Venkys - Welcome or Not?

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

13 minutes ago, arbitro said:

How on earth can we play a part and look after them a little bit?

The are (allegedly) billionaires.

Maybe he is paving the way for an announcement about furloughing staff.

That's how I read it also.

[AllRoverAsia]

If Waggott just fuxked off it would save quite a few quid. Mind the door on the way out Steve.

[tomphil]

4 hours ago, Miller11 said:

Waggott with some disgraceful comments today...

“I have been in discussions with Tony every day on player welfare as well as the business side, and my view is that the owners have been very good to the club over the last nine years since they took over the ownership of the club and it’s now time for us to play a part and look after them a little bit as we go through a turbulent time. I’m looking across the board how we can pay all the people we can for as long as possible.”

This on the back of Nixons comments at the weekend are just priming for the inevitable. It was going to happen anyway at some point but this will have forced the issue. The borrowings will be stretched to the limit on the back the assets available to sell now.

This situation can't be helped but if Vs are prepared to fund it through this crisis and these lot are saying it's ok we'll try and do it ourselves those in the middle will be rubbing their hands again.

Seeing as the biggest asset is worth nothing at the moment my approach would be cut all the deadwood completely then try and keep the best young players etc. The opposite is likely to happen so fasten your seat belts these lot running it will do anything to make themselves look good in the owners eyes.

Signing shite and carrying other rubbish to be nice and make up numbers will prove costly yet again i'd wager.

Edited April 1, 2020 by tomphil

[Mattyblue]

What did Nixon say?

[tomphil]

Just the usual guff in his Sunday column along the lines of Vs share price tumbling will have a knock on effect for Rovers.

When he starts chiming in on this subject something usually follows. 

[Stuart]

9 hours ago, Miller11 said:

Waggott with some disgraceful comments today...

“I have been in discussions with Tony every day on player welfare as well as the business side, and my view is that the owners have been very good to the club over the last nine years since they took over the ownership of the club and it’s now time for us to play a part and look after them a little bit as we go through a turbulent time. I’m looking across the board how we can pay all the people we can for as long as possible.”

That bloke has just show himself up for exactly what he is.

[DeeCee]

15 minutes ago, Stuart said:

That bloke has just show himself up for exactly what he is.

Again

 

[TBTF]

7 hours ago, tomphil said:

This on the back of Nixons comments at the weekend are just priming for the inevitable. It was going to happen anyway at some point but this will have forced the issue. The borrowings will be stretched to the limit on the back the assets available to sell now.

This situation can't be helped but if Vs are prepared to fund it through this crisis and these lot are saying it's ok we'll try and do it ourselves those in the middle will be rubbing their hands again.

Seeing as the biggest asset is worth nothing at the moment my approach would be cut all the deadwood completely then try and keep the best young players etc. The opposite is likely to happen so fasten your seat belts these lot running it will do anything to make themselves look good in the owners eyes.

Signing shite and carrying other rubbish to be nice and make up numbers will prove costly yet again i'd wager.

Thing is Tomphil , what is any asset worth now? Hard to envisage big transfer fees and huge salaries going forward across the football world . Not necessarily a bad thing but the game is currently being shown up for furloughing non playing staff ( which as taxpayers will end up with us ) whilst players are waltzing off with their huge salaries . Must be a bit galling for nhs staff to be setting off every day to do what they do when that’s going on .

Its like everything across the entire world will come out of this and absolutely everything will be halved. Apart from our bloody debt . How that then ever gets paid back god only knows but then again was it ever going to be ??? 
Scary times 

Edited April 1, 2020 by TBTF

[tomphil]

11 hours ago, TBTF said:

Thing is Tomphil , what is any asset worth now? Hard to envisage big transfer fees and huge salaries going forward across the football world . Not necessarily a bad thing but the game is currently being shown up for furloughing non playing staff ( which as taxpayers will end up with us ) whilst players are waltzing off with their huge salaries . Must be a bit galling for nhs staff to be setting off every day to do what they do when that’s going on .

Its like everything across the entire world will come out of this and absolutely everything will be halved. Apart from our bloody debt . How that then ever gets paid back god only knows but then again was it ever going to be ??? 
Scary times 

If Venkys are still willing to plug the hole from their vast cash pile then why not let them they do it anyway so a few more quid won't hurt. Maybe have to sell one to help comply with FFP but then cut costs by finally draining the swamp.  Noises Waggots making is self sufficiency but why try and force that model right now just because there might be plenty saleable players ?

