[Archived] Positive aspects of relegation (?)

[Mattyblue]

Once you establish yourselves in the PL, with the money you earn, the wages you can pay, you really can make a fist of staying in year on year.

However, that is reliant on stable management on and off the pitch. Once a club like ours goes down, with our income streams and wage bill, it will be doomsday and nearly impossible to ever come back.

SO UNECESSARY

[neophox]

I can't believe we actually has beaten Arsenal and Swansea this season and almost beat Sunderland and Norwich away......

We're not out yet.....

[Ray-Von]

Couldn't agree more Mattyblue. There is NO positive to relegation. It's not like 1998-99 when Jack was still putting money into the club and when the Trust gave Souness the funds for the promotion season. This will be more like the aftermath of 1965-66, which some of us, sadly, are old enough to remember. The better players left and poorer players were brought in until we finally slipped into the Third Division with barely a whimper playing front of ever decreasing crowds - and in those days a bumper crowd was 10,000.

However, the main difference between then and now is the infra structure which we have to support. The redeveloped Ewood Park, the Senior Training Ground, the Academy, all to be supported on smaller and smaller revenue streams.

Nor will the Academy offer us a way out. The Football League clubs are up in arms about the restructuring that is coming in as it clearly favours Premier League clubs. As we will not have the funds to redevelop the Academy to get into the elite group we will end up fighting for the scraps the top clubs don't want.

As you say Mattyblue, many employed at the club will find their jobs under threat but, sadly, not the people who got us in this mess. Kean will walk away with a large sum of cash, the players will find new clubs and the owners will take whatever they can back to India.

You only have to look at the clubs who are, or have been in League One, in recent seasons to see the fate that awaits us. In 1965-66 we dropped out of top flight football for a quarter of a century and tragically that appears likely to be repeated thanks to the stupidity of one woman and her two brothers.

Anyone who wants to grab the attention of the national media could do a lot worse than to print off all Parson Blue's posts from the last twelve months or so and send them to any interested parties. Always eloquent, always correct.

[Neil Weaver]

Once a club like ours goes down, with our income streams and wage bill, it will be doomsday and nearly impossible to ever come back.

Strangely Matty, if it were only that I think we'd have a fighting chance of stabilising and mounting a challenge to get back within a few years. Thing is the parachute money will conveniently disappear just before Venky's head for the hills - maybe you'd included that in 'income streams' - and I suspect that'll be the major factor in the doomsday scenario.

[davulsukur]

There wont be many. Cut backs leading to job losses, seeing alot of good young players leave the club to head back to the prem league, the fire sale for the rest.

The owners will either put up some money to make us stable and fight for promotion or they will not make up the loss of income with their own cash, saddle us with debt and basically put us in administration leading to succesive relegations.

I suspect it will be the latter.

Merry Christmas

[the original david brent]

Im resigned to relegation. Just hope the club is still in existence.

We will take far bigger away followings in the championship. The novelty of going to a lot of premiership grounds, paying over the odds, with no chance of winning the game, has well and truly worn off. No more followings of 400 fans paying 45 quid to go to old trafford and watch us get stuffed.

Bring on 1500-2000 consistent away followings to places like Barnsley Leeds etc, grounds we havent been to in a while, with half a chance of getting something from the game.

Further, when we go to the championship, there will be no more live footy shown in the local pubs on the foreign sky. At the minute, it's far to easy to nip to the pub and watch an away game in the comfort of the same.

I just hope that we can rid the club of the cancer that is currently owning / managing it, the club is still in existence, find some stability, and watch some of the younger players play who might shine in the championship, like hanley, lowe, morris etc, possibly with stalwarts like Nelsen, Dunn, pedersen, who are unlikely to find another club, but could do a job in that league. If this happened, whilst i dont think we would be pushing for promotion, I dont think we would get relegated.

My favourite team in my 20 odd years of watching rovers was the promotion team of 2000-1. Different circumstances I know, but a great mix of youngsters who had come through the academy, experience, and the foreigners were household names like berg and bjornibe.

[OJRovers]

Positives:

- Venkys might sell

- Kean might go

- new owners might bring a proper manager and structure to the club

- will get to enjoy watching rovers again without knowing that the club is owned and run by the current fraudsters

- that's got to be better than what we have now

[onlyonejackwalker]

For a club like us there is NOTHING positive about relegation, we are not big enough to keep hold of our players and we are not a Blackpool that went down with a manageable wage bill.

We will NEVER come back- we will be a Coventry, a Charlton, a Bradford. 20 odd quid to watch journeymen (who still earn fortunes) clog about.

We will see Ewood deserted, the Academy cut back- if not closed al together, members of

staff lose their jobs.

All this was avoidable, yet it is now our future- there are no positives.

Agree with Matty and could find no positives to take out of our impending relegation. The future of the club would be immediately at risk.

I would also seriously worry about our ability to return to the PL should we be relegated. There are a number of much bigger city clubs in the lower divisions that year in and year out, ably demonstrate the difficulty in re-gaining top flight status once lost.

As mentioned, all this was avoidable and totally unneccessary and has been predicted by many (fans only not experts) on here for many months. In fact the accuracy of certain posters comments ever since the Venky's took over has been uncanny.

[Sandiway Blue]

The only positive i can find is no more patronising `Match of the Day`....

[Bluefudge]

Decent kits......

Some of the lesser know brands seem to have better gear than Umbro.

[broadsword]

If relegation is the price we pay for getting Venky's out, then at least that's something.

But who will pick up the pieces? We might be left without a club, never mind watching us wallow year after year down with the dead men.

I shudder to think what next season will bring. It's not even Christmas yet, and we're down. 10 point on Christmas Day, you can't come back from that.

AND STILL THEY WON'T SACK HIM!

[Audax]

The Rovers need to get their stuff in gear for sure but when one looks at clubs that have gone down, Newcastle steamrolled the Championship, they were very convincing, Sunderland went down, came up, West Ham, 2nd time down at least but all of these are big clubs.

West Brom I would think would be the club who are sort of the Rovers size that I would look at, they are a yo yo club, down 2 or 3 times, I remember the last time but they clinged on to 2nd in the Championship about all that year behind Newcastle. It surprised me WBA could do it, Newcastle had a good chance to as far as I was concerned.

So they would be the example and model to at least look at in my view. I thought they'd spend some time down there, I think it was only a year. Again, one might look at Middlebrough too, making a game effort this year.

[krypton1980]

Further, when we go to the championship, there will be no more live footy shown in the local pubs on the foreign sky. At the minute, it's far to easy to nip to the pub and watch an away game in the comfort of the same.

Great so what then happens to those pubs and the local economy?

There are many pubs which rely upon the income from live games and would simply go under in the current climate.

Sky costs a fortune for pubs to show which is why many have resorted to foreign sat.

Also what about those who cant travel to games (work/family commitments, etc.) they have to be satisfied with 45 seconds of highlights on The Football League Show around midnight.

Relegation affects not only the club but hundreds of local jobs and livelyhoods aswell!