[Archived] Is It Time To Question The Jack Walker Trust?

[funny-old-game]

Has anyone contacted John Williams or Tom Finn to see if they can help.

I'm sure they are as distraught as the rest of us, after all the years of hard work running the club in such a professional manner, only to watch it being brought to its knees in ONLY 12 months.

Does anyone have any contact details for them as I will contact them to see if they will offer any help,

[Amo]

Has anyone contacted John Williams or Tom Finn to see if they can help.

I'm sure they are as distraught as the rest of us, after all the years of hard work running the club in such a professional manner, only to watch it being brought to its knees in ONLY 12 months.

Does anyone have any contact details for them as I will contact them to see if they will offer any help,

What exactly is he going to do?

He's been gagged anyway, just like Allardyce and the rest of 'em.

[funny-old-game]

What exactly is he going to do?

He's been gagged anyway, just like Allardyce and the rest of 'em.

Who knows, but if you don't ask you don't get.

What harm can it do?

[Exiled in Toronto]

What exactly is he going to do?

He's been gagged anyway, just like Allardyce and the rest of 'em.

Agreed to be gagged.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

If they ever meet up with Jack in the great beyond their ears will be burning that's for sure.

[Rovermatt]

I hold the Trust hugely responsible for all this. They were trying to run the club on the cheap for years and became increasingly open and unrepentant about that fact. They couldn't wait to get rid of it and flogged it to the first buyer willing and able to stump up the cash.

[Harrier7]

Jack's trust has been betrayed and he must be turning in his grave. For the sake of a measly 20 odd million this 900 million outfit has brought shame on Blackburn. They ought to be miserably ashamed of themselves.

[vintageadidas]

My next door neighbour but one had good ties with the trust but they have moved now.

I did find out and posted last year that the trust refused invites to games and a Christmas Harrods hamper from Venk** after the dismissal of Sam. They told VUKLTD not to remove Sam which they did within 4 weeks!

[FourLaneBlue]

I don't blame them for selling, or for having stopped investing in the club. They, at the very least, agreed to sack Ince when necessary and agreed to bring Sam in when we were in trouble. Unfortunately, there is one thing they did do that is hard to swallow.

The Walker Trust allowed Jerome Anderson to find them a buyer. Jerome Anderson, with his repuation and after all the crap had gone down at City.

Does that, ultimately, sound like people who had the best interests of Jack's legacy at heart?

[Mattyblue]

Mate of mine saw Howard Walker yesterday, wouldn't comment on Venky's, lives in Monaco these days, so all is well.

[thenodrog]

some questions must be directed at the Trust. They could not wait to sell and I am sure that the smell of £££££'s helped focuss their minds on getting the deal with Venkys done and dusted. They are laughing all the way to the bank; I wonder how many of them attend games any more?

Why should they PB? As far as I know there is only Howard who is remotely interested in the Rovers and

a. he lives abroad.

and

b. the club wasn't apportioned to him under the conditions of Jacks will via the Trust. It was left to two other of Jacks children who have little interest in football and just wanted rid.

As for "the smell of £££££'s"? Come off it PB, BRFC was 'disposed' of for a song. I understand that in negotiation Rothschilds repeatedly pointed out to the Venkeys in an effort to persuade them to sign that whatever happened there was no risk financially to them (as the sum of the component parts came to much more than the asking price).

Think that through and events since should make more sense. imo The Venkeys with nothing to lose bought the club for pure publicity purposes. (Rem Mrs Desai and her ludicrous claim to target european football claim with an input of just 5m per annum which provided the media with so much mirth 12 months ago? Surely only 'Wormtongue' can have put that thought in her head) and placed their complete footballing innocence / ignorance in the clammy hands of a random money man out to make a fast buck.

They quickly learned that the 'glamorous' world of Prem football is not the bowl of cherries that they thought it was and imo have now embarked on Plan B..... get their money back and any profit that may be had in the next 12 months or so and get tf out!

As I have said before on here nothing makes any sense whatsoever UNTIL one completely disregards all footballing issues completely, takes a step back and views the entire scenario from distance.

[thenodrog]

Absolutely agree that a substantial amount of the blame has to lie with the Trust for the state of the club today. Not just for the decision to flog the club to the first serious buyers that came along, but also for their behaviour in the time they were owners between 2004 and 2010.

When Jack Walker died press statements were released in which the Trust promised to continually invest cash from their other business interests into BRFC, and this wasn't a case of Jack saying 'do it if you want to' but more a case of Jack insisting that money from his business empire found its way into his football club, to enable it to thrive for the forseeable future.

For the first 3 or 4 years after his death the trust appeared to do this, sanctioning transfers like Andy Cole and Corrado Grabbi, both of whom cost in the region of 8 million pounds. This enabled us to win promotion back to the Premier League, finish regularly in the top 10 and win the League Cup.

Unfortunately for us their interpretation of 'forseeable future' was '3 years' and they quickly decided they were not going to follow Jack's wishes and that Jack's profits would not be coming our way. Fairly sure this was in breach of the Trust settlement contract that Jack put in place, although others will know more about this than I do.

The result of this was that the club was left to rot, or at least stagnate for a long period of time. Out went Graeme Souness, the man who had masterminded promotion, cup success and a top 6 finish because he was not allowed to reinvest the proceeds of the Duff/Dunn sales. Mark Hughes inherited a side that had lost its best assets and was struggling and had it not been for his remarkable signings in the transfer market of acquiring the likes of Bellamy, Santa Cruz, McCarthy, Savage, Bentley etc. at knockdown prices and getting them to thrive at the club we probably would have been relegated around 2005. As Mark Hughes had us knocking on the door of the top four for a brief time and regularly reaching cup semi-finals what do the trust do? That's right, rather than doing what any other owner would do and give Hughes just a little bit of cash with which to push the club on, they refuse, allowing Hughes to walk out the door without so much as a fight to keep him. There is no doubt in my mind that if they had handed Hughes say £10 million in 2006 anything could have been possible.

