[Archived] Balaji Rao phone call audio

[JBiz]

Just now, 1arC said:

That's the incredible thing about it. So many people, including Jim White on the Radio last week, have made out that Venky's are not available and do not speak. The caller managed to get Balaji at the first time of asking and had a good few minutes with him on the phone. What is an agency wants to make out that what Venky's are doing, when in reality Blaji at least is contactable and as everyone can hear, he is offering to meet up in London. Also he states that the regenerated money can be kept and used, so perhaps the £30 plus million brought in from sales over the last 18 months has gone to agents, not to the, so called owners. Just a thought!

We all know where at least 3/4 of that debt comes from, paying off contracts that happened to be signed whilst certain hands had control of the till.

The players sales over the past two years are a replacement revenue for parachute payments. 

[G Somerset Rover]

Just now, Jbizzle said:

Jesus Christ.... I find it hilarious that so many groups and the media couldn't get a word out of the owners and then this...

 

I have a funny feeling that Jim knew full well how to get hold of him if he wanted but didn't....

This interview has certainly put pay to the crap about them "watching every single game" etc.

[Crimpshrine]

Hi didn't seem to know we had a match on Friday let alone how important it is.  

Maybe if someone arranges to meet him in London on Monday they could pretend to be TM and he wouldn't know any different.   

[yoda]

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

The media, our board, our managers, but some fan got his number off Twitter  Funny alright. 

Well that's where I got it (via a message) it went to the message system when tried, so this caller was luckier than me, well done I say.

It will be interesting to see what transpires,

will Senior call Balaji to tell him it was a hoax?

Will Balaji get his bar out?

[1arC]

Just now, Jimmy612 said:

Whilst I respect the fan for doing it, does anyone else feel like this is a missed opportunity to actually get some real answers out of Balaji?...

With a structured series of topics and a clear direction for where to take the conversation, this could have been absolute gold dust - as it is now, it's merely an indication of just how detached Venky's are from the situation.

The guy who made the call, had massive bottle to do it and to pull it off. He had no idea before making the call, if he would get away with pretending he was Tony Mowbray. He was literally speaking to him, off the cuff and the stuff he did ask and get answers to, was amazing. If he had known, Balaji was going to be as open as he was, then perhaps you have a point, but the guy is a hero. I know the adrenalin was pumping when he made the call and respect him massively.

[AllRoverAsia]

13 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Don't read my posts or respond if they are boring. 

It is any fans right not to to just unquestioningly believe everything that is posted online. Particularly when there is absolutely no proof that it is real. 

 

 

Open MB - there is a clue there

[Jammy]

Yes it's funny.  But it's what we all presumed anyway.  Not sure if it means anything either.  Just saying that if the real "Tony" wants a chat he might get fobbed off now as this has been done.....

[Guest]

