[Archived] "no One Wants To Be Blackburn" - Martin Samuel, Daily Fail

[mustard]

The article's a joke. Skims over pretty much every point and ignores/omits so many key bits of information that the article lacks any real credibility as anything but a bitter opinion piece. Could have been a perfect opportunity for a journalist to do their research and stick the boot in where it's rightfully deserved - at Venky's.

But nope, Martin Samuel is just another fat, lazy "journalist" eager to see Leicester fall, as we did.

[Iceman]

but for 6 years of Venkys existence, every club besides man United, Chelsea, Arsenal the big players, would have aspired to be like us. They would have looked at little Blackburn, the club that ran smoothly under the leadership of John Williams, the club where lifelong fan Jack Walker owned. They would have looked at us and said wow, a town team who won the Premiership, a town team that were in Europe, ended countless times under Mark Hughes in the top 6, reached the FA Cup semi finals 3 times in 4 years under Mark Hughes, won the Worthington Cup. The team that returned from Relegation, that was promoted and stayed in the premier league for 11 consecutive years, where no team fancied to play against.

Fans of clubs would have looked at little Blackburn, and looked at their own team and said, we wish we could have just a small bit of what they were having, a small bit of Glory.

Lets not kid ourselves here, and pretend that we didn't have these memorable years, and that these journalists have the right to rubbish our past achievements based on 6 years of foolishness, and of utter disregard for the club by our lunatic owners.

What Leicester have done is an amazing feat. We won the premiership, got relegated, came back, and for many many years, we earned the respect of all the teams. We achieved things which Leicester can only dream of in the last 20 or so years. So well done Leicester, but Rovers have done it all before... We came, we saw, and we conquered.

Lets not see another 6 years go by, and have these mugs known as Venkys take the club out of its complete existence. @#/? them!

[booth]

but for 6 years of Venkys existence, every club besides man United, Chelsea, Arsenal the big players, would have aspired to be like us. They would have looked at little Blackburn, the club that ran smoothly under the leadership of John Williams, the club where lifelong fan Jack Walker owned. They would have looked at us and said wow, a town team who won the Premiership, a town team that were in Europe, ended countless times under Mark Hughes in the top 6, reached the FA Cup semi finals 3 times in 4 years under Mark Hughes, won the Worthington Cup. The team that returned from Relegation, that was promoted and stayed in the premier league for 11 consecutive years, where no team fancied to play against.

Fans of clubs would have looked at little Blackburn, and looked at their own team and said, we wish we could have just a small bit of what they were having, a small bit of Glory.

Lets not kid ourselves here, and pretend that we didn't have these memorable years, and that these journalists have the right to rubbish our past achievements based on 6 years of foolishness, and of utter disregard for the club by our lunatic owners.

What Leicester have done is an amazing feat. We won the premiership, got relegated, came back, and for many many years, we earned the respect of all the teams. We achieved things which Leicester can only dream of in the last 20 or so years. So well done Leicester, but Rovers have done it all before... We came, we saw, and we conquered.

Lets not see another 6 years go by, and have these mugs known as Venkys take the club out of its complete existence. @#/? them!

Spot on.

[speeeeeeedie]

I think that it's a fair article.

Rovers did balls it up in the summer of '95. Dalglish going upstairs was the start. Harford was never a manager. Excellent coach though.

The vault should have been opened and cash should have been splashed on a couple of European based players sprinkled in with then current Premier League ones.

Where the article goes south is that Samuel fails to mention any of Rovers current plight. Nobody does want to be Blackburn.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Sports journalists should be asking the question of how one time Prem Champions Rov ers have been shafted by Venkys and a town's community lied to.

[Amo]

Bloody hell Toppers, only a league cup to show for it? I guess you never went through most of it to put it like?

Its been the most fantastic ride over the past 25yrs, beyond every Blackburn Rovers fans wildest dreams, I'd not change it for the world.

At the end of the day, it's trophies that count. They're what people remember most.

I'm sure the Champions will be hoping for more silverware than that between now and 2035.

[JC4LAB]

Judged by how long we did manage to stay in the Premiership many clubs can only ever dream of what we have experienced and would love to had what weve had and seen what weve seen

Thought the article is a fair one ..but those remarks viewed out of context do make your blood boil....Same thing can be written about all those other once successful clubs who have fallen away even further than us..Nowadays .who would want to be Villa.Portsmouth..Blackpool .even The once great and Mighty Notts forrest who are stuck ..and maybe soon a relegated Newcastle who are falling and never even won.a raffle.

The Blackburn experience was good while it lasted .

