[Archived] Mike Cheston Interview

[chaddyrovers]

http://m.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/14471425._We_need_to_live_within_our_financial_means___Q_A_with_Blackburn_Rovers_director_Mike_Cheston/?ref=mac

He does say funds will be available but within the budget tho

[gumboots]

What a load of nothing! It says exactly the same as yesterday, that nobody has a clue what to do.

[Athlete]

http://m.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/14471425._We_need_to_live_within_our_financial_means___Q_A_with_Blackburn_Rovers_director_Mike_Cheston/?ref=mac

What an absolute joke we need these jokers gone asap

Everythings going to be squeezed

He mentions Pasha supports him but also mentions the owners advisors whilst alluding to who they are

You can bet the contracts offered to those out of contract won't be anything near what their on now so you know what will happen there

He says they want a manager with a track record of bringing through the young players like Eddie Howe

There's actually more questions to that interview than actual answers

We need these clowns gone

http://m.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/14471425._We_need_to_live_within_our_financial_means___Q_A_with_Blackburn_Rovers_director_Mike_Cheston/?ref=mac

He does say funds will be available but within the budget tho

Read between the lines those funds will be very limited and the wages won't be. attractive to anyone half decent

[AllRoverAsia]

He's a ''Jack of all Trades'' and master of (maybe) one. Rovers are going south fast................ as in down the drain

FECKWITS the lot of them.

I've been to visit with a local Monk who is highly regarded for casting bad spells...........and he'll be putting one on the Venky/Rao clan. Relay that back to your paymasters in Pune Khun Pasha.

http://m.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/14471425._We_need_to_live_within_our_financial_means___Q_A_with_Blackburn_Rovers_director_Mike_Cheston/?ref=mac

He does say funds will be available but within the budget tho

He should be asked to put a figure on the Budget available ... he's a finance guy FFS..It's all smoke and mirrors - Cheston is the 'local' Venky wallah overseeing Rovers demise

[JohnD]

Sound and sensible comments, we do have to survive within the budget as all businesses do.

[ABBEY]

http://m.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/14471425._We_need_to_live_within_our_financial_means___Q_A_with_Blackburn_Rovers_director_Mike_Cheston/?ref=mac

He does say funds will be available but within the budget tho

chaddy do you believe again?

funds .? the normal venky lies. Remind me how Beckham ,Maradonna, champions league ,Ronaldinho and the £50 million budget went.

#teamlambeert #venkysout

Marquee signings...haha venkys have not even bough a gizobo for a bbq

[Iceman]

But there are no plans to have a replacement MD or CEO

Good grief and good night!

[Speedie Dived]

What's worrying is the constant referral to FFP, It's dead in all but name. He then directly quotes teams with smaller budgets doing better than us, like that's a magic winning formula.

Looks like we are looking for the next Eddie Howe (who has been bank rolled by a billionaire and have just paid a £7.5 million fine after failing FFP) to save us. These prats have no idea what they are doing on any level at all.

[patrickvalery]

Conversations. That seems to be the plan here. There's gonna be a good amount, ney, a huge whopping amount of chit-chat going on. And as a result of all this conversation we will formulate a plan to become better commercially.

"But has anyone actually got and ideas about how to do this Mike?"

"Well we intend to discuss this"

"But football won't stand still and wait for us to decide what we're going to do. Half our squad can walk out the building this summer Mike"

"Yes I understand that to be the case. What we intend to do is sit down and chat with everyone about this."

"Chat with who Mike? The coaches might not even be here. And we're not in a hurry to get a new manager in. Why don't you have a conversation with the players out of contract to see if they're happy to put their careers on hold while we finish having discussions internally? I'm sure they'd all oblige."

"Good idea. I'll add it to the agenda for our scheduled September meeting. In the meantime I must dash. Got a little sit down chat this afternoon about how to improve communications at he club"

"Oh yeah. Who's going to be there?"

"Well, um, just me for now. But that's hopefully what we're going to discuss. How we can get me a little support moving forward"

[OJRovers]

No plans to appoint a chief exec or MD

Ridiculous and just shows how clueless the owners really are.

How can the LT print this without challenging it?

We're on a fast-track to League One

[Athlete]

Read the comments section underneath what planet are some of those venkyites on

Some people are so thick it's unreal

[DE.]