BR: Dobro.
TM: Hello, Mr. Rao. It's Tony. Tony Mowbray? The new manager of Blackburn Rovers.
BR: Yes, yes. Hi.
TM: Hi, yeah. Just wanted to let you know, many thank you for giving me the job, and the first day of training went fantastic.
BR: Right. One second, hah?
TM: Yeah, thank you.
...
BR: How are you? How are you, Tony?
TM: Yeah, thank you very much for giving me the job, I really appreciate it, and the first day of training went brilliant.
BR: Thank you very much...
TM: Yeah.
BR: ...for coming to our family.
TM: Oh, brilliant, it's fantastic! The place is buzzing, and I'm positive we're gonna stay up this season.
BR: That's it. I want that only from you, and then we carry on.
TM: Yeah. So it's in 18-month contract. I'm pleased with that. I'm pleased with the terms. I spoke to Jerome - it's all good, and we're ready to go, and we'll stay up this season, I can assure you.
BR: Lovely.
TM: Yeah, so any chance of seeing you some time soon, or what?
BR: Yes, yes, I'm coming over the day after to Europe. I was there just two days ago in London.
TM: Oh, right!
BR: But then I left, yeah, there I left. Then I'm coming back to [inaudible], then I'm coming one day to London, that'll be on Monday.
TM: Right, maybe we could meet up in London, or maybe come to a game and I'll see you at the game, or...
BR: Yes. You have a game next, next game weekend, sorry?
TM: Well, we're playing Burton on Friday, away at Burton.
BR: Friday?
TM: Yeah, that's away at Burton.
BR: So Monday you can come in? Or you'll be training?
TM: We'll be training on Monday, we'll be training during the week, because obviously we need to get all the trainings in now to stay up. I'll be getting the lads in as much as possible. Yeah, but hopefully you can [BR inaduble]... What about coming to a game? Or... Could you make a game?
BR: I'm... Yeah, I will come back, but I might be little bit [inaudible] when I come into London. I will [inaudible] out.
TM: Brilliant. Yeah, so I've [unintelligible], so hopefully I'll see you soon, umm, and we can arrange something else.
BR: And it is lovely, lovely, to have you, you know? I will always... I will admire you for the last seven years.
TM: Oh, really? Brilliant!
BR: Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!
TM: Yeah, it's a shame... It's a shame Owen couldn't do a bit more but these things happen in football.
BR: But now we'll see how we've done, we're still here, and next year how we'll go up.
TM: Yeah. Brilliant.
BR: If we can stay up.
TM: Brilliant.
BR: We must try to one and two. We will. We will.
TM: We will. I assure... We're gonna need a bit of money - transfer money. You know? Get some players in?
BR: Yeah yeah! [inaudible] ourselves here but then next year I'll come and [inaudible] we can do our best.
TM: Brilliant. So yeah, we'll obviously... We'll stay up this yea, we'll get a couple of our key players down to some new contracts, and, uhh... Yeah... Hopefully we can put s-
BR: Then, once... Once... Once we've survived, I will give you [inaudible]. That is my promise to you.
TM: Promise, yeah?
BR: Yep!
TM: That's good to hear. That's brilliant.
BR: A man's promise.
TM: A man's promise. I hope you are true to your word because, uhh, I have good aspirations for Blackburn Rovers Football Club.
BR: Let me tell you something, I'm [inaudible[... It cannot be something that, uhhh, absurd or something, because uhh, we have to get out of the Championship.
TM: Yeah, of course, of course. We need to get out of this division.
BR: That's it.
TM: Well, it's been absolutely fanastic to s-
BR: Once we are out of this division, that's it! We are in the Premier League.
TM: And the money will come in big time. The fans will come back. The money will be in, and we'll be ready to roll, mate.
BR: And all of the money, I don't want to use anyhere in India, I just want to put it in the club, where it will come. [possible misinterpretation].
TM: So, whatever comes into Blackburn Rovers, you will put back into the club, yeah?
BR: Yeah.
TM: Brilliant.
BR: I have put £350m - £400m from my pocket.
TM: Really? Right, well that's brilliant! Hopefully, fingers crossed, we can move forward from here. Hopefully we'll stay up. Next season, get to the play-offs. You never know, we might go up.
BR: Never know! Never know! I [inaudible] today.
TM: Yeah.
BR: I don't know, [inaudible] that comes and, we might get into the play-offs.
TM: Yeah. Obviously you're probably aware of the fans thoughts at the minute. I've got a lot to deal with, media-wise, tomorrow with the press conference. They're gonna be asking, you know, are you gonna be in the country, are you gonna be giving statements. I just want to know your thoughts, really, now I'm speaking to you one on one.
BR: You can tell them you are speaking to me one on one.
TM: Yeah, because I was in touch with Alan Myers who used to work for the club, and he was hoping to get you across for a fan meeting, but that obviously never happened. I was wondering if that would be do-able in the near-future?
BR: We will come... That I will come back to you and, uhh, where is [inaudible]?
TM: I'm not sure to be honest. I spoke to him a couple of days ago, but that's it.
BR: OK, I will just... I will come back to you in two seconds.
TM: That's fine. I'll speak to you soon.
BR: Bye.
TM: Bye-bye.
 

[yoda]

Just now, 1arC said:

The guy who made the call, had massive bottle to do it and to pull it off. He had no idea before making the call, if he would get away with pretending he was Tony Mowbray. He was literally speaking to him, off the cuff and the stuff he did ask and get answers to, was amazing. If he had known, Balaji was going to be as open as he was, then perhaps you have a point, but the guy is a hero. I know the adrenalin was pumping when he made the call and respect him massively.

Listening to it I thought it had been scripted, awesome if it wasn't.

Your point about transfer money, on the nail I reckon

[Jimmy612]

Just now, 1arC said:

The guy who made the call, had massive bottle to do it and to pull it off. He had no idea before making the call, if he would get away with pretending he was Tony Mowbray. He was literally speaking to him, off the cuff and the stuff he did ask and get answers to, was amazing. If he had known, Balaji was going to be as open as he was, then perhaps you have a point, but the guy is a hero. I know the adrenalin was pumping when he made the call and respect him massively.

Yep, sorry, like I said, great respect for the guy and he held it together brilliantly once Balaji answered.   It's just, in 7 years no-one has got a peep out of this lot and here is a Rovers fan on the blower to Balaji in a very frank and open conversation.   Assuming this will leak back to the family we can pretty much guarantee that this opportunity will never come around again.

I just feel a bit forlorn that there's nothing in there to really interest or awaken the sleeping authorities  - just another exhibition of how pathetically inept our owners are.

 

[Guest]

Just now, Jammy said:

Yes it's funny.  But it's what we all presumed anyway.  Not sure if it means anything either.

I think you're spot on. It's a great thing to have pulled off! But, having listened and attempted a transcript, above, there's nothing particularly damning. It seems like a par for the course conversation you'd expect between a distant owner and a new manager.