[Iceman]

Judged by how long we did manage to stay in the Premiership many clubs can only ever dream of what we have experienced and would love to had what weve had and seen what weve seen

Thought the article is a fair one ..but those remarks viewed out of context do make your blood boil....Same thing can be written about all those other once successful clubs who have fallen away even further than us..Nowadays .who would want to be Villa.Portsmouth..Blackpool .even The once great and Mighty Notts forrest who are stuck ..and maybe soon a relegated Newcastle who are falling and never even won.a raffle.

The Blackburn experience was good while it lasted .

Don't forget Wolves and Leeds, Coventry, Wednesday, etc

Its basically Venkys that have shafted us, and put us into this terrible spotlight for all to point fingers at

[yoda]

I think that it's a fair article.

Rovers did balls it up in the summer of '95. Dalglish going upstairs was the start. Harford was never a manager. Excellent coach though.

The vault should have been opened and cash should have been splashed on a couple of European based players sprinkled in with then current Premier League ones.

Where the article goes south is that Samuel fails to mention any of Rovers current plight. Nobody does want to be Blackburn.

We won a league cup in between 95 and the lunes turning up. Established mid table PL. Nice work for a town club.

If they had kept the management team the same for 2 seasons it would all be different,

who am I kidding, they are insane

[tonygreenbank]

I`ve read the article and I must say I agree with the comments of Mustard and Iceman.

Samuels has lots of opinions about the events of 1995 and appears to know the mind set of Shearer, Jack Walker and Kenny Dalgleish! He omits two important points which had a direct bearing on the story.

Firstly, he omits to mention that in the November of 1994 Dalgleish approached Jack and asked to be relieved of his duties as he was feeling the pressure. Jack urged him to stay and asked him to wait till the summer and if he felt the same then he could go. Jack was desperate for him to stay but he honoured his word but asked Kenny to move upstairs to ensure continuity with Ray Harford. Clearly this didnt work but it is wrong to suggest that since Kenny wanted out it was down to Jack`s lack of desire.

Secondly, Rovers were still restricted in 1995 to the 3 foreigner rule in the playing squad; we had Kenna and Hendry as two of them and Berg as the third. Rovers 8 Englishmen all played for England so the urge to go out and buy all these foreign players would not have been as big a priority as it has become. Samuels is wrong as the context is so different to the landscape now with foreign players but I have to agree that the recruitment of just Holmes as a homegrown player was a huge mistake.

Jack Walker wanted our club to thrive and develop and I defy anyone to dispute that. The club continued to grow between 2000 and 2010 as other posters have said and Samuels is using cheap shots and lazy journalism to back up his own opinions.

[Pedro]

I think that article is pretty much how I remember it in the summer of 1995. Jack was loyal to the players who won the title whilst Dalglish wanted to move to the next level and bring in more players. Kenny moved upstairs and Ray, who didn't want the job, only took it because Jack wanted him and Ray felt loyalty to Jack. Sadly, it was the beginning of the end and the moment had gone for the Rovers. By the time Jack realised the error and started to throw money at it again under Hodgson, the club was playing catch-up and, of course, the key players of 94-95 had moved on.

Sven mucked us around too. He would have been a cracking appointment at the time.

[Gav]

At the end of the day, it's trophies that count. They're what people remember most.

I'm sure the Champions will be hoping for more silverware than that between now and 2035.

Rubbish, with respect

European trips, cup semi finals, Craig Bellamy, charity shields, Damien Duff, Alan Shearer, Chris Sutton, John Stead, Flowers debut at QPR in front of 4000 Rovers fans, 5-0 demolition of burnley etc etc

Its not just about pots.

[jim mk2]

I`ve read the article and I must say I agree with the comments of Mustard and Iceman.

Samuels has lots of opinions about the events of 1995 and appears to know the mind set of Shearer, Jack Walker and Kenny Dalgleish! He omits two important points which had a direct bearing on the story.

Firstly, he omits to mention that in the November of 1994 Dalgleish approached Jack and asked to be relieved of his duties as he was feeling the pressure. Jack urged him to stay and asked him to wait till the summer and if he felt the same then he could go. Jack was desperate for him to stay but he honoured his word but asked Kenny to move upstairs to ensure continuity with Ray Harford. Clearly this didnt work but it is wrong to suggest that since Kenny wanted out it was down to Jack`s lack of desire.

Secondly, Rovers were still restricted in 1995 to the 3 foreigner rule in the playing squad; we had Kenna and Hendry as two of them and Berg as the third. Rovers 8 Englishmen all played for England so the urge to go out and buy all these foreign players would not have been as big a priority as it has become. Samuels is wrong as the context is so different to the landscape now with foreign players but I have to agree that the recruitment of just Holmes as a homegrown player was a huge mistake.

