[Archived] The Walker Trust

[Amo]

After Rovers were relegated from the top-tier of football, despite Steve Kean's assurances, the inquest has begun into how Venky's, Kean, and the media alike could allow one of the oldest and successful town clubs in the football league to plummet in this way.

However, we seem to be forgetting the party who sold us down the river in the first place: The Walker Trust

I'm sure the usual suspects will come out and remind me that under the Trust we enjoyed our longest stay in the top-flight. I take that on board and kindly point out that their choice of ownership has undone all the good work of the past 11 years. From 2004 onwards, there was a gradual shift towards their running of club, which ultimately saw people like Mark Hughes, one of the greatest Rovers managers in recent years, to grow disillusioned with the club and pimp himself elsewhere. We were weened off a competitive budget and saw very little money reinvested back into the side despite the playing assets Hughes left at the club.

It's all very well and good pointing fingers at Venky's. They deserve everything thrown at them for what they've done to the club. But Venky's have no affiliation with Blackburn Rovers. They're foreigners who bought the club under false pretenses and have run it into the ground with a combination of neglect and corruption. The Walker Trust was established to honour Jack's legacy and act in the best interests of his empire. Their answer? Gradually take all money out of the club and then flog it to the first shysters who could stump up the cash.

Questions have to be asked of The Trust. For instance, why did Rothschild, and by extension The Trust, see no problem with a football agency being at the centre of the takeover?

[John]

Trust the trust we were told repeatedly.

Apparently some of them wouldn't be able to sleep at night if they made the wrong decision - wonder if some of them are suffering from insomnia...

[True Blue & White]

The Walker Distrust they should be named.

I'm not sure what Jack would be more angry about right now, Rovers being relegated or the way the people he trusted with his beloved club handled us after his premature passing.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

without a doubt the Walker trust are culpable to some extent.

Problem is some folk can promise the earth but deliver relegation....

[roversfan99]

No. In our time under them we constantly achieved impressive League positions under their experienced hierarchy.

They set out terms that the FA (yes I know) agreed to, they didn't have a crystal ball to know Venkys would lie and manipulate their obigations.

[K-Hod]

No. In our time under them we constantly achieved impressive League positions under their experienced hierarchy.

They set out terms that the FA (yes I know) agreed to, they didn't have a crystal ball to know Venkys would lie and manipulate their obigations.

This.

[DE.]

Anyone with any common sense would have reservations about selling to chicken farmers from India.

One of if not the worst decision made in the history of the club. Congratulations Walker Trust.

[joey_big_nose]

No. In our time under them we constantly achieved impressive League positions under their experienced hierarchy.

They set out terms that the FA (yes I know) agreed to, they didn't have a crystal ball to know Venkys would lie and manipulate their obigations.

Venkys lack of competance and basic knowledge about football is so staggering that it is hard to imagine how - if the Trust were looking to sell only to the right people for Rovers - the new owners passed any decent 'test' as to their suitability. It's not a case of crystal balls - it's just an issue of asking some probing questions and doing your research.

Of course they have to share some of the blame.

The suspicion is after four years of ever more desperate attempts to flog the club they lowered standards over time.

[Amo]

I come back to my final point: Wasn't Jerome Anderson actually HIRED by the Trust to find us a buyer? Looks like they're the ones who allowed the toad to get his foot in the door in the first place.

[K-Hod]

I'm starting to wonder if we should have sold to Ali Syed? Wouldn't have been any bloody different!

[RevidgeBlue]

However, we seem to be forgetting the party who sold us down the river in the first place: The Walker Trust

The Walker Trust was established to honour Jack's legacy and act in the best interests of his empire. Their answer? Gradually take all money out of the club and then flog it to the first shysters who could stump up the cash.

Agree completely. The Walker Trust were put in place to look after ALL Jack's businesses, including Blackburn Rovers. Not lose interest/turn their back on it and hope it could run itself without any financial input whatsoever.

Many years ago John Williams told the Fans Forum that the Club would only be sold to, and they were looking for someone who could put the Club in a better position than the Trustees. From memory I think he said that effectively meant being willing and able to spend more than 10m on a player and that "Really we're looking for the next Abramovich."

Maybe that was a trifle optimistic but whilst there were no artificial barriers put in the way of potential purchasers like many on here were mooting, surely the one thing they had to ensure in any sale was that any potential purchaser paid for the Club with their own money as opposed to borrowed money. I was originally under the impression that Venky's paid the original 20m asking price out of their own money but am now led to believe they borrowed that from the investment and speculation arm of Barclays loading the Club with further debt in addition to the c20m overdraft we had been maintaining for years.

The Trustees must have been aware that the Club was being purchased with borrowed money, putting us in a potentially even worse position than if they sat back and did nothing as had been the case for a year or two. In addition to that their own checks must have shown that The Raos were in no better position than themselves to take the Club forward. I know 20m rising to 23m is a far from insignificant sum but even in these tougher economic times I hardly think they're that hard up for 23m.

[koi]

Maybe it's unreasonable but I have quite a lot of ill feeling towards the trust and have done for a few years.

