Which utterly brilliant manager will we be delighted to welcome next?

[tomphil]

3 hours ago, Miller11 said:

@1864roverite here’s my thoughts following my interactions with those at the club.

Despite some ill tempered run ins in the past, I find Steve Waggott is approachable and attentive. He asks the right questions and seems to want to improve things. Whether his hands are tied, or he’s just giving lip service, the improvements don’t come and very little materialises.

He clearly has very specific financial targets. Making minimal savings seem to be far more of a priority than league position, commercial growth, or fan engagement. It’s pennywise, pound foolish, just like our wage structure… more on that later.

A prime example is our differing views on the catering at Ewood. To me, Sodexo offer crap service and crap products, I’d like to see a much more imaginative offering. To him it’s cost effective and easy to tender it out, he sees the long term deal with them as good business.

In my opinion, Waggott spreads himself too thin. He seems to spend more time at his Brockhall office than his Ewood office. Maybe he likes the whole back and forth with agents better than the day to day running of operations. Perhaps this will be remedied somewhat by the appointment of Broughton, but that leads us on to another issue…

I’ve long since thought the structure at the club is an absolute mess. It’s completely convoluted and unclear. We do know that Venky’s have the final say, and I strongly suspect they are micro-managing via Pasha. This leads to things being done at a glacial pace, or not at all. Mowbray’s parting comments all but confirmed this. As soon as he is no longer interested in self preservation, we got the truth of the matter. He was desperate to tell us Waggott has no real power, rather than banging on about Venky’s being knowledgeable, humble and supportive.

The club have finally started to make strides in engaging with the local Asian community. It’s long overdue and the efforts of Yasir have been fantastic. It’s seeing more tangible benefit than I thought it would. Kudos.

Enticing new fans and re-engaging with lost ones are two very different things that require very different strategies. Unfortunately they are doing nothing to mitigate the drop off of long-standing fans. I’ve discussed this at great length with people in the club. It’s always acknowledged and I’m asked for solutions, which I’ve made suggestions on. So far nothing has happened. I’ll be interesting to see if there are strides made over the coming months though.

Nobody at the club understands the fanbase. We’ve made a real effort to remedy this, from history lessons of 1960 to presentations about lapsed season ticket holders. I’m hopeful this will change, but not at all confident.

Here are some things a senior employee in a confusing marketing role told me:

- There’s nothing special or unique about Blackburn Rovers

- Kids aren’t interested in going to football matches, we’d be better off selling them NFTs

- Why should a child or senior ticket be cheaper than an adult one? A seat is a seat.

- Pretty soon nobody will go to matches, they will watch interactive things in their phones instead

There is little wonder there is such disconnect between the fanbase and club!

Onto our current situation… the jury is very much out on the managerial appointment. I’ll wait til it has actually played out, because I’ve gone over this in depth. If we get a good appointment, I think it’s props to Waggott. If we get a HSH pick, he needs to resign. In my opinion the process has become so drawn out it’s farcical. I can’t say for sure why that is, but I am not in the least bit surprised it’s happened.

All this talk of implementing a vision and long term strategy is trying to run before we are even crawling. Those idiots in Pune get no credit for not liquidating our academy, it’s been a money spinner for them, not an expense… but they are ballsing that up before our very eyes. Our supposed sustainable long term strategy is not working as evidenced by Lenihan and Nyambe going for nothing. Our wage structure is inflexible and nonsensical. We absolutely should have a wage cap, but the current approach is not fit for purpose. The can kicking approach we seem to favour of triggering year options rather than properly negotiating in a timely manner was always going to come back to haunt us. Pennywise, pound foolish again.

What I will say is Waggott acknowledged the importance of this appointment and that the club is at a pivotal juncture. How much he can actually influence things though is questionable… and he’s supposed to be our CEO.

As out of touch as those on the ground at Ewood undoubtably are, they still have a far better handle than 3 billionaires on a different continent who surround themselves with people who slavishly obey. Venky’s do not delegate effectively, and we remain at the mercy of their whims. They never learn and continue to be “badly advised”. It’s their own fault of course, they generally sack anyone who tells them anything they don’t want to hear.