Jack Walker wanted our club to thrive and develop and I defy anyone to dispute that. The club continued to grow between 2000 and 2010 as other posters have said and Samuels is using cheap shots and lazy journalism to back up his own opinions.

I'm sure Walker wanted the club to thrive but he made a big error in the summer of 1995 by pulling up the financial drawbridge. It's fatal to stand still in football and the team needed investment even though it had just won the championship. It only needed on or two big signings and we could have made a much better defence of our title plus shown to the likes of Shearer et al that the club had ambition. Walker has to take personal responsibility for those failures.

[booth]

Did Harford want the big signings?

[Gav]

Did Harford want the big signings?

Ray wanted to give the current crop another bash at winning the title, he's on record saying that, so probably not.

[Mattyblue]

Ray wanted to give the current crop another bash at winning the title, he's on record saying that, so probably not.

We fell over the finishing line, it was obvious that the team needed fresh blood, massive error and that was our time at the top gone in a flash.

[donnermeat]

I don't know what team Samuel supports but I bet deep down he'd love his team to 'be a Blackburn' and win the Premier League (assuming it isn't Chelsea or Arsenal he follows).

[Mattyblue]

West Ham?

[booth]

According to this, Samuel does support West Ham.

http://www.ja606.co.uk/articles/viewArticle/172173

[Kettledrum]

We fell over the finishing line, it was obvious that the team needed fresh blood, massive error and that was our time at the top gone in a flash.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and whether we like it or not, there is much that Leicester (and other teams) can learn from the mistakes made by Blackburn.

I could see towards the end of the season that the team were running out of steam, and thought we were very lucky with the Manchester United result on the last day of the season. I can also remember being bewildered at the lack of signings during the Summer. We had got used to a regular stream of the very best footballers of the day signing for us, and suddenly the signings all dried up. And as we were offering champions league football, surely we would have been attractive to top stars over the Summer of 1995. I couldn't understand it then and I can't understand it now.

Surely Leicester will not make the same mistake we did - although they are finishing the season strongly, whereas we didn't finish the 1995 season very well.

The other reason that clubs will learn from Blackburn, has to be to do with the current absentee owners who have provided a text book in how to dismantle a successful club by poor governance. Sacking Allardice, losing John Williams, appointing Kean, alienating all the supporters, getting to a position where you have no directors left, no manager wants to come and manage the club, debts are sky high making the club is unsaleable, are all costly mistakes. And you can't see an end to it. It's a long, lingering and painful death of the club....and absolute torture for the fans.

Jack intended to safeguard the long term future of the club, but the Walker Trust arrangement didn't do this.

As the article says - no-one wants to be like Rovers, but the tragic story of the last 6 years is not mentioned.

[RevidgeBlue]

I don't think Samuel is referring to the situation we're in now, I think he is solely referring to the way we imploded immediately after winning the League.

It didn't need wholesale changes in terms of numbers in the summer of 1995 imo just a couple of stellar names to confirm we had arrived at the top table and we're there to stay. Kanchelskis and Le Tissier would have been ideal and "gettable" imo.

[booth]

He refers to the situation we're in now.

[Jim Royle]

1 Relegated 4 seasons after being champions is very bad and something that is justifiably held up as an example of how things can go wrong.

2 Getting back in 2 two seasons, winning a trophy and being a good stable club for the next 9 or so years should be held up as an example of how things can go right.

3 Then these last 5 years with so many tales of woe should also be told as what can go wrong when money is placed in the hands of folk that don't have the clubs best interest at heart.

So all the above are tales worth writing about but Samuels lines are not really about us they are highlighting the link to Leicester now and so only the first line is applicable and what a good reminder it is.

[CAPT KAYOS]

I don't think Samuel is referring to the situation we're in now, I think he is solely referring to the way we imploded immediately after winning the League.

It didn't need wholesale changes in terms of numbers in the summer of 1995 imo just a couple of stellar names to confirm we had arrived at the top table and we're there to stay. Kanchelskis and Le Tissier would have been ideal and "gettable" imo.

Exactly Rev

Its why I stated why I don't think Leicester need to go 'overboard' in terms of spend

[JC4LAB]

As happened with Shearer forever rumoured to be going to Utd ,the money bags name your price clubs will come after their best players...Supported by a pro ManU press expect the usual hyped headlines of Kante seen at Old Trafford. Vardy is a secret Man U fan type of garbage...Sorry Leicester but your current crop are non replaceable..and the vultures are circling above