Garra Dembele

[Eddie]

This isn't the proper thread, but I will put it here:

Any Rovers fan is seriously deluded if they think it is in the best interest of the club for us to not be promoted this year. For the size of club that we are, regardless of our owners, it is going to become exponentially harder for us to get back up if we don't achieve that goal this year. If we aren't promoted this year and then are put up for sale the type of owner we attract will, in all likelihood, be a fairly small fish, even by Championship standards. We are a small town and a small club and the only that they we will achieve any success is by making it back up again this year. Maybe promotion will attract new owners, but failure won't.

We aren't like Forest, Leicester or Leeds where the size of the catchment area and the history of the club will keep foreigners and big-spenders interested long after our demise. As soon as we are off the radar we are gone from there for good. Any Rovers fan choosing failure this year because they would prefer to see Venkys and Kean gone is essentially saying that they would like to watch us in the Championship, or more likely League 1 or League 2, for the rest of their lives. There comes a time when supporters need to suck it up and get behind the team because they pay-off is going to be in 10-20 years. I fear that most Rovers fans are far too short-sighted for that. That really concerns me as we have seen before that life can change very quickly. Stay behind the team and hope for change, don't desert them in the hope that the situation will be better when you return.

[gumboots]

Twaddle. We'd all like to get behind the team so that they win - we've seen that work with a proper manager, even if we didn't personally like that manager. With Kean in charge, it doesn't matter how much we get behind them, they will lose more than they win and until you understand that, you won't fully appreciate the goings on at Ewood and why so many feel that anything is preferable to continuing to attend whilst he is in charge. We tried getting behind the team, cancelling organised protest etc. We've always been behind the team on the pitch as you'd know if you'd been inside Ewood on most occasions last season. It makes no difference. Kean is incompetent. He reduces individual decent players to an incompetent team, lacking in confidence, desire, passion and hope. Until he is gone there is no chance of promotion. You can see already in the preseason matches that the players are not sure of roles, not sure who will be there to pass to, not sure of being backed up by their teammates. It's why we looked better when a lot of our youngsters were brought on on Saturday. It's because they are not or have not been managed by Kean and therefore they know about team play. Most on here (not me I grant you) know all about following rovers in the lower leagues. They know how much it costs in all sorts of ways so they are not saying lightly that they would rather see their team lose so that Kean goes. They are longsighted enough to know that sometimes you have to take the very bad in order to ever get back to the good. There is, however, nothing more sure than that we will be relegated again anyway, next season if not this, if Kean remains in charge. Get rid of him and there is a faint chance that we may recover sooner rather than later.

[MarkBRFC71]

This isn't the proper thread, but I will put it here:

Any Rovers fan is seriously deluded if they think it is in the best interest of the club for us to not be promoted this year. For the size of club that we are, regardless of our owners, it is going to become exponentially harder for us to get back up if we don't achieve that goal this year. If we aren't promoted this year and then are put up for sale the type of owner we attract will, in all likelihood, be a fairly small fish, even by Championship standards. We are a small town and a small club and the only that they we will achieve any success is by making it back up again this year. Maybe promotion will attract new owners, but failure won't.

We aren't like Forest, Leicester or Leeds where the size of the catchment area and the history of the club will keep foreigners and big-spenders interested long after our demise. As soon as we are off the radar we are gone from there for good. Any Rovers fan choosing failure this year because they would prefer to see Venkys and Kean gone is essentially saying that they would like to watch us in the Championship, or more likely League 1 or League 2, for the rest of their lives. There comes a time when supporters need to suck it up and get behind the team because they pay-off is going to be in 10-20 years. I fear that most Rovers fans are far too short-sighted for that. That really concerns me as we have seen before that life can change very quickly. Stay behind the team and hope for change, don't desert them in the hope that the situation will be better when you return.

The Premier League isn't the be all and end all - I would absolutely rather be rid of Kean/Venky's and enjoy/endure (depending on your viewpoint) many years in the Championship if that's where we are most competitive. Let's be honest - a club the size of Rovers and with our resources is punching way above its weight remaining in the Prem - and with half-witted owners and a clueless bald chimp as manager we were never going to stay there long anyway. We are a Championship club - it's just that we've enjoyed several years in the Prem thanks to Jack Walker and his legacy, and to shrewd management by the likes of John Williams. The days of winning trophies and European jaunts are long gone, and will never return with Kean here, maybe not until Venky's are gone, maybe never. The sooner some fans get their heads around that the better.

Success for me is winning games playing decent football, and feeling proud of the club - nothing more, and you don't need to be in the Prem to achieve that.

[Puffsan]

I agree with Eddie. For every year we are away from the top flight it gets harder and harder to get back up. Even though it was painful to watch rovers last season I enjoyed it, and watched 37 rovers games on tv last season. In the championship I'm lucky if I get to watch 3 games till Christmas, and it's not even settled who will get the broadcasting rights for championship in Norway yet. I will probably have to search the web for streams which I'm really not looking forward to.

All i want is to see rovers being successful, regardless who is in charge. I enter this season being optimistic as I always do, and i really believe changes will happen if we get a bad start.

Venkys and kean are here on a short term. In the

Long term promotion is the best for rovers future

[den]

There comes a time when supporters need to suck it up and get behind the team because they pay-off is going to be in 10-20 years. I fear that most Rovers fans are far too short-sighted for that. That really concerns me as we have seen before that life can change very quickly. Stay behind the team and hope for change, don't desert them in the hope that the situation will be better when you return.