[1arC]

Just now, yoda said:

Listening to it I thought it had been scripted, awesome if it wasn't.

Your point about transfer money, on the nail I reckon

No it was off the cuff and just brilliant.

[1arC]

Just now, Jimmy612 said:

Yep, sorry, like I said, great respect for the guy and he held it together brilliantly once Balaji answered.   It's just, in 7 years no-one has got a peep out of this lot and here is a Rovers fan on the blower to Balaji in a very frank and open conversation.   Assuming this will leak back to the family we can pretty much guarantee that this opportunity will never come around again.

I just feel a bit forlorn that there's nothing in there to really interest or awaken the sleeping authorities  - just another exhibition of how pathetically inept our owners are.

 

Just think about this logically. Everyone from outside and Inside the club states that they can't get hold of the owners, or they are waiting to hear back. I would suggest that this is a very convenient smokescreen for the agents to be on charge and hide behind this. Jim White of Talksport and Sky TV was almost certainly doing last weeks phone in at the request of his friend (s). Think about how many people work for Sky who are represented, by this agency and how a certain person, has been given a platform, on more than one occasion , to put his lies out.

[AllRoverAsia]

With Akon's oooooopppps I mean Anon's input the blanks in the transcript can be filled in?

Shame its now too late now to 'arrange' a Senior to Bling call in which Spiv resigns and not in a nice way 

 

[Reedy You're A Star]

Took a lot of balls to try it, but I'm not sure what the point of it is. Doesn't reveal anything new and falsely using the new managers name and slapping it all over social media doesn't exactly give the supporters and manager the best of starts. Could do more harm than good in my opinion.

[davulsukur]

Good work Phil T.

Thanks for that.

[mustard]

Brilliant!  Kudos to the person(s) involved in executing this.

The "spoken to Jerome" comment really tickled me, as did Balaji saying he's admired Tony Mowbray for several years haha.

[Garage Flower]

Quick question for those more in the know than myself, have any of you tried to get in contact with Balaji before and how did that work out for you? If you don't feel comfortable saying on this message board message me or email me on '[email protected]'.

The more I seem to find out from the scraps of information that come into the public domain the more I want to know, I feel that there is a lot more that's been unearthed that's being held back for whatever reason. It was upon stumbling across Glen's blog that I decided I should join this site and start posting as opposed to lurking in the back ground. I don't know what the end game is for the current ownership of our club (whoever is involved). Nothing makes sense. 

[1arC]

Just now, Reidy You're a Star said:

Took a lot of balls to try it, but I'm not sure what the point of it is. Doesn't reveal anything new and falsely using the new managers name and slapping it all over social media doesn't exactly give the supporters and manager the best of starts. Could do more harm than good in my opinion.

That's like saying there was no point in Tommy Cooper. If nothing else, it was a great laugh, but I do actually think some interesting snippits came out too.

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, yoda said:

Listening to it I thought it had been scripted, awesome if it wasn't.

If there's one tell-tale sign that it wasn't scripted, it's the inadvertent talking over each other and cutting sentences short. One of the problems, I think, is how to prove that this is Balaji Rao. I've got not doubts that it is, but proof is always needed if anybody of note is going to take it as genuine.

It would be great if the anonymous caller could help with the transcript, if only for posterity. If anyone else can help with any mistakes, or can make out the inaudible words, please let me know, and I'll update the original I have here along with the transcript above. 

[AllRoverAsia]

Just now, Reidy You're a Star said:

Took a lot of balls to try it, but I'm not sure what the point of it is. Doesn't reveal anything new and falsely using the new managers name and slapping it all over social media doesn't exactly give the supporters and manager the best of starts. Could do more harm than good in my opinion.

I do feel uncomfortable that Mowbray was 'used' but would have had no such reservations had it been Senior or  Cheston.

[MCMC1875]

This call raises the question:

Are the 'partners/stakeholders' preventing/frustrating communication between the club and the owners out of self interest?

[Dunnfc]

Just now, AllRoverAsia said:

I do feel uncomfortable that Mowbray was 'used' but would have had no such reservations had it been Senior or  Cheston.

He's probably got there numbers saved so wouldn't have picked up unless Mowbray was used

[Dunnfc]

Just now, Phil T said:

If there's one tell-tale sign that it wasn't scripted, it's the inadvertent talking over each other and cutting sentences short. One of the problems, I think, is how to prove that this is Balaji Rao. I've got not doubts that it is, but proof is always needed if anybody of note is going to take it as genuine.

It would be great if the anonymous caller could help with the transcript, if only for posterity. If anyone else can help with any mistakes, or can make out the inaudible words, please let me know, and I'll update the original I have here along with the transcript above. 

Full transcript available on venkysout.com

[Guest]

Just now, Dunnfc said:

Full transcript available on venkysout.com

Yep, blanks kindly filled out now!