[True Blue & White]

I'm starting to wonder if we should have sold to Ali Syed? Wouldn't have been any bloody different!

Racing Santander are bottom of La Liga so you're probably right.

[K-Hod]

Racing Santander are bottom of La Liga so you're probably right.

Was only joshing. I thought we'd had a lucky escape when he pulled out of the running.....

[Sysagent]

I blame the trust entirely for the position we find ourselves in, it is their fault alone for selling the team to quite possibly the most unsuitable owners of a football club ever known.

[RevidgeBlue]

I'm starting to wonder if we should have sold to Ali Syed? Wouldn't have been any bloody different!

Would have been even worse. Apparently Racing Santander are in administration, Ali Syed is in hiding and is wanted by Interpol.

How come Rothschilds have come up with Hicks and Gillette, Ali Syed and the Rao's recently whereas other Clubs such as Reading and QPR seem to have little difficulty in coming up with investors with genuinely deep pockets?

[phildinio]

you can't blame them, how did they know what venkys would do, they proberly lied to them too.

[Brownie]

I agree the Trust are are culpable as anybody. Don't forget how many millions they drained from the club with player transfers towered the end of their tenure. It's frightening

[jehrover]

I prefer to call them 'the Trust' rather than tarring Jack's name by associating it with those criminals. I don't buy into the excuse that they couldn't fund the club anymore. For an empire with a value of close on £1 billion left to them by Jack their decision to stop putting £3 million a year into a club in the Premier League seems quite insane, especially when it was not their right to do that. Jack specifically left thorough instructions for them to continue to support the club for the long term. Within 5 years of his death they had stopped putting money in, allowed the club to stagnate and put it up for sale.

If it hadn't been for the good work of John Williams, Graeme Souness, Mark Hughes, Sam Allardyce and the others we might well have been relegated years ago. It very nearly happened under Ince, they had allowed Hughes to walk out and then replaced him with a League Two manager who they failed to back with adequate funds.

The Trust clearly didn't give a damn. Initially they wanted a suitable buyer but as the years ticked by they grew more and more desperate until they were entertaining scum of the earth like Ali Syed and Venky's, going cap in hand to parasite agents who could help flog the club quick. Yes Venky's could have lied in the takeover, even misled the Trust, but it would have been clear to anyone involved that the agent was too influential and that the prospective owners didn't have the first idea what they were talking about.

Obviously too keen to get their hands on Jack's money to bother about the club he built and loved.

[waggy]

i read that the venksters umbrella companies made 100 million pounds profit between 120 companies,any clown could forsee what was going to happen,the walker trust are to blame 100%

[Tom]

Venkys passed the test that the trust set out, as in after Shah and Syed they could get the cash that the trust wanted.

Ive no doubts that the difficulties in finding and owner resulted in the criteria being lessened to the point of negligence

[ka671q]

you can't blame them, how did they know what venkys would do, they proberly lied to them too.

I agree with you Phil.

Unfortunately for Blackburn Rovers (and English football as a whole), Venkys have made a policy out of lying to anyone who will listen. The Trust, the Premier league and the fans have all been victims. It is Venkys who are, in my opinion, solely responsible for the devastation, and apportioning blame to other groups diminishes that responsibility.

Tom, it's difficult to argue against your point. The Trust were under a lot of pressure to find a buyer, and it is an unfortunate truth that the more time passed, the less picky they could afford to be. But they were made promises that were not kept, and in my opinion that is entirely the fault of the promise makers.

[waggy]

I agree with you Phil.

Unfortunately for Blackburn Rovers (and English football as a whole), Venkys have made a policy out of lying to anyone who will listen. The Trust, the Premier league and the fans have all been victims. It is Venkys who are, in my opinion, solely responsible for the devastation, and apportioning blame to other groups diminishes that responsibility.

Tom, it's difficult to argue against your point. The Trust were under a lot of pressure to find a buyer, and it is an unfortunate truth that the more time passed, the less picky they could afford to be. But they were made promises that were not kept, and in my opinion that is entirely the fault of the promise makers.

well i lived in blackburn for a long time and most indian business men i have met would shaft his own grandma to make a buck,sheer negligance bz the trust,jack would be devastated bz the events of the last 18 months

[jim mk2]

Jack Walker gave Rovers supporters some of the best 20 years in the club's history but his descendants in their desperation to sell the club to anyone, at any price, have probably condemned us to 20 years of purgatory. A curse on all of them and their tin-pot airline.

[Exiled in Toronto]

I for one was incredulous when it became apparent the Trust wanted out, I was surprised that was even within their remit. The failure to back Hughes who was a rainmaker at the time was the first sign they wanted out at any price; the news tht they entertained the idea of, and paid a fee to Jerome Anderson confirmed this. Far from finding a buyer who could/would continue Jack's legacy, it was any buyer at almost any price.

For me this undid all the good they had done before. The ancient Greeks believed you could not judge a man's life without taking into account how he embraced death. Equally, the Trust's tenure cannot be judged in isolation of how they ended their association with the club.