[Archived] Venky's willing to sell?

[Andy]

Can't believe how difficult it is for the penny to drop for some.

The simple fact is Venky's, IMO, will not give the club away even if we are relegated and I maintain a view that they will be determined, come hell or high water, to walk away with their initial £23m investment which I believe they will.

IMV, all this local consortium business is Hans Christian Andersen stuff - a pipe dream that will not be realised.

+1

[john.leigh]

Has anybody mentioned a compromise, where the supporters buy a stake in Rovers?

This would allow venkys to save face and may even gain them some respect for being prepared to work in partnership with supporters.

The financial requirements of the supporters body may then not be quite as onerous, making £10m an achievable target.

Once the supporters have valid representation within the club sustainable change can be brought about through due process.

It doesn't need to be an 'either or' situation.

The middle road way well be the best outcome here.

I know a lot of people want to completely end venkys ownership of Rovers but I feel it is 'better the devil you know'.

We need stability not further ownership change.

Venkys need help to run the club, help from people who are free from ulterior motives.

The best people to provide this help are to be found amongst the body of supporters.

Venkys would not only save face but would gain a massive PR coup if the sold a stake to a supporters body.

This enlightened move need not be a philanthropic act - it would lose it's impact then. To maintain credibility any stake purchased should be at the current market price.

(in my ideal world the cash input from the supporters would be used to satisfy the bank...)

Supporters alone cannot afford to sustain a premier league club, division two maybe but not premier league.

External funding will be needed if the ambition is Premier League football.

Fans and owners working in partnership would be the ideal solution but I fear that too many people in both camps will be too stubborn for this to happen.

[Stuart]

Sound ideas John but difficult when the owners won't speak to the fans.

And who would manage the legal side, a supporters trust of some sort...? Good news we've go two in the offing.

[john.leigh]

Sound ideas John but difficult when the owners won't speak to the fans.

And who would manage the legal side, a supporters trust of some sort...? Good news we've go two in the offing.

Your right - venkys would need to start acting responsibly for this to happen and if they were capable of that we wouldn't have been in this mess in the first place

[philipl]

I'd be seriously worried for the sanity of anybody willing to go into any sort of partnership with the Rao kids.

[BuckyRover]

I'd be seriously worried for the sanity of anybody willing to go into any sort of partnership with the Rao kids.

I'd be worried about the sanity of anyone who is not a billionaire putting money into a premier league football club. It's like a cash black hole

[philipl]

Interesting exchange on Twitter last night. Andy Cryer was challenged to say when Venky's last communicated with the LT and the answer was he couldn't remember.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Nothing but arrogant silence,absolutely nothing spoken to anyone from our 'owners'.

What else can be garnered from this ridiculous situation other than a purvading sense of untrust and fear as to their motives...

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Presumably the only way to get their dough back if we go down would be to break it up.

Certainly as a going concern in the Championship, the club's not worth tuppence ha'penny.

If they don't want to sell now because of bad PR they are pig-headed and ignorant. Under their ownership we're only headed one way, so the PR will just get worse.

God, the stubbornness and ignorance is so annoying.

You are forgetting their trump card - the managerial mastermind Kean - who will take what is left of our squad - fill it up with youth team players and bring us back into the promised land at the first attempt. We will then go to qualify for Champions League and win the FA Cup Final - while selling half the squad for a £40m profit.

[Brfcrule1]

Right seeing as though it caused confusion before I have now received another email from Mr Paul Hunt below:

From: Savio Mathias

Sent: 19 February 2012 02:46

To: Paul Hunt

Subject: Steve Kean & Venkys

Dear Mr Hunt,

You may remember me I wrote to you before the end of the january transfer window to express my concerns as to the goings

on at the club and the lack of transparency and I see to this day not much has occurred to rectify the problems that exist the

points made below conflict with what has been reported:

1. Steve Kean has continually said to judge him after our better defenders are available making particular reference to Ryan

Nelsen and stating that Ryan Nelsen was injured so then why was he sold in January when the club are so short of central

defenders? & what will be done to rectify this in the summer? suggests to me he does not know his best lineup

2. There was a recent newpaper article in the Times Of India referring to the problems at the club why since the article was

published have Venkys not issued a statement denying the report the fact Venkys have kept quiet makes fans think maybe

the report is true which is why when it comes to PR the club have to be on top of every article especially one that is so

damaging to the owners to either confirm or deny the report.

3. Steve Kean has continually said Chris Samba is not for sale and he hopes to have him playing for the run-in but Chris

Samba states in another article he can never play for the team again why can't Steve Kean be truthful and say we are

having problems with Chris and we are unsure when he will be back to play a part it puts the emphasis on Chris and

turns the spotlight on him to explain why he is not playing.