Thats my opening gambit. Happy for you to tell me how and why I’m misguided.

 

 

That employee should be sacked on the spot if anything screams we are just here for a wage it's those type of comments.

Disgusting to be honest, a complete half arsed lazy bastard attitude and this is why i couldn't dialogue with people there, i'd end up arrested.

[windymiller7]

Isn't it funny how you can interpret things in a different way? If I know Phil ( @tomphil) , judging by the time of the post, he's just come in from the pub (as have I), gone for a poo & is catching up on things in the process (as am I).

Now, I read @Miller11 's post as being that that was what the marketing guy has been told by those more senior to him.

However, reading it back again, if you're in a senior position,  it's YOUR FUCKING JOB to find a USP of whatever you're selling. 

Look at this turd. No, not your ordinary turd, just smell the unique aroma, feel the exquisite texture.....you get my drift!

So, on that note, if it's from above, it's shocking & needs rectifying immediately. We are Blackburn Rovers!!! Even if you've no affilliation to us, a quick Google search will give u all the info you need.

If it's his opinion? WTF are u doing in marketing? Meet me at a pub, time & place of your choice & I'll teach u more about marketing in 2 mins that you've ever known, -  & I'm an Engineer!! Not even fit to take down the stalls on Chorley Cattle Market. Get a job doing something else! Anything!

Edited June 12, 2022 by windymiller7

[Upside Down]

1 hour ago, tomphil said:

That employee should be sacked on the spot if anything screams we are just here for a wage it's those type of comments.

Disgusting to be honest, a complete half arsed lazy bastard attitude and this is why i couldn't dialogue with people there, i'd end up arrested.

I'll share a cell with ya mate.

[lraC]

9 hours ago, Miller11 said:

@1864roverite here’s my thoughts following my interactions with those at the club.

Despite some ill tempered run ins in the past, I find Steve Waggott is approachable and attentive. He asks the right questions and seems to want to improve things. Whether his hands are tied, or he’s just giving lip service, the improvements don’t come and very little materialises.

He clearly has very specific financial targets. Making minimal savings seem to be far more of a priority than league position, commercial growth, or fan engagement. It’s pennywise, pound foolish, just like our wage structure… more on that later.

A prime example is our differing views on the catering at Ewood. To me, Sodexo offer crap service and crap products, I’d like to see a much more imaginative offering. To him it’s cost effective and easy to tender it out, he sees the long term deal with them as good business.

In my opinion, Waggott spreads himself too thin. He seems to spend more time at his Brockhall office than his Ewood office. Maybe he likes the whole back and forth with agents better than the day to day running of operations. Perhaps this will be remedied somewhat by the appointment of Broughton, but that leads us on to another issue…

I’ve long since thought the structure at the club is an absolute mess. It’s completely convoluted and unclear. We do know that Venky’s have the final say, and I strongly suspect they are micro-managing via Pasha. This leads to things being done at a glacial pace, or not at all. Mowbray’s parting comments all but confirmed this. As soon as he is no longer interested in self preservation, we got the truth of the matter. He was desperate to tell us Waggott has no real power, rather than banging on about Venky’s being knowledgeable, humble and supportive.

The club have finally started to make strides in engaging with the local Asian community. It’s long overdue and the efforts of Yasir have been fantastic. It’s seeing more tangible benefit than I thought it would. Kudos.

Enticing new fans and re-engaging with lost ones are two very different things that require very different strategies. Unfortunately they are doing nothing to mitigate the drop off of long-standing fans. I’ve discussed this at great length with people in the club. It’s always acknowledged and I’m asked for solutions, which I’ve made suggestions on. So far nothing has happened. I’ll be interesting to see if there are strides made over the coming months though.

Nobody at the club understands the fanbase. We’ve made a real effort to remedy this, from history lessons of 1960 to presentations about lapsed season ticket holders. I’m hopeful this will change, but not at all confident.

Here are some things a senior employee in a confusing marketing role told me:

- There’s nothing special or unique about Blackburn Rovers

- Kids aren’t interested in going to football matches, we’d be better off selling them NFTs

- Why should a child or senior ticket be cheaper than an adult one? A seat is a seat.

