[Archived] League One - what next?

[chaddyrovers]

QPR will be the next rovers btw.

spending millions without thinking of the finanacial problems

[broadsword]

QPR have someone willing to back it up with his own money.

They'll keep Redknapp and go straight back up next year, that's my expectation.

Mark Hughes really made a mess of that club. I really don't know what's happened to him.

[McClarky]

It's going to take millions to even start to sort out this mess with all the players who won't be any use in Div 3 that we have on the books now. Personally I don't know enough about how these things work to know what the best option is for the club but my heart tells me we need Venky's to just leave us alone, even if that means a period in administration and a points deduction next season.

[broadsword]

Well, it needs Venky's to sell - but who to?

Nothing really makes sense any more - why haven't they put us on the market?

- Why do they keep changing managers but not admin staff?

- Who is filling in the financial black hole at Ewood Park?

- Now that Venky's plan of bringing on youth players, leasing more experienced players and having a malleable, amenable manager in the dug-out lies in tatters, what is their next strategy?

- Do they really have a strategy?

- What will it take for them to sell - indeed given Balaji's comments, will they ever sell?

- Just how in touch are they with events at Ewood if Balaji thought we could still get promoted?

- Who is the real power behind the throne at Ewood?

- Why have they never communicated with the fans - why such disdain?

I think we're just going to be left to rot, but really, who knows? No-one can force these people to sell, and they seem incapable or unwilling to arrest this slide we're on. They won't even talk to the Seneca consortium, who would seem to be our best hope for a future, so what hope is there? Who else would want to buy a failing, loss-making business with a declining customer base, inept administration consumed with in-fighting, out-of-control costs and ever-declining performance and no real hope of ever getting into the black? It's enough to give Sir John Harvey Jones a migraine.

Presumably we will run out of lines of credit and eventually will go out of business and have to start again in non-league. I just can't see what else could happen, our owners seem unbelievably neglectful.

[John]

Key questions Bryan - the one for me is who really making the decisions at Ewood - Venkys may (or may not) be the real owners but something is amiss.

The dithering, state of constant confusion, and the fact they don't understand football, suggests others could be involved.

[broadsword]

The lack of stability/ consistency also needs highlighting. The severance bill must be astronomical, not to mention the legal bill for the Berg case, and weren't they also taken to court for the Kean video case? I bet that cost them a pretty penny as well.

Is the purported £2m/month loss just an operating loss or does it include these "one-off" (I put it in quotes as it's not really one-off) costs such as legal fees, severance etc, and an average figure taken. How many other clubs make such a monthly loss that isn't directly under-written by wealthy owners (presumably ours aren't and are under-written by the bank, but against what assets exactly?)

What a mess.

[Amo]

Key questions Bryan - the one for me is who really making the decisions at Ewood - Venkys may (or may not) be the real owners but something is amiss.

I think we'd all love to believe there was one puppet master pulling the strings, but all I can see is bureaucratic corruption as the management structure installed by Venky's has seen several factions all duking it out for self-preservation instead of a guiding principle towards the success of the club. Mrs. Desai & Venkatesh have little interest in the club outside of a subsidiary marketing device, and Big Time Bala is away with the faeries. Unfortunately, every major decision at the club is filtered through those many layers of self-serving agenda, and what we're left with is a dying organisation.

[rovers11]

They all are , Dunn is at the end too ..

We have some cracking youth team players who would do very well in lge 1. The two centre halves are particularly good. Raheem Hanley, Josh Morris etc would also do very well in lge 1. Even fringe players like Nunes and Marcus Olsson would do very well. Youth is our future and I'd much prefer to watch these guys flourish than watch overpaid has beens like Murphy.

Wouldn't bother me seeing 70% of the squad go. Awful bunch.

I live in hope that Venkys will not want to own us anymore in League 1------because that is where we are heading.

We need local owners backed by the fans. It won't be like Jack's takeover, it will be a long,hard road back taking years.

But if the fans get behind it we will rise again and be a lot cleaner in the process.

Always remember Swansea when others tell you it can't be done.

When Venkys go, we will rise again without a doubt. With our strong youth set up plus the purchase of several solid experienced players we'd have the makings of a good team. Accompany that with decent owners, sensible investment and an experienced manager and the fans flocking back, the future could become bright very quickly.

[chaddyrovers]

if we are in this league next season, then we defo need experience manager.

[LeChuck]

QPR will be the next rovers btw.

spending millions without thinking of the finanacial problems

Venkys haven't spent millions though. Jordan Rhodes is the one exception. In the final transfer window in the PL we signed Marcus Olsson, Bradley Orr and Modeste.

[GanG2245]

Why are the players playing so badly. isn't that bad for their career? Are they doing this intentionally to force venkys sell?

