[Archived] Rovers part company with Agnew

[LDRover]

Nope

Were you the one who allegedly curled one out in the changing room at the Burnley club shop?

[bob fleming]

That's some memory you have on you there meadows!

As for "Playing with the big boys". That phrase will always resonate with me following Rovers first game away in the Premier League at Anfield. We got beat 2-1, Walters scoring for them and Shearer got an absolute belter in front of the away fans. Anyway walking off the ground some one of the Liverpool fans used those words quite loudly in a thick scouse accent with the added word "laaaaa" at the end. Oh how they all laughed at our expense.

Three years later we went back to Anfield and won the league. Which was nice.

[thenodrog]

The next appointment could be crucial, but which of us has confidence in those who are making the appointments? A recruitment and selection process based on the toss of a coin would be better than anything so far!

I think I've already commented that if the Venkymob had been blindfolded and toosed a coin they would have got their decisions regarding BRFC 50% right instead of approx 90% wrong.

That's some memory you have on you there meadows!

As for "Playing with the big boys". That phrase will always resonate with me following Rovers first game away in the Premier League at Anfield. We got beat 2-1, Walters scoring for them and Shearer got an absolute belter in front of the away fans. Anyway walking off the ground some one of the Liverpool fans used those words quite loudly in a thick scouse accent with the added word "laaaaa" at the end. Oh how they all laughed at our expense.

Three years later we went back to Anfield and won the league. Which was nice.

Was that the 'Anfield Exercise' match Bob?

[bob fleming]

Was that the 'Anfield Exercise' match Bob?

Not sure about that theno, it was 21 years ago! I've had a pint since then!

[blue_n_white99]

"I've kept my powder dry on this subject for some time now, but as Saxo1man30 seems so kean on facts, it seems like it's the right time to share.

People who either know me or have been round here a long time know that both myself and Kamy have had long running problems with Paul (me much much longer, probably a decade or so now), I've tried to get on with him, back in his days of his company being responsible for the club's PR it would have been great if we got on, but we didn't. Which is odd for two guys who like to think they are genuinely nice guys

One thing with it being common knowledge that a bloke that generally likes and gets on with everyone, really doesn't like somebody, word travels and like-minded people open up to you and trust me there are a LOT of people in the club who wanted to see the back of him. I very much doubt it the fans couldn't influence Kean's departure they could influence Paul's. Trust me, this came from inside.

So, you want proof that he wasn't a nice guy, here's a great one and it involves me, so I'm happy to stand by my comments publicly.

Around the time the protests started to game some momentum, I had a clear-the-air meeting with Paul. As I said above, everything would have been so much better if we got on. Whilst there were some odd moments (like him fixating one who OWNED the site, something he could have found out from companies house in 5 mins, and would have been disapointed as it's just Ste and myself) and him getting quite offended when we were joking about some of the conspiracy theories on here I said something like "oh the one about you and Lee going to India to pitch for Chairman and PR officer ... we thought that was hilarious" he seemed to get very very offended at the idea we wouldn't consider him chairman material and started listed his credentials from his Preston days, it mostly went quite well.

The upshot of the meeting was the we agreed that as he believed all Kean needed to do to win the fans over was get in front of them, we'd arrange for Kamy to interview him and if that went ok, we'd talk about doing a public Q&A later. We dutifully interviewed him and to be fair to Paul, whilst I'm told he was ever-present, he didn't dictate the questions and even introduced Kamy to some of the players later (Including Jason Roberts, who thanks to Dunny, had been told that Kamy described him on a podcast as too old and too slow ... awkward!).

So far, so good. I was beginning to this I'd misjudged and he was a nice guy after all.

A couple of days later, Kean is asked on TV (I think was TV, it could have been radio) about the protests and said something along the lines of "I met and was interviewed by one of the protest leaders yesterday". Now at the time Kamy was a free lance journalist and when some of his clients heard he was a protest organiser they were threatening to no longer take his articles.