- Pretty soon nobody will go to matches, they will watch interactive things in their phones instead

There is little wonder there is such disconnect between the fanbase and club!

Onto our current situation… the jury is very much out on the managerial appointment. I’ll wait til it has actually played out, because I’ve gone over this in depth. If we get a good appointment, I think it’s props to Waggott. If we get a HSH pick, he needs to resign. In my opinion the process has become so drawn out it’s farcical. I can’t say for sure why that is, but I am not in the least bit surprised it’s happened.

All this talk of implementing a vision and long term strategy is trying to run before we are even crawling. Those idiots in Pune get no credit for not liquidating our academy, it’s been a money spinner for them, not an expense… but they are ballsing that up before our very eyes. Our supposed sustainable long term strategy is not working as evidenced by Lenihan and Nyambe going for nothing. Our wage structure is inflexible and nonsensical. We absolutely should have a wage cap, but the current approach is not fit for purpose. The can kicking approach we seem to favour of triggering year options rather than properly negotiating in a timely manner was always going to come back to haunt us. Pennywise, pound foolish again.

What I will say is Waggott acknowledged the importance of this appointment and that the club is at a pivotal juncture. How much he can actually influence things though is questionable… and he’s supposed to be our CEO.

As out of touch as those on the ground at Ewood undoubtably are, they still have a far better handle than 3 billionaires on a different continent who surround themselves with people who slavishly obey. Venky’s do not delegate effectively, and we remain at the mercy of their whims. They never learn and continue to be “badly advised”. It’s their own fault of course, they generally sack anyone who tells them anything they don’t want to hear.

Thats my opening gambit. Happy for you to tell me how and why I’m misguided.

 

 

I spoke to a good friend earlier this week, about a business matter. He is someone I have known for years, but we haven’t spoken for a while. He is literally football mad and Rovers mad. He has two sons, who are almost adults now and both have been brought up asRovers  fans and followed the team, all over the country.

After we had discussed the business matter, the topic of conversation turned to Rovers. He told me that not only does him and he two sons no longer buy season tickets, they don’t hardly go any more. He went on to tell me that it was directly down to Waggot E Mailing him an abusive reply to a question he had about some small matter that he had an issue with.

If Waggot is doing that to a supporter of such ilk, it makes me shudder to think how much other damage he has done.

This specifically needs to be pointed out to either Waggot himself or anyone above him, as it is wrecking ball stuff. 

[arbitro]

Miller11 - possibly the best post I have seen on here.

[Mattyblue]

Just now, MarkBRFC said:

A reply of "😂 if only you knew" to follow.

‘Err, well, why don’t you be CEO then’

[matt83]

Speaking of cryptic good things to happen comments, what ever came of the fella along with his quegs alumni who said something to the tune of exiting things were imminently about to happen. That must have been 18 months ago so presumably nothing came of that either.

Lots of folk over the years have tried - glen and his crew, the rovers trust, that fella with his quegs mates, probably more. They all care about the club and are prepared to try but the one thing they all have in common is they’ve failed to make meaningful change. The reason is the owners are incompetent, arrogant and simply couldn’t give a toss. 

[Mattyblue]

Yet it is us mere mortals they then get all arsey with for merely questioning when these changes are ever going to occur, instead of turning their frustration to those leading them on down Ewood…

Edited June 12, 2022 by Mattyblue

[Miller11]

As a point of clarity on my earlier post, I should have used google… The comments I attributed to a Matketing Employee were actually from our Head of Commercial, Paul Fielder, who is still in situ.

[BigUts]

6 minutes ago, Miller11 said:

As a point of clarity on my earlier post, I should have used google… The comments I attributed to a Matketing Employee were actually from our Head of Commercial, Paul Fielder, who is still in situ.

Embarrassing

[Tricky]

1 minute ago, BigUts said:

7 minutes ago, Miller11 said:

As a point of clarity on my earlier post, I should have used google… The comments I attributed to a Matketing Employee were actually from our Head of Commercial, Paul Fielder, who is still in situ.

Embarrassing

At least he clarified...

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, Miller11 said:

As a point of clarity on my earlier post, I should have used google… The comments I attributed to a Matketing Employee were actually from our Head of Commercial, Paul Fielder, who is still in situ.

