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[Archived] Next protest


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As someone who has talked to one of the owners directly I can understand the caution people have about this meeting and share it myself.

We told them exactly what the issues were and were reassured that things would be sorted

A fan at Wigan told balaji exactly what the fans thought of Kean again. Again he was told it would be sorted

Both of these yielded the same result.

Out of interest are the people who put their name down at the open meeting attending this meeting as well?

I hope for the best but as others said the best way the club can end all this is just get rid of Kean first of all.

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Imo, the club are getting some decent advice on how to respond to the protests. It's going exactly how I would want if I were them.

For my sins, many years ago, I was General Manager of a large visitor attraction and occassionally had to deal with some upset customer(s) shouting and screaming in the main reception. The tactics we employed to get them to shut up and go away are very similar to what the club is doing.

1) Get the issue out of the public arena because it is contagious. We invited them into my office, Glen has been invited to meetings at the club.

2) Get them to calmly verbalise their issues; they always come up with more than the thing that upset them, which gives you scope to appear to make concessions. Glen, by canvassing and listing 60+ issues, of which only presumably one was Kean Out, has given the initiative to the club.

3) Start to give on the less important ones that have no impact on how you run the place. No doubt this will follow from the club.

There were a handfull of complainers who were immune to this strategy and who got what they wanted: they were the ones who stayed in reception and screamed even louder, not even making eye contact with management. In this case, screaming even louder is turning up the pressure directly on the owners - the club and its local management are irrelevant in this now - and stick to one issue and one issue alone: make it painful for them and the only way to stop the pain is Kean Out.

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When was the aim of these organised protests about trying to 'open up means of communication'?

When I marched and sat in, it was about the removal of Steve Kean and/or Venky's. The anger I saw on people's faces, the banners I read didn't seem to have 'greater dialogue' as a priority.

To me glen, it's all give on your side and all take on 'the club's', whatever 'the club' is these days.

I agree entirely with this. We have got absolutely nowhere in the months since the first protest before the Arsenal match. There have been many promises and the meeting that took place with John Newsham was 'parked' as he didn't have the clout to address certain isues. The media and 'experts' will love this and the little poisened dwarf will see it as a climb down and a moral victory to him. If anything the hatred towards Kean should be even greater as we have slipped further into the mire since the first protest but, like it or not we are backing down.

Forgive me but I firmly believe that this is on the advice of the two local 'businessmen'.

The people who will represent Rovers in any meetings can't do anything but offer lip service. It's way above their pay grade and authority. The only meeting should be with the owners and until this happens we should intensify the protests.

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Imo, the club are getting some decent advice on how to respond to the protests. It's going exactly how I would want if I were them.

For my sins, many years ago, I was General Manager of a large visitor attraction and occassionally had to deal with some upset customer(s) shouting and screaming in the main reception. The tactics we employed to get them to shut up and go away are very similar to what the club is doing.

1) Get the issue out of the public arena because it is contagious. We invited them into my office, Glen has been invited to meetings at the club.

2) Get them to calmly verbalise their issues; they always come up with more than the thing that upset them, which gives you scope to appear to make concessions. Glen, by canvassing and listing 60+ issues, of which only presumably one was Kean Out, has given the initiative to the club.

3) Start to give on the less important ones that have no impact on how you run the place. No doubt this will follow from the club.

There were a handfull of complainers who were immune to this strategy and who got what they wanted: they were the ones who stayed in reception and screamed even louder, not even making eye contact with management. In this case, screaming even louder is turning up the pressure directly on the owners - the club and its local management are irrelevant in this now - and stick to one issue and one issue alone: make it painful for them and the only way to stop the pain is Kean Out.

This advice that they're following clearly isn't working. Everyone wants them out.

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Imo, the club are getting some decent advice on how to respond to the protests. It's going exactly how I would want if I were them.

(snipped for brevity)

Good points raised here, if you look at what's happening/happened it is following a meme akin to conflict management - resolve the "issues" with minimum of fuss by diffusing the situation at the point or before further conflict.

This whole process is rapidly approaching an impasse right now. IF the Venks don't agree the plan and stick to it the protests should come back harder and with more momentum, but remember what I said up there? Short memories, it's entirely possible this latest effort will be a smokescreen designed to break down the protesters and slow momentum, giving time for what I don't know.

What assurances have been given other than meetings will be held? If they're anything like the previous ones?!

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I understand the reasons behind the decisions, but looking at the way certain moves have been depicted and sound bites extracted via the media this is only going to be spun one way. If Rovers win it will be used to enforce the fact that Kean has won over the fans, if they lose the same thing is likely but will just bemoan performance, or luck, etc....and there's absolutely no reason to suspect he will be removed - we just have to hope that reaction-driven protests will have an effect.

And surely any spontaneous protests will just be spun as the Organised protesters going back on their word?

You may or may not accept this Glen, but you are now a "player" in all of this, even if that wasn't your intention, and possibly more so now then the Pune 9. And if there's one thing we've seen of late it's that the media and sections of the fans are exceptionally fickle and have memories that'd embarrass a goldfish.