I promised to sort this out, obviously it was just a misunderstanding, Kean was simply mistaken. Now I didn't want to get a big public apology, that was far from necessary, so I rang Paul and asked him if he'd put together a quick private note that Kamy could pass to his editors say it was a slip of the tounge and nobody would be any worse off. Surely Paul wouldn't want threaten Kamy's livelihood over a simply mistake on Kean's part?

His response (and these words have been indelibly etched in my mind ever since).

"Sorry Glenn, you're playing with the big boys now".

Now, I know as far as proof goes, it'll be my word against his, but I'm happy in the accuracy of my side.

Oh, plus on several occasions he accused me of being behind the protests (and I'm told he told others this too), I had one quite surreal day where he'd caused me no end of problems by telling others (and I'm quoting what I was told) "He's a troublemaker, he's organising the protests" at the same time I got home to some pretty nasty threats (not from any current Action Group committee members I must stress, just "fan boys") for intentionally working against the protests to undermine them! (in my eyes, neither were true, but being accused of polar opposites at the same time was funny).

Utter rubbish. from personal experience the utter fake tossers get caught up in middle management or things like sales, PR and marketing (not everyone in those industries is like that I must stress) or as contestants on the apprentice. Those that really succeed, whilst very focused and driven, to tend to pretty nice guys on the whole based on my experience."

Shows what an absolute turd he really is, to attempt to take away somebody's livelihood on a whim.

Kudos to you and Kamy for being the bigger men, if he'd done it to me I don't think I could be as gracious or as calm as you guys.

[tomphil]

On only one occasion during the seasons we played Stockport did we have a home game on the same day as Burnley, Jan 6 2001 Rovers v Chester FA Cup Round 3 Burnley v Scunthorpe FA Cup Round 3

Be interesting how many "lifelong Rovers fans" were at that alhough there was a decent turn-out, 15000 with a good few from Chester I recall

Around this time PAPR had the contracts to cover home games at Rovers, Bolton and Burnley, stats, match reports & follow up copy and Paul Agnew usually covered whichever match he was at for the Mirror

Ahh the Mirror..... that would explain a few things

[broadsword]

Mind your language..... What a crap attempt at comedy that was. I only watched it cos that Francoise Pascal was in it and she was something else.....

Oh yes please!

[ABBEY]

Were you the one who allegedly curled one out in the changing room at the Burnley club shop?

Ha no

[John]

Blackburn brought to book

It will be three years next Friday since Sam Allardyce was sent to the guillotine at Blackburn Rovers, with the team 13th in the Premier League. They are now 13th in the Championship and it has been interesting over the past few days to discover what they found in the desk of one of the directors who have helped oversee the club's decline.

Paul Agnew used to be just your average press officer, standing at the back of the press room drinking a can of John Smith's, before Venky's decided to give him the title of operations director.

It never worked out, in keeping with much of the Venky's era, and he was removed in June. The book they found afterwards and it really should be passed round the office was entitled How to Run a Football Club.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/dec/07/manchester-united-arsene-wenger-midfield?CMP=twt_gu

[yoda]

Blackburn brought to book

It will be three years next Friday since Sam Allardyce was sent to the guillotine at Blackburn Rovers, with the team 13th in the Premier League. They are now 13th in the Championship and it has been interesting over the past few days to discover what they found in the desk of one of the directors who have helped oversee the club's decline.

Paul Agnew used to be just your average press officer, standing at the back of the press room drinking a can of John Smith's, before Venky's decided to give him the title of operations director.

It never worked out, in keeping with much of the Venky's era, and he was removed in June. The book they found afterwards and it really should be passed round the office was entitled How to Run a Football Club.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/dec/07/manchester-united-arsene-wenger-midfield?CMP=twt_gu

It should be passed round the hills of Pune

[tomphil]

He obviously never read the thing.

[perthblue02]

Wonder who wrote it ? Are they sure it was a book, and not a share offer document for the syndicate ? Wonder if there's an Italian and Malay language version of it floating around

[Amo]

It never worked out, in keeping with much of the Venky's era, and he was removed in June. The book they found afterwards and it really should be passed round the office was entitled How to Ruin a Football Club.

