Hi Atko Aggro, great post, same era as me too!

Many fond memories of long journeys on away travel coaches with Paul Astley (RIP), and even longer journeys back home again.

I drive past ewood every morning on my way to work - and until recently i still used to get that 'proud' feeling each time, but now it's becoming an entirely different feeling.

It's a good suggestion, but despite the clear message that we're still supporting the team - i think many will still be of the opinion that it'll have a negative effect on the players during the match (as you've pointed out).

I think we'll have to be two or three goals down (i hope that doesn't happen!) before the majority will join in any anti-Kean chants during the game.

[FourLaneBlue]

I was there when we won 4-1 against Crystal Palace in the first leg of the play-off final. As we left the ground my dad muttered 'We shouldn't have let them get that goal'.

It was 3-1, Howard Gayle missed the penalty that would have made it 4-1.

[BPF]

Hi everyone,

I'm a new board member at BRFCS. I've never posted to a forum before. Apologies, for the rant.

I've been a Rovers supporter since Bobby Saxton was in charge, was a season ticket holder on the Nuttall Street enclosure/Jack Walker for 16 years and whenever Rovers play my world stops to watch/listen/follow a text update/hold my breathe. My first game was a cup match against Man Utd when I was seven. We lost 2-1, were outclassed, and I was hooked! The only match I've not been able to follow live in some way in 30 years was when my brother selfishly got married. We beat Villa 4-0! The marriage failed.

I've been to Wembley three times (we won the one that counted!), Cardiff (brought back a cup), pre-season tours of Scotland numerous years in a row including Shearer's first Rovers game, the reserves (God bless the man who once screamed at Alex Ferguson "We're gonna catch you Ferguson!" for an entire reserves match!) and even as far away as Trelleborg to watch the magical blue and white halves limping out of Europe against part-timers.

I was there when we won 4-1 against Crystal Palace in the first leg of the play-off final. As we left the ground my dad muttered 'We shouldn't have let them get that goal'. I was there that night at Palace when we shipped the other three goals and sat with my dad in our car, Rovers scarves out the window, amidst bedlam caused by 20,000 newly promoted Palace fans. They make a lot of noise banging on your car roof when you're a disappointed and shocked kid.

There was even once a golden day when my dad and I drove slowly through a crowd of stunned Rovers fans down Bolton Road, our arms out the window with everyone else who'd also won the Premier League that day giving us high fives.

Blackburn Rovers is my football club. I could never have another, but what's been happening to it over the last year has been tearing me apart. It gets worse by the day and I can't take much more.

One of the worst things about it all is that we've become so divided. Talk of punch ups in the stands between Rovers fans is about the worst thing I could imagine. Even Grabbi's performances didn't lead to civil unrest for goodness sake. At the end of the day we're all Rovers fans because we love our club. How we choose to express that is our free choice, but everyone needs to always remember that we're united in our need to see Blackburn Rovers survive and thrive.

I've followed this board every day as an onlooker since summer and it's reached a point where I can't stay silent any longer and need to add my voice. Sorry it's so long winded but there's some things I need to say. Firstly, thank you Glen and Simon and everyone who has helped with the protests. Whether you agree with them or not, and I know most of you on here do, what they/you've done is daring, bold, selfless and speaks volumes for your genuine passion for our club. No money could buy you guys, yet no transfer would be too high. Glen, you should be on the board of Rovers. You have my vote.

Secondly, I have an idea for how we can unite and still protest. Maybe this is simplistic, but sometimes it's the simple idea that's needed. The fans are split over whether protesting will harm Rovers performance on the field or not. That seems to be the crux of the arguement for those abstaining from protesting. They won't boo, they won't shout, they just want to support the team. Those of us who support the protests, and that means me, believe you have to risk upsetting the team to get rid of the worst manager our club has ever had.

The protests have been magnificent so far, but if it doesn't happen during the match the world is not watching. The club has banned banners (disgraceful) and even turned the PA on to drown out the Tottenham protest (the most insulting thing the club has ever done to its fans), but it cannot stop everyone chanting for the 90 minutes.