[TBTF]

We have some cracking youth team players who would do very well in lge 1. The two centre halves are particularly good. Raheem Hanley, Josh Morris etc would also do very well in lge 1. Even fringe players like Nunes and Marcus Olsson would do very well. Youth is our future and I'd much prefer to watch these guys flourish than watch overpaid has beens like Murphy.

Wouldn't bother me seeing 70% of the squad go. Awful bunch.

Seeing 70% of this lot go would be the dream ticket and probably Venks would think that too.However, massive wages for the next 3 years and these mercenaries are going nowhere-at least until they get the dough they could only dream of getting anywhere else.And that my friends would pretty ,much bust us .I honestly cannot see Venkys hanging around and paying those keans off because theres no point.

Shebby saying we are rich in playing assets..... he is a complete dick head.Tell me (other than Rhodes who we would struggle to get £8m back on) who we could sell for much more than £2million??

When Venkys go, we will rise again without a doubt. With our strong youth set up plus the purchase of several solid experienced players we'd have the makings of a good team. Accompany that with decent owners, sensible investment and an experienced manager and the fans flocking back, the future could become bright very quickly.

[jim mk2]

Venkys haven't spent millions though. Jordan Rhodes is the one exception. In the final transfer window in the PL we signed Marcus Olsson, Bradley Orr and Modeste.

Venkys have blown million upon millions millions on severance payments to Sam Allardyce and his team, Steve Kean and his team, Henning Berg and Michael Appleton - indeed it's the severance payment to Berg that has (allegedly) caused Mrs D to blow a fuse and the (alleged) departure of Shaw. They need not have a spent a penny of course by leaving the existing management in place when they took over 2 plus years ago.

[roversfan99]

We have some cracking youth team players who would do very well in lge 1. The two centre halves are particularly good. Raheem Hanley, Josh Morris etc would also do very well in lge 1. Even fringe players like Nunes and Marcus Olsson would do very well. Youth is our future and I'd much prefer to watch these guys flourish than watch overpaid has beens like Murphy.

Players like Markus Olsson and Morris aren't even League 1 standard, we thought our players would be good enough for the league below last year, that Goodwillie, Markus Olsson, Lowe etc would step up and they've all failed miserably with only really a new £8m striker and a keeper we never expected to feature performing to any sufficient level.

[McClarky]

Venkys have blown million upon millions millions on severance payments to Sam Allardyce and his team, Steve Kean and his team, Henning Berg and Michael Appleton - indeed it's the severance payment to Berg that has (allegedly) caused Mrs D to blow a fuse and the (alleged) departure of Shaw. They need not have a spent a penny of course by leaving the existing management in place when they took over 2 plus years ago.

That's the most frustrating thing. Our spectacular demise has been accompanied by the hapless owners shovelling money in at a rate we have never seen before. Proper owners could have done a far better job with a fraction of the money we've lashed out.

[Stuart]

That's the most frustrating thing. Our spectacular demise has been accompanied by the hapless owners shovelling money in at a rate we have never seen before. Proper owners could have done a far better job with a fraction of the money we've lashed out.

Agree. Just hope that the sting in the tail isn't that the money doesn't bury the club under a mountain of debt.

[cesus]

Well, it needs Venky's to sell - but who to?

Nothing really makes sense any more - why haven't they put us on the market?

- Why do they keep changing managers but not admin staff?

- Who is filling in the financial black hole at Ewood Park?

- Now that Venky's plan of bringing on youth players, leasing more experienced players and having a malleable, amenable manager in the dug-out lies in tatters, what is their next strategy?

- Do they really have a strategy?

- What will it take for them to sell - indeed given Balaji's comments, will they ever sell?

- Just how in touch are they with events at Ewood if Balaji thought we could still get promoted?

- Who is the real power behind the throne at Ewood?

- Why have they never communicated with the fans - why such disdain?

I think we're just going to be left to rot, but really, who knows? No-one can force these people to sell, and they seem incapable or unwilling to arrest this slide we're on. They won't even talk to the Seneca consortium, who would seem to be our best hope for a future, so what hope is there? Who else would want to buy a failing, loss-making business with a declining customer base, inept administration consumed with in-fighting, out-of-control costs and ever-declining performance and no real hope of ever getting into the black? It's enough to give Sir John Harvey Jones a migraine.

Presumably we will run out of lines of credit and eventually will go out of business and have to start again in non-league. I just can't see what else could happen, our owners seem unbelievably neglectful.

Excellent post, one I agree with to the full. The key question has to be if Venkys chose to walk away and sell who would/could be wealthy or crazy enough to buy a club that is losing money faster than any club outside of the premier league.