4.When the team lose quite frequently recently Steve Kean comments on stats how many times we entered the opposition

box does he not understand stats are all well and good but unless the team takes it's chances stats mean nothing and why

can't he act like say Mick McCarthy when the team plays badly he never mixes his words and states his team was awful

why can't Steve Kean admit when his team performs poorly if he did that he would gain a little bit of credibility in the fans

eyes not much buut a little.

5. I appreciate Steve Kean had his targets in mind before the January window opened and his lists were quite big and we

were led to believe money was available then in the end all we ended up with 1 French striker on loan,1RB in Bradley Orr,

for a nominal fee & 1 Midfielder in Marcus Olsson on a free transfer so why state there is money available when they didn't

intend spending it raising people's hopes then letting them down is not good another point Yakubu is the club's top scorer

if heaven forbid he gets injured who will be there to knock the goals in Modeste for all his hard work is not a regular Prem.

Lge. scorer why didn't Kean not go for an experienced prem. Lge. scorer I know the club made a bid for Andy Johnson why

was not an improved bid put in as a striker he may have just made the difference between success & failure and there were

other EPL strikers available Zamora to QPR 4M, Pogrebnyak to Fulham 3M,Bendtner to Sunderland on loan,Jelavic to

Everton 5M, all these strikers were infinitely more experienced than Modeste so why did we not target experienced Prem.

Lge. Players given the perilous position the club is in?

A word of advice if Kean was to once tell the truth when the team play badly to say as much in his interview after the match

he would gain a little more respect in the eyes of the fans the fans do watch the games and know when the team are playing

poorly stats are not the way to justify a defeat they mean nothing if the result is wrong.

I look forward to hearing from you soon

Best Wishes

Savio

I then received this reply today which is telling as the LET article came out today:

Subject: RE: Steve Kean & Venkys

Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2012 09:30:44 +0000

From: phunt

To:Savio

Savio,

Thank you for your email and apologies for the time it has taken me to respond.

I appreciate all supporter comments but I can promise you that the club is doing all it can to preserve our Premier League status and that should be paramount in all our thoughts. March is a big month and to follow the free coach travel to Wolves, we will also be discounting prices for the Sunderland game. Furthermore, we have a series of community engagement programmes in the coming weeks that will, we believe, enable supporters to feel good about the club again, including a big Easter promotion and utilisation of the pitch for community events in May.

The Lancashire Telegraph are in line with this and their “shout the team to safety” campaign where they are asking supporters to, for now, ignore ALL other issues is evidence of this. What is critical is that Blackburn has a Premier League team this summer.

My feeling is that if everyone can get behind the team it could have a significant effect on Saturday. Don’t forget, if we are unified, we will be stronger and have a far greater chance of success.

Best wishes,

Paul

I have to admit reading that reply I was totally disgusted by the response he makes no mention of the Nelsen injury saga he offers no explanation of the Times of India article he mentions nothing on the Samba situation and now rather conveniently Samba is sold makes no mention of this and when I bring up the January window business he completely ignores this even suggesting strikers who could have made a difference to our squad and why we went for a french striker on loan then mention the Yak situation and heaven forbid who will score the goals if the yak is injured he conveniently ignores the questions offering no explanation he then rather conveniently forgets to mention the LET condemns the owners on how they have run the club instead focusing on getting behind the team and then as an insult believing free travel to Wolves discounted tickets for the Sunderland game community engagement programmes,Easter Promotions and giving the pitch to the community for events in May might I add probably after the season has finished is supposed to make people feel better about the club he must be even more deluded than Coco and the clown owners and to avoid almost every question without giving any insight into the decisions made is a poor show from Him,coco & the owners and I have to say that response does look very much like a standard response and have to say after reading the response has left me very heartbroken and fearful for the future of this club.

[Stuart]

I'm not sure why you expected a different response. Especially when it is going to be posted by you in the public domain. I'm sure he is aware of BRFCS and has probably worked out that both Savios are in fact one and the same person.

Think about it. Would he really email a fan with responses to all those specific and controversial issues? He would be sacked. If JW had to sign an NDA, don't you think PH will have already signed one?

The only reason to email PH would be to tell him you have no intention if renewing and list reasons why. Don't expect anything but a diplomatic response either.

I remember people talking about having conversations with JW at Ewood and had enough respect for him not to breach that confidence, yet we now have fans posting entire responses and details of phone calls. It's no wonder the FF are cagey about minuting things.

Trust and confidence are paramount and if BRAG are still meeting with the club today then I expect anything meaningful to remain private. Jokes about recording meetings on mobile phones are the kind of thing to get meetings cancelled, or at the very least prevent "off the record" discussions.

End of ramble.

[Ricky]

Oh yeah the good old 'recorded message joke'

I've read that facebook exchange and have no reason to think it was a joke. It stinks of a guy being caught out recording something that he shouldn't have and then bring forced to backtrack.