Well what if there's a slogan that can be chanted during the match, that everyone could agree on, even those determined to voice their support for the lads in blue and white? Something simple that we can all get behind. So...how about this:

Support the team,

Sack Steve Kean

Support the team,

Sack Steve Kean.

Unlike this post, it's short, simple and to the point. No one could forget it, it's catchy. Most importantly it gets the message across that we need a new manager immediately and it tells the boys to play their hearts out. Maybe, just maybe, this could unite the fans. Surely even Roversmum would be up for chanting that?

If anyone has time it could be put on leaflets and handed out before the game, taped onto Rovers shirts (on the front for the cameras and on the back for other fans to see it, thereby broadcasting the message). It could be plastered on the LET forum, and 100% forum. It could even be leafleted in pubs before the game or on Friday for anyone who doesn't read forums. It could certainly make its way onto banners for the sit in. After all, if he's not gone after Chelsea people might pick up on it as a chant for the Wigan game.

I'm ashamed to say after all that that I can't be at the Chelsea game. I wish I could. I will be following it live as ever and chanting for the head of Steve Kean throughout (as well as supporting the team!).

I hope that this can in some small way be a contribution towards restoring some harmony among us. If we stand together, united as one footballing family then, and only then, will Venkys have to listen to us.

Above everything else though, please everyone stay safe for the protest. Somethings come before even Rovers.

Atko Aggro

[/img]

Amazing post, thank you.

[scotty_beam_me_up]

Steve Kean is part of the team and no one can doubt the first eleven have in recent times been playing for him. If Steve Kean was sacked tomorrow I wouldn't cry any tears but while he is here we should support everyone connected with the club throughout the 90 mins.

I respect everyones right to protest but results will dictate his future and the longer the protests go on the more Mrs Desai seems to become entrenched in her view that Steve Kean should stay.

I for one hope he gets a result on Sat because the passing football played at Norwich was excellent and even though I was numb leaving the ground on reflection I can appreciate the football played.

Protest afterwards if you feel you need to but during the game please use the knowledge my Grandma passed to me "if you haven't got anything nice to say about someone, don't say anything at all".

[Elegia]

My grandma always said "don't suffer fools gladly "

[Mike Graham]

Great post AA; I remember many of those games and I am sure we could swop stories of many more. The Venkys and Kean the Puppet have done much to destroy my Club and I cannot wait to see the back of these morons.

The protests must not be aimed at the team (and to date non have been) but there is nowt wrong with 90 minutes of angst and anger aimed at the owners and at Kean. This would be far better than before and after the game.

BUILD THE PROTESTS and DUMP KEAN AND THOSE CHICKEN SICKEN VENKYS

[sijoco]

"but while he is here we should support everyone connected with the club throughout the 90 mins" .. and this Scotty seems to be the only arguement the Keanettes can make against the protests, even though for the 90 mins of a game, they probably support the team as veraciously, if not more so than the pro-kean posse. It's a lame arguement, as is the "it's having an effect on the performances" one.

There is no credible reason that l know of (and l'm happy to be proven wrong) to support the current manager.

[Manc Rover]

It was 3-1, Howard Gayle missed the penalty that would have made it 4-1.

Gayle's pen would've made it 3-0. Eddie McGoldrick then made it 2-1 in last minute before Garner made it 3-1 in injury time. Pretty sure about that.

[scotty_beam_me_up]

"but while he is here we should support everyone connected with the club throughout the 90 mins" .. and this Scotty seems to be the only arguement the Keanettes can make against the protests, even though for the 90 mins of a game, they probably support the team as veraciously, if not more so than the pro-kean posse. It's a lame arguement, as is the "it's having an effect on the performances" one.

There is no credible reason that l know of (and l'm happy to be proven wrong) to support the current manager.

This is my problem with the protest. Anyone who disagrees with you is called a "keanette" or similar. People are now so entrenched in their view he should go that any other view is dismissed. I am not Kean's biggest fan I just don't think protesting is the right way to go. Today on other threads I've read people saying they want to set fire to Mrs Desai's sari and other nonsense. We are in danger of looking a bit silly to the outside world if we persist.