New owners would probably pass out looking at the outgoings against the incomings. Our season ticket holder status wouldn't massively improve even though thousands say they would flock back as the players on show would need to be vastly scaled back (not that it can get much worse but you see my point) to try and close the financial black hole that is BRFC. New owners would have the problem of shifting the deadwood on £25k a week like we had with Zurab a few years ago, signed a contract in good faith and wants to see the cash.

We don't really have the saviour of the past 10 or so years of selling players, only Rhodes would get us over £5 million. The rest may give us a few £3m's at best so that is another door slammed in the face of new owners as Venkys have asset stripped the playing staff.

We have a stadium and two state of the art training facilities, in the championship is pretty tough to sustain this in league one impossible. I pray for new owners but in reality we are too deep in the @#/? to ever recover from this due to asset stripping of the playing side tied in with going away from the model of buying quality young players to sell on for good profit.

[rovers11]

Excellent post, one I agree with to the full. The key question has to be if Venkys chose to walk away and sell who would/could be wealthy or crazy enough to buy a club that is losing money faster than any club outside of the premier league.

New owners would probably pass out looking at the outgoings against the incomings. Our season ticket holder status wouldn't massively improve even though thousands say they would flock back as the players on show would need to be vastly scaled back (not that it can get much worse but you see my point) to try and close the financial black hole that is BRFC. New owners would have the problem of shifting the deadwood on £25k a week like we had with Zurab a few years ago, signed a contract in good faith and wants to see the cash.

We don't really have the saviour of the past 10 or so years of selling players, only Rhodes would get us over £5 million. The rest may give us a few £3m's at best so that is another door slammed in the face of new owners as Venkys have asset stripped the playing staff.

We have a stadium and two state of the art training facilities, in the championship is pretty tough to sustain this in league one impossible. I pray for new owners but in reality we are too deep in the @#/? to ever recover from this due to asset stripping of the playing side tied in with going away from the model of buying quality young players to sell on for good profit.

We'd have to have owners come in who were prepared to lose fortunes but benefit in other ways. That either has to be a fan of the club who's in it just for the passion. Or a consortium that is prepared to lose lots of money but sees the commercial benefit of owning a football club, such as brand exposure.

To be honest, if someone bought the club and tried to run it solely on the income the club generates then we will go nowhere as a club. We could maybe have done that in the premier league with the money that brings but we can't do that now. That's why, although someone like the Rovers Trust would run the club properly, they wouldn't have the finance to do anything with the club. Would the two Ian's just buy the club, run it properly but not be able to put any money into the club?

[ABBEY]

Another scary thought is if these lunes are still here and they dont flog brockhall then we would be against teams who train at the DW at Shad.Puts it in a perspective state .

[JAL]

Interesting watching Crewe v Southend at Wembley and seeing that many of their players have more skill than our players.

[Majiball]

Well given most teams survive in this league on a budget of a about 1.2M-2M for players wages and they struggle financially?

Danny Murphy or a league one squad, choices choices.

[RibbleValleyRover]

If we play in League One next season then there has to be a lot of player turnover to cut our huge wage costs.

Rhodes will be sold at a loss to a Championship club pushing for promotion, he is a proven goalscorer at that level and will thrive on better service. Robinson, Dann, Givet, Martin Olsson, Dunn and Best should all be looking to move on and most will have some clubs interested. Pedersen, Murphy and Etuhu we are probably stuck with until their contracts end as no other clubs will match their wages, though I could see some going out on loan with Rovers having to cover the wage cost. There are a few players that might get some surprising interest from clubs in the Championship, the likes of Kean, Hanley and Marcus Olsson for example.

We are going to have to look to the academy and promote players to the starting lineup. Some of them should be good enough for League One level already and with a bit of development and game time could become decent at that level.

[thenodrog]

Our only hope. If they took over then I think we would get a decent manager who would get us promoted, someone like Curbishley.

Two chances of attracting a top manager for a small time, poorly supported club in Div 1..... a slim one and a fat one. Take your pick rover11.

I'm genuinely expecting Blackburn Rovers to be no more within the next couple of years.

50:50 imo.

QPR have someone willing to back it up with his own money.

They'll keep Redknapp and go straight back up next year, that's my expectation.

Mark Hughes really made a mess of that club. I really don't know what's happened to him.

He must have been infected by supping from the poisoned chalice left by ColinWanker.

[thenodrog]

The severance bill must be astronomical, not to mention the legal bill for the Berg case, and weren't they also taken to court for the Kean video case? I bet that cost them a pretty penny as well.

Given that no one has seen or heard of Kean since then hopefully he might just be wearing concrete boots in the Clyde estuary. Can get people rubbed out for a few bob in Glasgow I'd imagine.

[Plastic Head]

Great post from Tim here!

http://www.brfcs.com/mb/index.php/topic/24876-d-myles-anderson-assumed-signed-my-not-be-yet-confirmed-to-due-jnr-status/