As they continued to flog our best players for a hefty profit without reinvesting any of the proceeds, out went Santa Cruz, Bellamy, Bentley, even Friedel had enough. Very little money was given to Paul Ince to put his own stamp on the squad and the same too to Sam Allardyce, who had the likes of Guti and Van Nistelrooy lined up to come in but would not be supported by the owners.

The Walker Trust had and have lots of money, so nobody is telling me they couldn't afford to support the club. They even allowed the club to gather a £20 million debt which is substantial for a club of our size and would have caused all sorts of problems had we been relegated.

Then we move on to the sale of the club to some Indian chicken farmers. OK, so the Trust couldn't have known (even if they cared) about how things were going to turn out. Yet they had many many meetings with the Indians. Surely it must have dawned on them that nobody in the Venky's organisation had the first idea what they were talking about and that Jerome Anderson had an unhealthy role to play in the whole thing?

No. For me the Trust are fully culpable for the demise of this club. Had it not been for John Williams/Mark Hughes/Sam Allardyce we would have been relegated a long time ago with those anonymous trustees running the show. They have betrayed Jack Walker's legacy.

In fairness to the Trust, the goalposts have moved considerably in football in the past decade. Millionaires are not enough in the Prem anymore, it is the playground of billionaires... and multi ones at that! The Walkers are wealthy by any yardstick and ruled the roost in the early days but the wealth of some investors now simply blows them out of the water. Without any affinity with BRFC who can blame them for getting rid? Certainly not me. The old adage of 'Clogs to clogs in 3 generations' is well known and could be reduced to less than that with continued involvement in todays lunatic world of Premier League football.

[AllRoverAsia]

I think you are spot on with that analysis THO

[thenodrog]

i hope if we get relegated and are stripped of assets and are under administration, that the walkers trust will step up and invest and make sure we don't rot in league 1/2 like what happened to leeds etc. They owe AT LEAST that to uncle jack.

The only hope that we have imo. Venkeys wouldn't sell the club back to them without wanting a profit so the smart money would be to wait until the club has no value before stepping in and picking up the pieces for next to nowt. As I have said though Jacks deep love of BRFC does not burn as bright in any of his descendents as it did in him.

Lets be honest too that his business drive, acumen and ability to turn water into wine has not passed down either and as I was once advised many years ago when the front door is open it's best to keep the back door shut!

[thenodrog]

The trust, Rothschilds and JW must bear some responsibility for our current situation. Their due diligence process has been made a mockery of. Shah had no money, Syed is wanted by Interpol and has well and truly screwed Racing Santander and we got left with Venky's.

Maybe you would like to add the obviously flaky due diligence processes of the Premier League to that list.

Walker Trust: +25 million

PhilipL might be able to provide accuracy here but I'd wager that the Walker trust might still be down from their financial support of the club. If so then your post is a little unfair.

You can "question" the Walker Trust as much as you like, but its a waste of time as we all know they wont make any comment on the matter. They never spoke when they owned the club, why would they do so now?

Just another complete waste of time and effort for no reward.

Bang on and in a nutshell! Post of the year! I think you have perfectly summed up (albeit inadvertantly) the ownership of BRFC in the eyes of both the Trust and Venkeys!

[AggyBlue]

PhilipL might be able to provide accuracy here

Where is he?

He's not posted for a while.

[thenodrog]

Where is he?

He's not posted for a while.

Must be banned. It happens frequently to all the best posters.

btw Does anyone know if Tashor is back?

[Stuart]

Must be banned. It happens frequently to all the best posters.

btw Does anyone know if Tashor is back?

Hope he's okay. He's either a comedy genius on a different plane or has some serious issues. Possibly both!

[AggyBlue]

Hope he's okay

I think it's time we had a pinned post to show which members are currently serving posting bans.

To save the rest of us worrying about their absence of course.

[Stuart]

I think it's time we had a pinned post to show which members are currently serving posting bans.

To save the rest of us worrying about their absence of course.

There's a thread on the Ask Admin forum which says he isn't currently banned or has any posting rights removed.

I'm more worried about his comments on the Pune9 website!

[Exiled in Toronto]

PhilipL might be able to provide accuracy here but I'd wager that the Walker trust might still be down from their financial support of the club. If so then your post is a little unfair.

Their past contributions were a sunk cost. They are 25 million better off as a result of the sale than if there had been no sale.

[bestierover]

Their past contributions were a sunk cost. They are 25 million better off as a result of the sale than if there had been no sale.

Wasn't the club nonetheless an asset?

[Exiled in Toronto]

Wasn't the club nonetheless an asset?

Of course, and it still would have been if they had decided not to deal with Anderson to sell to patently amateur owners. But they decided that monetising their asset was more important than waiting for a more suitable buyer who was able and willing to carry out their stated aim of building on Jack's legacy better than they were able to.

[bestierover]

Of course, and it still would have been if they had decided not to deal with Anderson to sell to patently amateur owners. But they decided that monetising their asset was more important than waiting for a more suitable buyer who was able and willing to carry out their stated aim of building on Jack's legacy better than they were able to.

As I recall, they hung on for some before selling and other bids fell through and / or were rejected. I cannot comment on the due diligence carried out but it is very possible that they were conned.

[PAFELL]

Do you wire your posts via telegram

No phone. Keyboard to small for my fingers. Often ihit fullstop key etc.