Also lets not start saying certain people support the club more than others. We are all fans who just have differing opinions on this issue. I've said before on here I would've sacked him after the Blackpool game last year and I wouldn't have appointed him in the first place but the last 3 performances have been good and I can see light at the end of the tunnel. Two defeats against Chelsea and Wigan will spell the end of Kean regardless of the protests.

I will be at both games supporting the team along with those who protest who no doubt support the team as much as I do. Lets not put a divide in place where there needn't be one. We all have Rovers best interests at heart, on this occasion we just disagree.

[AllRoverAsia]

I will be at both games supporting the team along with those who protest who no doubt support the team as much as I do. Lets not put a divide in place where there needn't be one. We all have Rovers best interests at heart, on this occasion we just disagree.

Well said. I do find the divisions between Rovers fans upsetting when we all want the same thing - Rovers to do well.

[riverside returns]

I, like so many of the posters above have suffered through the 70's to the present and of course had our highlights along the way, who can forget home to Plymouth in 1975 and the desperation at 2-0 down before half time. Who can forget Bury with HK in charge.

Weary trips to matches all over the country. I agree that there should be 100% support Rovers waiting to play Man Utd, City, Everton Chelsea et al.

[martonrover]

Steve Kean is part of the team and no one can doubt the first eleven have in recent times been playing for him. If Steve Kean was sacked tomorrow I wouldn't cry any tears but while he is here we should support everyone connected with the club throughout the 90 mins.

I respect everyones right to protest but results will dictate his future and the longer the protests go on the more Mrs Desai seems to become entrenched in her view that Steve Kean should stay.

I for one hope he gets a result on Sat because the passing football played at Norwich was excellent and even though I was numb leaving the ground on reflection I can appreciate the football played.

Protest afterwards if you feel you need to but during the game please use the knowledge my Grandma passed to me "if you haven't got anything nice to say about someone, don't say anything at all".

Sorry but I will not be supporting Steve Kean, end of. For me it's a combination of the results, (I'm sick of hearing ' the players are playing for him'), and what he says / how he says it. Like many on here I've been a supporter for eons but I'm finding it impossible to be a full blooded supporter with this man at the helm. I long for the day he finally gets sacked.

[DE.]

I'm still not entirely sure why the "players are playing for him" argument is considered a positive... if they're playing for him and we're still losing/drawing it doesn't hold much hope for the future, does it?

[sijoco]

This is my problem with the protest. Anyone who disagrees with you is called a "keanette" or similar. People are now so entrenched in their view he should go that any other view is dismissed. I am not Kean's biggest fan I just don't think protesting is the right way to go. Today on other threads I've read people saying they want to set fire to Mrs Desai's sari and other nonsense. We are in danger of looking a bit silly to the outside world if we persist.

Also lets not start saying certain people support the club more than others. We are all fans who just have differing opinions on this issue. I've said before on here I would've sacked him after the Blackpool game last year and I wouldn't have appointed him in the first place but the last 3 performances have been good and I can see light at the end of the tunnel. Two defeats against Chelsea and Wigan will spell the end of Kean regardless of the protests.

I will be at both games supporting the team along with those who protest who no doubt support the team as much as I do. Lets not put a divide in place where there needn't be one. We all have Rovers best interests at heart, on this occasion we just disagree.

People on here are putting their own hard earned money in to protesting and fans of many years have stopped going they feel that strongly about this. Meanwhile on the other side of the fence, those who don't protest, sneer and ridicule those who do. I think the divide was in place a long time ago and Kean with his ill chosen words is doing a fantastic job of driving the wedge further between us.

I think the point l was trying to make originally (quite badly by the looks of it) was that the Anti-Kean group are far more passionate about having him removed than the Pro-Kean people are for keeping him. This is why many protesters will defend their point vigorously when challenged. And yes, we do all have Rovers best interests at heart

[Rovers_786]

I really do enjoy your reading your thoughts mate Atko Aggro,keep it up mate.

:D

[Give 'Em the Axe]

I really do enjoy your reading your thoughts mate Atko Aggro,keep it up mate.

:D

Likewise!

Am I the only one who thinks his chant idea is a stroke of genius?

[riverside returns]

If there must be a negative chant at the games and it was to be veiled as supporting our team what about

We are the Rovers

Kean out

We are the Rovers

Kean out.