In doing so breaking up the building of a potential promotion squad in the future which would solve the self sufficiency drive overnight, for a few years at least. 

Leave the fire sale stuff until they have to turn the tap off again for whatever reason. As you've pointed out it'll probably end up a buyers market so hold firm no point having to sell loads to garner what you might get for one or two under normal circumstances. We can be in decent shape if they hold their nerve due to the younger players so for crying out loud don't sell them get rid of the 10k per week water carriers.

Trouble is those are the ones this manager seems most fond of !

Edited April 2, 2020 by tomphil

[tomphil]

13 hours ago, Stuart said:

That bloke has just show himself up for exactly what he is.

It sounds like they want to start selling players, now why would that be ?

[matt83]

On 01/04/2020 at 11:06, Miller11 said:

Waggott with some disgraceful comments today...

“I have been in discussions with Tony every day on player welfare as well as the business side, and my view is that the owners have been very good to the club over the last nine years since they took over the ownership of the club and it’s now time for us to play a part and look after them a little bit as we go through a turbulent time. I’m looking across the board how we can pay all the people we can for as long as possible.”

Where was that from? Really annoyed me that. He’s no idea what went on before he arrived. But any idiot can see mid table premier league team before owners arrived to mid table championship (as an improvement) isn’t great. He probably couldn’t even point to where Blackburn was on a map before he got on board the gravy train 

[Proudtobeblue&white]

2 hours ago, matt83 said:

Where was that from? Really annoyed me that. He’s no idea what went on before he arrived. But any idiot can see mid table premier league team before owners arrived to mid table championship (as an improvement) isn’t great. He probably couldn’t even point to where Blackburn was on a map before he got on board the gravy train 

Ah, but the accounts show who pays the piper.

He won't suggest a pay cut?

[Stuart]

11 hours ago, tomphil said:

It sounds like they want to start selling players, now why would that be ?

Which is exactly why we needed to take advantage while we had the time and not waste it on another steady eddy.

Let’s hope you are wrong but at least now everything can be blamed on Coronavirus. Everyone at the club is now absolved.

[Miller11]

6 hours ago, matt83 said:

Where was that from? Really annoyed me that. He’s no idea what went on before he arrived. But any idiot can see mid table premier league team before owners arrived to mid table championship (as an improvement) isn’t great. He probably couldn’t even point to where Blackburn was on a map before he got on board the gravy train 

Interview in the Telegraph the other day. Just before the accounts were released.

Obviously loads of people are using this as an excuse to trot out the old ‘they are investing’, ‘we’d be another Bury without them’, and ‘They were badly advised’ lines. Waggott isn’t stupid, his timing is spot on in keeping that pretence alive.

[Stuart]

Funny isn’t it. All these threads about our favourite memories as a Rovers fans and the good times.

None of them from the Venkys era...

[Oldgregg86]

Mulgrews header at Doncaster. That will probably be the only highlight in their whole tenure at this rate and the fact we should never have been there in the first place slightly taints it somewhat

[matt83]

1 hour ago, Stuart said:

Funny isn’t it. All these threads about our favourite memories as a Rovers fans and the good times.

None of them from the Venkys era...

Yeah. That’s why I feel sorry for the young fans of the last decade. Genuinely trying to think of highlights during the Venkys reign. For me:

- Kean leaving. (But they still never actually sacked the lying prick.)Celebrated that like a trophy win  

- Promotion from league one. (In a fighting over the crumbs kind of way). 

- Someone hitting one of the Venkys entourage with a snowball.

I think some might include beating Utd away or staying up at moleneux but on both occasions I personally felt a bit sick as knew the porcine toad would continue to fuck us over long term (as ultimately happened).

Cant even think of a great cup win. Did we beat Arsenal maybe. I know we “upset” the likes of stoke and Swansea but meh. 

Edited April 4, 2020 by matt83

[matt83]

In fact during this isolation I’ve been rereading the Mike Jackman Blackburn Rovers the complete record. It ends season 2008/09. If there’s another one from then to the present day it may as well be sold in the horror section.  

[bluebruce]

So, I was just looking at RB Leipzig's 'history'. They are only 11 years old, after Red Bull bought some village team near Leipzig called SSV Markranstädt and renamed them RB Leipzig. They started off in the 5th tier of German football, with a plan to invest 100 million Euros over the next 10 years (I don't know how much they actually ended up spending).