Fixed it for ya.

[Mike Graham]

I read that article in the Observer today. I expect the book was large print and Shagnew failed to get past the instruction page which told him to turn over the page and read aloud: "I must lick Mrs D's shoes and then her bottom".

[Brfcrule1]

I've kept my powder dry on this subject for some time now, but as Saxo1man30 seems so kean on facts, it seems like it's the right time to share.

People who either know me or have been round here a long time know that both myself and Kamy have had long running problems with Paul (me much much longer, probably a decade or so now), I've tried to get on with him, back in his days of his company being responsible for the club's PR it would have been great if we got on, but we didn't. Which is odd for two guys who like to think they are genuinely nice guys

One thing with it being common knowledge that a bloke that generally likes and gets on with everyone, really doesn't like somebody, word travels and like-minded people open up to you and trust me there are a LOT of people in the club who wanted to see the back of him. I very much doubt it the fans couldn't influence Kean's departure they could influence Paul's. Trust me, this came from inside.

So, you want proof that he wasn't a nice guy, here's a great one and it involves me, so I'm happy to stand by my comments publicly.

Around the time the protests started to game some momentum, I had a clear-the-air meeting with Paul. As I said above, everything would have been so much better if we got on. Whilst there were some odd moments (like him fixating one who OWNED the site, something he could have found out from companies house in 5 mins, and would have been disapointed as it's just Ste and myself) and him getting quite offended when we were joking about some of the conspiracy theories on here I said something like "oh the one about you and Lee going to India to pitch for Chairman and PR officer ... we thought that was hilarious" he seemed to get very very offended at the idea we wouldn't consider him chairman material and started listed his credentials from his Preston days, it mostly went quite well.

The upshot of the meeting was the we agreed that as he believed all Kean needed to do to win the fans over was get in front of them, we'd arrange for Kamy to interview him and if that went ok, we'd talk about doing a public Q&A later. We dutifully interviewed him and to be fair to Paul, whilst I'm told he was ever-present, he didn't dictate the questions and even introduced Kamy to some of the players later (Including Jason Roberts, who thanks to Dunny, had been told that Kamy described him on a podcast as too old and too slow ... awkward!).

So far, so good. I was beginning to this I'd misjudged and he was a nice guy after all.

A couple of days later, Kean is asked on TV (I think was TV, it could have been radio) about the protests and said something along the lines of "I met and was interviewed by one of the protest leaders yesterday". Now at the time Kamy was a free lance journalist and when some of his clients heard he was a protest organiser they were threatening to no longer take his articles.

I promised to sort this out, obviously it was just a misunderstanding, Kean was simply mistaken. Now I didn't want to get a big public apology, that was far from necessary, so I rang Paul and asked him if he'd put together a quick private note that Kamy could pass to his editors say it was a slip of the tounge and nobody would be any worse off. Surely Paul wouldn't want threaten Kamy's livelihood over a simply mistake on Kean's part?

His response (and these words have been indelibly etched in my mind ever since).

"Sorry Glenn, you're playing with the big boys now".

Now, I know as far as proof goes, it'll be my word against his, but I'm happy in the accuracy of my side.

Oh, plus on several occasions he accused me of being behind the protests (and I'm told he told others this too), I had one quite surreal day where he'd caused me no end of problems by telling others (and I'm quoting what I was told) "He's a troublemaker, he's organising the protests" at the same time I got home to some pretty nasty threats (not from any current Action Group committee members I must stress, just "fan boys") for intentionally working against the protests to undermine them! (in my eyes, neither were true, but being accused of polar opposites at the same time was funny).

Utter rubbish. from personal experience the utter fake tossers get caught up in middle management or things like sales, PR and marketing (not everyone in those industries is like that I must stress) or as contestants on the apprentice. Those that really succeed, whilst very focused and driven, to tend to pretty nice guys on the whole based on my experience.

Me, there, that's my picture on the left.