The cold hard facts are that Kean has now managed the team for more or less the equivalent of a season, the points accrued during that time would not have kept us up. If the owners are truly concerned about their investment you would have thought that the results would have been questioned - but it seems they are blind to the big picture.

Relegation would be a disaster, less so if it was apparent that the club has the resources to bounce back up, but there is nothing to show that infrastructure exists at the moment.

I think a lot of stuff is going on behind the scenes, and the rest of us mere mortals have a right to be nervous, as there's very little positivity at the moment about the situation is there?

Just one thing, am I right in thinking that the trade off for the postponement of the protests is to have a meeting with the club and with Kean?

If so are there time-scales for these events? Agendas? Topics for discussion? Etc? Will they be minuted and available for the rest of us to see?

Meeting with Kean this week, today or tomorrow, time and place to be decided, with i'm hoping at least 8 supporters. This will be frank, no beating about the bush, and on footballing and supporter issues

Meeting next week with Board, Council, Wayne Wild and around 10 supporters who put their names forward at open supporters meeting, This will happen either Monday, Wednesday or Friday , location unknown at present but Council Chambers is one suggestion, This will be independently chaired.

This decision has nothing to do with what Battersby or Wild had published yesterday as this was agreed last week, between Simon Littler, Paul Hunt and Myself,

Agenda has been set from things that supporters up and down the net have been giving me for months, This will be fully minuted and more meetings are expected afterwards, with one with Venkys looking more probable due to the negotiations.

Altenatively we could have gone for choice 2

Don't speak to the club, don't speak with Kean. Don't speak with Venkys and protest forever more with no progress in an organsised manner whilst Venkys remain in India and have no desire to return,

People say NO PROGRESS, Kean still here, this is quite correct Kean is still here, but that issue does not need control or organisation for the message in the stands,

The other stuff, where 99.9% of people are in the dark do need to be addressed, and we would be fools to turn down an opportunity to try and address these concerns in a manner where they are minuted for the supporters to see,

I know people went to Pune, but we have had no minutes, of those conversations and 99.9% of supporters don't understand what the point of them going was, or what it achieved... As unless you are BRFCS user and have picked up little bits people are non the wiser,

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Meeting with Kean this week, today or tomorrow, time and place to be decided, with i'm hoping at least 8 supporters. This will be frank, no beating about the bush, and on footballing and supporter issues

What on earth can meeting with Kean achieve?

Some how I doubt he is going to say Fair Play Glen I am not cut out to be a manager do me a favor call me a Taxi please.

Cheers

BKR

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A swift butt on his nose.

I don't think that would faze Kean. He's experienced in the interrelationship and interconnection of "butts" and "noses".

If the aim has not been achieved, anything other than continued pressure will give the appearance of having yielded for some reason.

Consider what the owners/club have done and said, Pune visit, previous allusions to meetings, press releases that never came, banning what is effectively supporter free speech, and so on.

And now? An agreement from the protesters that an amnesty of two games will be given in return for formal talks?

In my very humble opinion this is a bollock well and truly dropped

I agree with this. Nothing of substance will be achieved.

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I know people went to Pune, but we have had no minutes, of those conversations and 99.9% of supporters don't understand what the point of them going was, or what it achieved... As unless you are BRFCS user and have picked up little bits people are non the wiser,

Still waiting for minutes from your meetings from the club, a general comment not a go at anyone.

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Meeting with Kean this week, today or tomorrow, time and place to be decided, with i'm hoping at least 8 supporters. This will be frank, no beating about the bush, and on footballing and supporter issues

Meeting next week with Board, Council, Wayne Wild and around 10 supporters who put their names forward at open supporters meeting, This will happen either Monday, Wednesday or Friday , location unknown at present but Council Chambers is one suggestion, This will be independently chaired.

This decision has nothing to do with what Battersby or Wild had published yesterday as this was agreed last week, between Simon Littler, Paul Hunt and Myself,

Agenda has been set from things that supporters up and down the net have been giving me for months, This will be fully minuted and more meetings are expected afterwards, with one with Venkys looking more probable due to the negotiations.

Altenatively we could have gone for choice 2

Don't speak to the club, don't speak with Kean. Don't speak with Venkys and protest forever more with no progress in an organsised manner whilst Venkys remain in India and have no desire to return,

People say NO PROGRESS, Kean still here, this is quite correct Kean is still here, but that issue does not need control or organisation for the message in the stands,

The other stuff, where 99.9% of people are in the dark do need to be addressed, and we would be fools to turn down an opportunity to try and address these concerns in a manner where they are minuted for the supporters to see,

I know people went to Pune, but we have had no minutes, of those conversations and 99.9% of supporters don't understand what the point of them going was, or what it achieved... As unless you are BRFCS user and have picked up little bits people are non the wiser,

Think it's very important that the meetings are minuted, that way there is no denying what has been talked about and promised. I also feel it is essential that an action plan is drawn up and the supporters set the club an agreed timescale of when these changes are going to take place.

I think we are all sick of Venkys saying 'we will sort it out' and 'we love our fans' when, in actual fact, they have plodded along without making any changes whatsoever and have had total disregard for the fans (not least by continually backing Kean and even offering him a new contract).