[Stuart]

Oh yeah the good old 'recorded message joke'

I've read that facebook exchange and have no reason to think it was a joke. It stinks of a guy being caught out recording something that he shouldn't have and then bring forced to backtrack.

It may stink Ricky but I asked Mark, on here, if he did record it.

He said no.

In the absence of any other evidence (to me) I have to take that at face value.

[Pedro]

I think you are mistaking fans for employees and not customers.

Would a competent CEO react and maintain dialogue if a large % of their customers were very upset at the product on offer, and are likely to go spend their money elsewhere?

But if the equation is:

Total revenue from match tickets and beer/pie sales = £5.5million/year

Saving on Roberts, Andrews and Diouf's wages = £5.5million/year

So, Venkys could effectively survive on an empty stadium. We are effectively irrelevant, as were Roberts, Andrews and Diouf in terms of their place in the squad.

[Stuart]

But if the equation is:

Total revenue from match tickets and beer/pie sales = £5.5million/year

Saving on Roberts, Andrews and Diouf's wages = £5.5million/year

So, Venkys could effectively survive on an empty stadium. We are effectively irrelevant, as were Roberts, Andrews and Diouf in terms of their place in the squad.

If that was the case why are the club making offers to try to increase attendances? Because the fans can impact proceedings on the pitch.

Which is why it would be great to either boycott the first 10 minutes or be completely silent followed by a roar on 10 minutes. Show everyone what difference the fans do make to a game.

[Pedro]

If that was the case why are the club making offers to try to increase attendances? Because the fans can impact proceedings on the pitch.

Which is why it would be great to either boycott the first 10 minutes or be completely silent followed by a roar on 10 minutes. Show everyone what difference the fans do make to a game.

In a financial sense, it is very much the case though Stuart.

I'd love nothing more than Ewood being packed full of Rovers fans full of support, wit and creativity...truth is it VERY rarely happens and at best we get Dit dit der dit, Jason Roberts. OR Dit dit der dit, Martin Olsson.

...You know what's coming next, Dit dit der dit, Marcus Olsson

[John]

Interesting reading this again.....

Nick Harris on the Rao family

[yoda]

Interesting reading this again.....

Nick Harris on the Rao family

The last bit of the article

"Mrs Desai remains convinced ‘that within three years, we can be somewhere between seventh and fifth. That’s our aim.’

Venky Rao defend’s his sister’s positive stance.

‘You have to be allowed to think freely and act freely in this world,’ he says. ‘We will try to become one of the best clubs. That doesn’t mean we promise to finish top four but why would we set an aim to finish 15th to 20th? That only demoralises yourself. We should think big, aim high.

‘One thing is sure. If we go into this with the intention of getting publicity as a motivation, it’s going to fail. If I buy as the first Indian and fail, that is a huge embarrassment. We’re not at Blackburn for profit or publicity, we’re at Blackburn because we’ll enjoy it, and to create a legacy.’"

They are certainly creating a legacy

[sentient]

LIARS! Bare-faced LIARS!

PATHETIC & DISGRACEFUL

Interesting reading this again.....

Nick Harris on the Rao family

From that article ...

The woman who heads the VH Group, the first Indian company to buy a Premier League football club, is not about to be caught out like that. Desai, chair of the family firm who own Rovers via a subsidiary, Venky’s London Ltd, displays a forensic knowledge of her latest acquisition. The details of pretty much every Blackburn footballer, the names of their agents, their contract lengths and terms are at her fingertips.

and some people would have us believe that they are guilty only of naivity!

[John]

So we had someone acting on behalf of the seller (Walker family) and the buyer - Jerome didn't mention the buyer part in his recent SSN interview.....

‘It was Balaji,’ she says. ‘He’s really crazy about football and he started looking about a year ago, initially for a regional Pune club, though it was clear they were only small. ’We have friends at Kentaro, the sports agency, and they suggested we looked in England.’

Rao dismisses suggestions that Kentaro and Jermone Anderson’s SEM management group are calling the shots at Rovers. ’They have been helpful and have given advice,’ he says. ‘But they are only two of many. If you’re going to do something, get the best, and the Premier League is the best.’

[Tugay-is-God]

To be fair, that article is from over a year ago.

[Stuart]

To be fair, that article is from over a year ago.

I think that's the point.

[rovers11]

Very strong rumour that there is going to be another bid to buy the club from an unnamed investor(s) in the next few weeks/months.

This is different from the wayne wild lead bid.

[chaddyrovers]

Very strong rumour that there is going to be another bid to buy the club from an unnamed investor(s) in the next few weeks/months.

This is different from the wayne wild lead bid.

heard the same. hope this comes true really.

[MarkBRFC]

Stop kidding yourselves guys, venkys are going nowhere.