You know what, when I came down for breakfast that morning and you all showed me it, my first though was "Paul is going to hit the roof", I did try to explain to him that it was me (which was obvious when I calmed down as the use of English that made it sound like I was doing and impression of Ranjeet from Mind Your Language*) but I don't think he spoke to me again after that.

Talking of India, at the point where (I'm told, I have no proof) he was actively trying to prevent me going, I was talking to him about giving the fans a bit of a PR primer (so we didn't get stitched up by the media), he agreed saying it was probably a very sensible thing ..... unlike John Newsome's scary safety briefing, the PR one never materialised.

I've got a lot more, some first hand, some second, but I'll save those for another day. Kamy has a belter, but sadly we don't know if he can discuss it publicly. But it not of shows off Paul's arrogance (and dislike of either this site of Kamy and myself) but it has a really sweet ending too

Now THAT I agree with

(*Go and look up Mind Your Language on YouTube, younger readers will be amazed at what acceptable prime time TV in the 70s)

Glenn I hope after he felt offended you asked him so where are PNE these days. I would also like to clear up what was actually said by Kean on SSN I can confirm it was on tv not radio as I still have the interview on disk I can confirm Kean did NOT say "I met and was interviewed by one of the protest leaders yesterday" that I can confirm he said on tv Kean's exact words were "yesterday I agreed to do a full podcast for a group of fans I was up front and honest with all my answers and answered every question asked of me" I remember it well as it was the infamous between Kamy & Kean I must also admit after I heard the clown on tv I almost fell out of my chair putting Kean & honest in the same sentence is just laughable also after I spoke to Kamy I was surprised he kept a straight face I know I would never have been able to keep a straight face.

Mind your language..... What a crap attempt at comedy that was. I only watched it cos that Francoise Pascal was in it and she was something else.....You younger readers should google her instead. Unfortunately she's gone off somewhat since she qualified for a bus pass.

btw Glenn I hope you sent him a txt when his exit was confirmed "Sorry Paul, you're playing with the big boys now".

Very good Gordon.

Maybe there will be some interesting stuff leaked to the media soon.

Nobody likes being sacked, some try to move-on, but others will always want revenge.

I swear to god if I ever saw the slimeball Agnew in the street I will not be held responsible for my actions!.

[philipl]

Yes Agnew was horrifically bad news for Rovers.

[Mike Graham]

I am told he was at Wycombe v PNE at the weekend.

[Guest Norbert]

Why would a Blackburn born and bred man want to watch the nob enders?...................

[blue_n_white99]

Why would a Blackburn born and bred man want to watch the nob enders?...................

cos he's a lying @#/?

[thenodrog]

Why would a Blackburn born and bred man want to watch the nob enders?...................

Lest we forget it was Paul Agnew who wrote Sir Tom Finney's autobiography. Shouldn't be surprised to find him and Degsy enjoying regular corporate hospitality at Old Trafford these days. They'll both be so far up Moyes's arse that they'll see daylight. I bet Agnews penned a few chapters for Moyesy already.

[Wiggy]

However, he was also at Bloomfield Road when we played Blackpool the other week......looking very sheepish.

[Guest Norbert]

I was being sarcastic by the way, which is hard to get across with text. You'd have to be very, very naive to think he wasn't a conniving c_ntbag.

[Leonard Venkhater]

Lest we forget it was Paul Agnew who wrote Sir Tom Finney's autobiography. Shouldn't be surprised to find him and Degsy enjoying regular corporate hospitality at Old Trafford these days. They'll both be so far up Moyes's arse that they'll see daylight. I bet Agnews penned a few chapters for Moyesy already.

Haha...you said that like he wrote Hitler's autobiography!

I remember he was Rovers fan when he was a kid. Later, he did have a big involvement with North End.

The playing with the big boys phrase is the one that rankles with me...from a mere PR man, masquerading as a management official. Is he doomed to walk the earth ( well Blackburn market), despised by his fellow man like a a modern day Cain?....

[broadsword]

Unclean, unclean!

[Mike Graham]

"How to Manage a Football Club"?

Surely the book should have been "How to Manage a Hairdressers Parlour". He looks just like the Lawro, the fruity North Ender.