The point remains, though, the club can do all the talking they want but the 3 things they need to do is (1) invest money into the club, (2) appoint a proper manager, (3) appoint a proper chairman + CE0. If they are not prepared to do this then there is absolutely no future for them at Rovers.

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Meeting with Kean this week, today or tomorrow, time and place to be decided, with i'm hoping at least 8 supporters. This will be frank, no beating about the bush, and on footballing and supporter issues

Meeting next week with Board, Council, Wayne Wild and around 10 supporters who put their names forward at open supporters meeting, This will happen either Monday, Wednesday or Friday , location unknown at present but Council Chambers is one suggestion, This will be independently chaired.

This decision has nothing to do with what Battersby or Wild had published yesterday as this was agreed last week, between Simon Littler, Paul Hunt and Myself,

Agenda has been set from things that supporters up and down the net have been giving me for months, This will be fully minuted and more meetings are expected afterwards, with one with Venkys looking more probable due to the negotiations.

Altenatively we could have gone for choice 2

Don't speak to the club, don't speak with Kean. Don't speak with Venkys and protest forever more with no progress in an organsised manner whilst Venkys remain in India and have no desire to return,

People say NO PROGRESS, Kean still here, this is quite correct Kean is still here, but that issue does not need control or organisation for the message in the stands,

The other stuff, where 99.9% of people are in the dark do need to be addressed, and we would be fools to turn down an opportunity to try and address these concerns in a manner where they are minuted for the supporters to see,

I know people went to Pune, but we have had no minutes, of those conversations and 99.9% of supporters don't understand what the point of them going was, or what it achieved... As unless you are BRFCS user and have picked up little bits people are non the wiser,

Fully agree, but then I'm passive rather than active so I'd plump for talking every time.

However, there have been so many false starts on this that I apologise for being suspicious - and I'm not going to blow smoke up your ass Glen, but you have done well to get the sort of publicity you have - reading between the lines it's put a few years on you but you will be remembered for it I'm sure.

The next few weeks worth of meetings/discussions will dictate the next few months actions at least in part, but keeping the masses informed to success as well as failure will help no end - and I'm sure it was alaways your plan to do so, we've all seen the mess a few random comments from an ITKer can cause, so a sustained level of communication between the club and the representatives of the fans needs to reach as many of us as possible.

Agree that a meeting with Kean might be pointless, but it will be needed, there's no need to freeze him out of the proceedings, that's just going to make him bitter. He still needs to go, but like it or not he's very much part of the setup - besides some of his pearls of wisdom will no doubt give an indication of how well this is likely to go.

I just hope the honour what's been agreed, previous efforts have been less than successful.

Waiting with interest...good luck!

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With all due respect I'd tell Kean to shove his meeting. I can kind of understand wanting to meet the owners, but Kean?

He'll give you a load of baloney about 'where we are going'. 'how unlucky we are', 'the young players' blah blah. Any off field matters he'll say 'not my area'.

You leave the meeting non the wiser, he'll use it as a PR coup,

'I've met the fans again, like I'm happy to do'.

Media, other fans think 'to be fair to the bloke he always fronts up, not many others would do the same, their fans should get off his back'.

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I would think that a meeting with Kean would only benefit the genious himself. He would spin it to the media and to the owners - that he has a good communication with the fans or something silly like that.

Steve Kean must go! He CANNOT be the manager of this club. Its actually that simple. Its dead simple.

To talk to him, what good will that do? Its not like he would resign?

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With all due respect I'd tell Kean to shove his meeting. I can kind of understand wanting to meet the owners, but Kean?

He'll give you a load of baloney about 'where we are going'. 'how unlucky we are', 'the young players' blah blah. Any off field matters he'll say 'not my area'.

You leave the meeting non the wiser, he'll use it as a PR coup,

'I've met the fans again, like I'm happy to do'.

Media, other fans think 'to be fair to the bloke he always fronts up, not many others would do the same, their fans should get off his back'.

I agree. I can only see negatives coming from the meeting. It in no way advances the agenda of Kean Out; in fact, it's a major PR coup for him. He has more front than Blackpool so an hour's abuse will be a price well worth paying for him to claim the moral high ground.

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I can only see negatives coming from the meeting. It in no way advances the agenda of Kean Out; in fact, it's a major PR coup for him. He has more front than Blackpool so an hour's abuse will be a price well worth paying for him to claim the moral high ground.

This.

Can't see what meeting Kean will achieve when we are actively seeking his removal.

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Unfortunately IMO opening a direct dialogue with Kean will do the one thing many of us don't want and that is to keep him in the job for longer.

Such a meeting will give Kean the chance to go overboard with positive spin as how, unlike other (all?) PL Clubs, Rovers have a manager who talks direct to the Fans. It will endear him even more to the Witch of Pune. The Venkys will call it a Family meeting.

The meeting can only delay Kean's departure which eventually will have to be based on results. Well that's in the real world which we are not in when talking about Rovers.

And do NOT look into his eyes or you'll be lost forever and come back on here saying what a really nice man he is, open and honest with Rovers in his heart. Plus the expense of years of recovery therapy.

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