Some people will make excuses for Venky's until the day we go out of business. If anybody is still supporting them at this point they aren't worth bothering with.

Cheston's doing a thousand jobs at once so I doubt he's really aware of everything that's going on. It sounds to me like everything is essentially being run out of India through "advisers" and other unknown Venky employees. As always, the UK board (what's left of it) is just there to dot the i's and cross the t's. As long as Venky's believe this is the right way to run the club we're basically screwed regardless of who takes the manager's seat.

[JHRover]

I've no problems with getting the club on an steady footing and trying to make it less reliant on the owners funding. It probably means we can wave goodbye to promotion in the immediate future, but there is no reason we can't be very competitive in this division like many other clubs are without the need for massive owner hand outs.

Presumably the £20 million pocketed from player sales won't be reinvested into transfer funds or wages or improvements. That will disappear into a black hole and yet strangely enough i don't expect the £100 million 'debt' to be reduced by 20% because of it.

No plans to appoint an MD or CEO = disaster waiting to happen

No immediate plans to bring in any more directors, merely appointing staff to bolster the commercial department = disaster waiting to happen

Who are the 'owners representatives'?

No questions asked about getting the owners themselves to communicate or set out their plan. I thought money was no problem to them

Absolutely nothing wrong with a club run as a business if it has the right structure running it. I refuse to accept at the Finance Director doubling up as Operations Manager with no other active board members is the right structure, and I don't care what spin Cheston wants to put on it.

How convenient that this interview is going to be followed very shortly by season ticket prices. I bet he wouldnt have spoken if they didn't have tickets to sell. He's preparing the groundwork for an increase in prices, that much is obvious.

There's clearly very little by way of a plan other than the owners don't want to keep pumping in £15-20 million a year. How to achieve those reductions whilst remaining competitive in this league needs to be very carefully planned and thought out. Strangely enough Gary Bowyer was actually achieving results on a limited budget and achieving FFP compliance whilst developing players but he was binned mid season for a manager that demanded money to spend.

If they think this is the job for a young manager then its going to be a disaster. This is a job for someone with experience who knows how to keep a side afloat whilst cost cutting and unearthing quality on a very limited budgets.

[K-Hod]

Read the comments section underneath what planet are some of those venkyites on

Some people are so thick it's unreal

It's not worth my blood pressure reading the comments section of Rovers stories in the LT. It's either dingles on a wind up, or ostriches without a clue.

Anyway, I don't think it could be any more frustrating how soft the questions the LT reporters ask are, I'm sure one of them posted on here at one point. Wheelock just seems unwilling to rock the boat. Anything for an easy life....

As much as Cryer has been a chip on his shoulder goon since leaving, he at least had the spuds to ask the more difficult questions (eventually).

[davulsukur]

Alot of these things we've heard before and the actions, or lack of, spoke louder than the words:

We’ll certainly do our best at the club to address any shortcomings we have, such as communication.

The above, for example is something we read from whichever puppet is in place at the end/start of the season. From the day Venky's took control of the club, communication has been appalling. That's communication with the fans and with the staff/players/manager in place at Ewood Park.

[JHRover]

"We need to remember there are lots of positives at the club. We've got the facilities at the stadium, training ground and academy"

That's right Mike. And who do we have to be thankful to for all that? Jack Walker. Not his disgraceful trust fund and not the disgraceful Venkys.

Isn't it telling that after more than 5 years at the helm of this football club that the only positives Cheston can go for are the superb infrastructure that JACK WALKER delivered and Venkys have merely maintained or made cosmetic improvements to (the one thing they haven't been able to dismantle and demolish easily)

Sums their tenure up.

"What we need is the support and we'll be working very hard to achieve that"

There spoke an accountant. Football support is not something you can just achieve through making a bit of an effort from time to time. Football support is unique. It is built up by success on the pitch, communication, engagement on a regular basis, pioneering initiatives, giving people reason to be positive for the future. Other clubs have whole teams of people working all day every day to sell as many tickets as possible, sell as much sponsorship as possible. MK Dons have built up a fanbase from nothing because theyve had the right people doing it.

What have the club been doing to 'achieve' the support for the majority of this season? The owners haven't spoke, Pasha hasn't spoke, Cheston hasn't spoke. The only one speaking has been Lambert and none of it good to hear.