In that case, WAGGOTT OUT! FIELDER OUT!! VENKYS OUT!!!

[arbitro]

9 minutes ago, Miller11 said:

As a point of clarity on my earlier post, I should have used google… The comments I attributed to a Matketing Employee were actually from our Head of Commercial, Paul Fielder, who is still in situ.

Fielder intercepted an email I sent to Waggott about the circumstances surrounding the Hull postponement and was patronising and condescending to say the least in his reply. I complained about his response and in fairness got a call from Waggott who said he would take him to task about his response. 

[Mattyblue]

Let me get this straight, the Head of Commercial at a football club, thinks there is ‘nothing special’ about the club he is bloody lucky to have a senior role in, the most successful town club in the country no less, founder members of the FL and PL etc etc. He also thinks kids aren’t interested in going to matches, but are more interested in that new pyramid scheme known as NFTs. Those that do go, once they’ve sold their ape on Twitter, presumably, he wants to charge full whack to at 5 years old. He also thinks fans won’t go to games at all in the near future…

The total farce that has been the last two summers of ST sales now makes perfect sense… ‘if only we had a clue’, ay!

Edited June 12, 2022 by Mattyblue

[BigUts]

21 minutes ago, Tricky said:

At least he clarified...

I wasn't saying Miller11 was embarrassing but that Fielder was / is

Edited June 12, 2022 by BigUts
Change of Fielders name

[Gav]

As soon as you come to terms with that fact, Venkys are not here to move the club forward, they're not here to make this club great again, they're here only to save face in the business community in India, nothing else matters to them.

Waggott has no remit other than to manage a budget, he's not interested in moving the club forward either or growing the fanbase like John Williams was, he's here to manage his budget only, because he knows Venkys will pump £30m in every year to pay the bills, no pressure, just keep the lights on.

Taking all this into consideration you start to understand why we're now shopping in the bargain basement for a new manager, the better options have seen through us and we are now looking for a cheap option that can keep our heads above water, everyone just wants a quiet life, pick up the wages, its just a job to these people and things will never change until the owners sod off.

As I've been saying for years now, give me administration today to get rid of these people, then the club can start the healing process, until that day comes we'll remain in a permanent state of purgatory. 

 

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Gav

[Armchair supporter supremo]

#PaulFielderout

[OldEwoodBlue]

I see Ronny has gone to Leige. No surprise there. I hope he isn't in the short list submitted to India.

[Tricky]

11 minutes ago, BigUts said:

I wasn't saying Miller11 was embarrassing but that Fielder was / is

Tough crowd 

[AllRoverAsia]

14 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Fielder intercepted an email I sent to Waggott about the circumstances surrounding the Hull postponement and was patronising and condescending to say the least in his reply. I complained about his response and in fairness got a call from Waggott who said he would take him to task about his response. 

Waggott would have instructed the like minded Fielder to reply to such emails from supporters. He will have known what sort of response you would get from Fielder which he as CEO agreed with but couldn't put his name to directly.

Why use Fielder when the club already has a Supporter Liaison person.

The club is owned and run by trash.

In my opinion

 

 

[lraC]

11 minutes ago, Armchair supporter supremo said:

#PaulFielderout

Absolutely. He needs calling out for this. He might as well be the anti- marketing manager, with that attitude. 

[Armchair supporter supremo]

I think this issue deserves a new thread so that it's clearly seen by the powers that be at ewood!

[Armchair supporter supremo]

2 minutes ago, lraC said:

Absolutely. He needs calling out for this. He might as well be the anti- marketing manager, with that attitude. 

Imagine what the prat says and does behind closed doors at the club if this pathetic garbage is what he says to people publicly! 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Armchair supporter supremo

[Herbie6590]

 

https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/articles/what's-going-on-in-rovers-boardroom/242

[Herbie6590]

31 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Fielder intercepted an email I sent to Waggott about the circumstances surrounding the Hull postponement and was patronising and condescending to say the least in his reply. I complained about his response and in fairness got a call from Waggott who said he would take him to task about his response. 

He used to work at Hull interestingly…