[Archived] Blackburn, Rovers, Football, Club...

[Stuart]

Just been watching those BFI clips from a century ago, and it had me thinking...

With either armageddon just around the corner, or some major lucky escape triggered by QPR's defeat of FUP, and a few lobotomised Puneans, it looks as though we are at a precipice. The chances of Premier League, Championship or League One in the next three years, or less, seem like a 10:30:60.

It begs the question, what do you want from football?

It would be very easy to say: Premier League playing against the best players in the country and possibly Europe, a chance to watch a Rover or two in an England shirt, a real feel good factor around the town (needed more be than ever). Very easy.

But that particular football 'culture' brings with it some gripes (many of which seem like nice-to-haves at the moment): obscene money changing hands for bog-average players just because they are English (or not English for the same reason); irresponsible wages bringing in players who have no affinity with the fans creating a reciprocal lack of identifying with players and the invisible barriers go up; the hoards of Wiganers, Prestonians and Blackpuddlians (with the greatest of respect to those of you still here now) turning up to watch PL football and, although they don't really care who wins, putting money in the coffers and generating an atmosphere - albeit slightly artificially.

The chances of the next generation of kids being Rovers fans increases massively though as better players join the club. Interest in grass roots football in the area increases as the kids want to emulate the Shearers or Bellamys or Rhodes (he really is the last of his kind as far as I'm concerned - take a straw 'favourite player' poll of anyone under 10 next time you are at Ewood). The chances of playing for Rovers (as a local lad) increase to, as the required standards, the rewards, and the money available as decrease.

But then you take another look at think, do they understand what supporting the team is all about? Do we want kids to know, and even experience, what it means to 'support' their team through good and bad times? Does supporting a struggling team make them more humble, more loyal, more appreciative, better citizens? Or does it make them bitter, down-trodden, lack-lustre moaners, used to losing and simply accepting that's their lot? Does this make them more or less likely to strive to succeed in their own lives? Does it make for a thriving town? The 90s put our town on the map and it brought investment into the area, we are now seeing the reverse.

At best our kids and their kids will have a kind of staunch, maybe coerced, pride rather than something they can brag about:

"C'mon son, get your scarf, you're a Blackburner and Rovers are your team - whether you like it or not"

"But Dad, Uncle Knob'ed says it's got 'Burnley' on my birth certificate ". (Probably doesn't help)

At the same time, the chances of bumping into one of your heroes locally, or them handing you your trophy at your junior football team presentation night increases - even if half the kids there don't even know who he is. How many of your glory hunting Preamier League supporting mates could hope for that? When a kid gets it they really get it and a David Speedie poster when your mate has a Glenn Hoddle one seems a little more genuine, more real.

Can we even hope for a Speedie though? How far do we drop before nobody outside of Ewood has even heard of your players. There are already people I work with who support other clubs, even local ones, who can't name a Rovers player - except for "oh yeah, Rhodes" (probably says more about them, to be fair). I do wonder what kind of club my kids are going to inherit. I expect they won't thank me.

Maybe it's just somewhere to spend time away from your other half, or your parents, or even to spend with your other half, your parents, or your mates. A couple of hours away from the grind where you can behave like an idiot, get all of those frustrations of your chest (in the right way) - surrounded by people who not only let you but join you. Something you belong to - even when the subscribers are getting fewer and fewer. It may seem like home but a working men's club with two old chaps and a whippet, and a barmaid watching Jeremy Kyle might find itself putting up the "snooker table - yours if you can shift it" sign, once the owner dies or his bank will no longer cover the losses.

So what do you want?

Something you can relate to? Something nostalgic that reminds you of your youth, or the stories your dad told you, of hard times scraping together money for the leccy bill (at Ewood and at home) or a golden ticket with dinner-suited doormen welcoming you into the Sky Sports-sponsored function room that is the Premier League? Or somewhere in between? It's not really about how we might get there but what you really want from your... from our football Club.

For what it's worth, I prefer the PL route, more for the town and my kids than myself, but I'm very much in the 'use it or lose it' camp.

[LewisF]

Premier League over anything, any day.

[bluebruce]

Frankly I'm a little sick of the money-corrupted game in general. From the obscene salaries, the dodgy agents, the bribe-happy officials, cheating players, incompetent (or bribed) match officials, the nonsense FUP regulation (and every other change in rules or procedures that just seems to always be timed conveniently to @#/? us over), and worst of all the absolute devastation wreaked upon our great club by these imbeciles who run us.

In the context of all that, the only thing I can find myself caring about is the health of Blackburn Rovers. Therefore I simply want whatever is to our benefit. If we can ditch the owners without going under, that would be marvellous but unlikely. If we can get back to the top table so that our name comes up again in common parlance, great. In the shorter term, if we can get out of FUP and trade again without going down a league or losing all our best assets, I'll take that for now. I can handle Championship football itself (though it is undoubtedly poorer), as long as we are in the fight to go up. Beyond that I only care about us getting the best we can out of life as a town team. The game is corrupt and plastic at pretty much every level, so if we went up I'd just have to shrug that top tier inequity off and be happy we matter again. If we ever go out of business I'll be absolutely done with football as a whole, as there would be nothing left in the game I care about.

[Amo]

I'd take the club being in safe hands. Even if we yo-yo'ed between the Premiership and the Championship, as long as we had competent owners who cared about the club's long-term interests that would be reet with me. In fact, following the WBA model of yo-yo'ing between leagues with a view to top-flight consolidation might be a preferable model for a club of our size and resources.

[roverandout]

I would gladly drop two divisions if it meant getting rid of the dark forces of mordor, then work our way back up

[Tom]

I'd take the club being in safe hands. Even if we yo-yo'ed between the Premiership and the Championship, as long as we had competent owners who cared about the club's long-term interests that would be reet with me. In fact, following the WBA model of yo-yo'ing between leagues with a view to top-flight consolidation might be a preferable model for a club of our size and resources.

'Taking' being a yo yo club is extremely optimistic and these days is very best case scenario.

[Amo]

'Taking' being a yo yo club is extremely optimistic and these days is very best case scenario.

I thought being an established PL side would be the ideal scenario, surely?

[chimbondapie]

I think the rao bunch will drop is fairly soon and it really could go either way . A lot happens quickly in football