11 years later, they've just reached the quarter finals of the Champions League. By 2016, after 7 years, they were in the top tier of the Bundesliga. They have a stadium of more than 10k capacity above ours, which they've been pretty much filling since 2016. Yes, Leipzig is much bigger (600k pop, 1.1 mill in the 'urban area', no rival local club of note) but this club didn't exist until recently so it didn't have generations of loyal support to inherit.

I say all of that to contrast with ourselves - 10 years of Venkys rule have taken us from a mid-table top-flight club with loads of history and generations of supporters, to quickly being a second tier mid-table side, briefly being a tier 3 outfit. With some 200 million pounds or so squandered, and attendances dropping to 14k.

Can you get more opposite in your trajectories than that? Double the spend (if the Leipzig figure is right) and whereas they got 4 promotions and Champions league quarter finalists with great crowds, we dropped a league, briefly two, and nearly halved our attendances.

Just goes to show what good, responsible ownership with a vision can achieve. Even if I don't like how corporate the whole 'Red Bull owning numerous football clubs' thing is.

[bluebruce]

On 01/04/2020 at 11:06, Miller11 said:

Waggott with some disgraceful comments today...

“I have been in discussions with Tony every day on player welfare as well as the business side, and my view is that the owners have been very good to the club over the last nine years since they took over the ownership of the club and it’s now time for us to play a part and look after them a little bit as we go through a turbulent time. I’m looking across the board how we can pay all the people we can for as long as possible.”

Christ, only just seen this. 'As we go through a turbulent time'...fucking hell Steve, we've been going through a turbulent time for 10 years now!!

[Miker]

4 hours ago, bluebruce said:

So, I was just looking at RB Leipzig's 'history'. They are only 11 years old, after Red Bull bought some village team near Leipzig called SSV Markranstädt and renamed them RB Leipzig. They started off in the 5th tier of German football, with a plan to invest 100 million Euros over the next 10 years (I don't know how much they actually ended up spending).

11 years later, they've just reached the quarter finals of the Champions League. By 2016, after 7 years, they were in the top tier of the Bundesliga. They have a stadium of more than 10k capacity above ours, which they've been pretty much filling since 2016. Yes, Leipzig is much bigger (600k pop, 1.1 mill in the 'urban area', no rival local club of note) but this club didn't exist until recently so it didn't have generations of loyal support to inherit.

I say all of that to contrast with ourselves - 10 years of Venkys rule have taken us from a mid-table top-flight club with loads of history and generations of supporters, to quickly being a second tier mid-table side, briefly being a tier 3 outfit. With some 200 million pounds or so squandered, and attendances dropping to 14k.

Can you get more opposite in your trajectories than that? Double the spend (if the Leipzig figure is right) and whereas they got 4 promotions and Champions league quarter finalists with great crowds, we dropped a league, briefly two, and nearly halved our attendances.

Just goes to show what good, responsible ownership with a vision can achieve. Even if I don't like how corporate the whole 'Red Bull owning numerous football clubs' thing is.

Red Bull are a marketing powerhouse and have been very successful implementing their business strategy. I watched a really good mini doco on this recently: https://youtu.be/cBRNQMolTPw

Owning a football club directly ties into Red Bull’s marketing strategy and so they’ve really made a success of it.

I don’t really know what Venky’s aims are. It seems like it was just an ego trip for Balaji to own a football club. Initially maybe it was seen as a marketing vehicle for their fast food business, but that’s obviously been a catastrophic failure and they went about it the wrong way.

Red Bull have bought football clubs to build on an already strong brand and product, whereas Venky’s did it to help market an unknown product. That’s the big difference.

[Roving Mick]

Venky's 10 year celebrations.

The Pearl of Pune

[roversfan99]

I do find this very strange. Not an innocent young Birmingham fan and recent junior journalist asking the question on the back of a decent window on paper but one in which we (understandably) didnt actually spend much at all. But the replies. I still cant grasp that not being out of business is reason to be thankful, the lowest of expectations.

[Mattyblue]

End of the day, if we ‘welcome them’ or not, it’s their club, our feelings don’t come into it (though a nice divisive click bait article from Lancs Live nevertheless).

They’ve been free to actually sit in those seats for a decade now, yet unlike 99% of owners they have chosen not to, so it’s all a pointless debate that goes round in circles.

[Miller11]

I don’t understand the clamour for them to come back at all. Whether you “choose to forgive” or not, surely there can be no argument that since they have kept out of the way and their mouths shut, things have improved.

The last thing I want is them taking any more of an interest and becoming hands on. That would be a disaster.