[DE.]

The academy hasn't been much use to us in recent years. How many first teamers, or even squad players, have come through since we've been in the Championship? Keep in mind Henley, Lowe and Hanley were all brought in during our final PL campaign. The produce from our academy has been negligible in terms of quality or money from sales.

[ABBEY]

With gates of 6000 next season

[arbitro]

Interestingly he talks about growing the commercial side of the club. That kind of sums up the current level of insanity at our club. How on earth can the commercial aspect of Rovers grow when we have an ever decreasing customer base? We have countless boxes empty, less sponsorship, lowest income from merchandise in perhaps twenty five years and a really low number of people on corporate packages.

He is exactly what it says on the tin - an accountant. The desperate need for a CEO has been overlooked and whilst this situation remains we will regress.

[den]

"But were in a better place than a lot of other clubs. We are FFP compliant and up to date with all our responsibilities to HRMC and regulatory bodies. Were no longer facing an embargo and have owners who continue to invest in the club."

I read that, then look at where we really are. He's kidding himself - and he's trying to kid us. I would have much more respect for him if he would cut out all this "things are fine" and " there is no rush to do anything " approach. I know nothing of Mike Cheston, but on his first interviews it seems to me he's just watching the brushwood blow by.e

Where are the people who know how to change the current direction the club is going in?

[rovers11]

I agree about living within your means as I wouldn't want them to put the clubs existence at risk. However, you have to look at the riches involved in getting promoted. It would wipe out the debt, put us in profit each year, and make the club a very sellable asset. Surely, even from a business point of view, it's worth investing in the squad and trying to get to the promise land?

Instead, they're content to cut back, keep running costs as low as possible, develop players and sell for a profit, and just stay in the championship.

We're a bottom 8 team currently with further reduction in the quality of the squad to come over the summer.

I'm afraid that's not acceptable.

In terms of potential buyers, I'd say any championship club is a very attractive prospect. The new tv deal is a game changer, you can make a fortune by buying a championship club and getting them promoted with steady investment. Look at Wednesday this year for example. That's the difference between now and when we were looking for a buyer last time.

[LJW]

people asking for him to put a figure on the budget need to get real. What other sort of business would divulge that sort of information to a journalist? Jeeez. Put it this way, if he did, then other clubs will know a ball park figure of what we are operating with in terms of a transfer fee and it would give the selling club ammo to try and raise the price of their player

[den]

Where are the people who know how to change the direction, that the club is currently going in?

I don't see any.

[Mattyblue]

Where are the people who know how to change the direction, that the club is currently going in?

I don't see any.

Indeed, he sounds like he has been appointed by an Administrator, not that he is an actual board member of the club, with ideas on strategy and future direction.

[ABBEY]

Interestingly he talks about growing the commercial side of the club. That kind of sums up the current level of insanity at our club. How on earth can the commercial aspect of Rovers grow when we have an ever decreasing customer base? We have countless boxes empty, less sponsorship, lowest income from merchandise in perhaps twenty five years and a really low number of people on corporate packages.

He is exactly what it says on the tin - an accountant. The desperate need for a CEO has been overlooked and whilst this situation remains we will regress.

Exactly .. Just like mg puppet asking advice about merchandise on here,spoke volumes . The tossers want commercial and merch sales but for some strange reasons they don't give s toss about fans with season tickets

I agree about living within your means as I wouldn't want them to put the clubs existence at risk. However, you have to look at the riches involved in getting promoted. It would wipe out the debt, put us in profit each year, and make the club a very sellable asset. Surely, even from a business point of view, it's worth investing in the squad and trying to get to the promise land?

Instead, they're content to cut back, keep running costs as low as possible, develop players and sell for a profit, and just stay in the championship.

We're a bottom 8 team currently with further reduction in the quality of the squad to come over the summer.

I'm afraid that's not acceptable.

In terms of potential buyers, I'd say any championship club is a very attractive prospect. The new tv deal is a game changer, you can make a fortune by buying a championship club and getting them promoted with steady investment. Look at Wednesday this year for example. That's the difference between now and when we were looking for a buyer last time.

You don't want them to put the clubs existence at risk ????

WAKEY CHUFFING WAKEY