Non as short sighted as you Eddie. For the umpteen millionth time the fans have always been behind the team. Kean and the way the Raos have ruined the club, they hate and always will. The team they back.

What you're really asking for, is for the fans to back the owners and Kean.

[MarkBRFC71]

Duplicate - bloody phone!

[Parsonblue]

The Premier League isn't the be all and end all - I would absolutely rather be rid of Kean/Venky's and enjoy/endure (depending on your viewpoint) many years in the Championship if that's where we are most competitive. Let's be honest - a club the size of Rovers and with our resources is punching way above its weight remaining in the Prem - and with half-witted owners and a clueless bald chimp as manager we were never going to stay there long anyway. We are a Championship club - it's just that we've enjoyed several years in the Prem thanks to Jack Walker and his legacy, and to shrewd management by the likes of John Williams. The days of winning trophies and European jaunts are long gone, and will never return with Kean here, maybe not until Venky's are gone, maybe never. The sooner some fans get their heads around that the better.

Success for me is winning games playing decent football, and feeling proud of the club - nothing more, and you don't need to be in the Prem to achieve that.

The problem with that Mark is that we have been there before and there was nothing particularly glorious about being a club that moved between the old League 2 and League 3 with gates decreasing all the time. Ewood Park with 3,000 or 4,000 on was not this golden era that some seem to think. The fans craved for top flight football and many simply stopped going because of the dross served up in the lower divisions. With the two training facilities at Brockhall to support and the expanded Ewood Park of the modern era, the Rovers simply cannot flourish without Premier League football. Indeed, it's difficult to see how the club would survive in the Championship for very long as our overheads are far greater than the likes of Burnley, Blackpool or any of the clubs coming from towns of a similiar size. You only have to look at North End to see the possible future for the Rovers without the money that the Premier League brings.

[m1st]

Do we have any moderators on this Board?

I'm coming late to this thread and it looks like none of the last 45 posts or so has anything to do with the subject of the thread - they read merely like re-stated positions in the vexed debates on:

1] whether our owners know what they're doing;

2] how incompetent the manager has to prove himself before he's sacked;

3] whether protests are effective or not; and

4] if the club is likely under the present regime to return to the dire days of the early 1970s.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not trying to stifle debate but these surely are all topics for other threads and have Rock-All to do with Garra Dembele.

[gumboots]

I agree with Eddie. For every year we are away from the top flight it gets harder and harder to get back up. Even though it was painful to watch rovers last season I enjoyed it, and watched 37 rovers games on tv last season. In the championship I'm lucky if I get to watch 3 games till Christmas, and it's not even settled who will get the broadcasting rights for championship in Norway yet. I will probably have to search the web for streams which I'm really not looking forward to.

All i want is to see rovers being successful, regardless who is in charge. I enter this season being optimistic as I always do, and i really believe changes will happen if we get a bad start.

Venkys and kean are here on a short term. In the

Long term promotion is the best for rovers future

You wouldn't have enjoyed it half as much if you'd been there! Might be all right watching dross from your armchair - and I accept that you can't come to Ewood - but watching dross close up, in the cold and wet, seeing Kean in the flesh on the touchline, feeling what we have been driven to by our owners and their backing of an incompetent Kean, is certainly not enjoyable. We need rid of kean and probably Venkys, before anything becomes enjoyable again.

[Puffsan]

Yes I accept it is not the same, and I totally respect and understand people who choose to boycott, I didn't buy any shirts last year because of kean & venkys. But at least you have the choice to not attend home games etc. league 1 and even championship makes it so hard to follow my club, and eventually it will make me more disinterested in football. I want kean and venkys gone as much as anyone else, but I believe it will happen sooner or later regardless of results. I'm sorry but I can't do another season where I at some games hope rovers lose because I want kean gone, it just ruins what football is all about for me.

If success for rovers means success for kean I will accept that, and I understand and respect people's choice to boycott, but the best thing for rovers is promotion as soon as possible, I don't understand why people believe otherwise. There is no guarantee whatsoever that kean and venkys will be gone even if we get relegated to league 1. Everyone thought he would get binned after our relegation this season, and it did not happen

[gumboots]

Hey I want promotion too - there has to be something to look forward to but with Kean in charge, however hard we hope and however much we support, it's no happening imo and that of many others. Therefore we may have to take a further decline in our status before we can start to climb again. i don't want a further relegation but if he stays, nothing seems surer than that we will get one.

[Baz]

Eddie, the fans will always support the team. However I think the vast majority of Rovers fans know that Kean is not capable of getting us promoted. The sooner he goes the better chance we have of promotion. The sooner he goes the less time we may spen languishing in the championship (or lower). Those of us who remember will tell you, the championship is one hell of a battle to get out of. Comfortably harder than staying in the Premier League.

[roverandout]

all together now

'i feel pretty, oh so pretty, i feel pretty and witty and light,

i am going to support rovers and kean till the end of time'

you can all sing that at ewood next season, dont forget your fluffy pillows

[DE.]

Everyone wants the team to get promoted.

However, everybody should also be well aware that with Keano as manager that is simply not happening, no matter how many times people chant "ROVERS TIL I DIE" or any variant. The issue has never been about the fans not getting behind the team, it has always been about the total incompetence of the manager and owners. Nothing more, nothing less.

[HemelRover]

So. The trial has finished. He has gone back home and the topic has gone way off on a tangent.

Closed.