Well done Ian. You came across very well, covering most of the problems we are all experiencing as long suffering fans, including the apathy and incompetence of both the owners and board.

Best of luck with that one robbo. With all due respect, I don’t think you’re reading the room. It’s Venky’s Out and the Three Stooges Out at all costs.

Certainly is. Burnley Bob. Most of the younger ones on here won’t know that. Despite his longevity here, supposedly a Clarette.

Well done Glen. Any mention of protests and ideas for action and one poster on here always comes on and tells us it’s all futile and a complete waste of time. Anything is possible and Venky’s will be ousted. It just needs a concerted effort and a determination to succeed. A pity there aren’t another twenty or thirty supporters like you mate. If that were the case, Venky’s would have been history a decade or so ago.

The take up of the early bird offer will be so poor that, at this moment in time, they would be mad to tell us what the prices will be in the next phase. So poor, in fact, that there may well not be a next phase. The negativity on social media, against both the ownership and season ticket prices, is gathering momentum and if there is an expected drop in sales now, they’ll hardly shift any in proposed next phase. It’s coming home to roost.

Bolton had sold 14k on 21st March, just before their early bird offer finished.

Doh! 😂😂

That was the problem last night Matty. I watched a pre match interview with Tuchel, where he was inferring that the team would play in a more British manner. Long ball if needed, with strength and physique, pace etc. None of them play this way week in, week out. They’re still all programmed in to the horrendous, backwards-sideways-backwards, monotonous Pep-ball. It will take them a while to transition into a different style, if that is what Tuchel indeed wants.

To take that a stage further, we are the only club to have won major domestic trophies (plural) in three different centuries.

Made me laugh that. Never a truer word. From being 15 years old or so, I had a season ticket for the following 40+ years. Venky’s plus a 100 mile round trip, when we moved house, caused me to jack it in. I take in 2 or 3 games a season now and that is enough. It’s astonishingly easy to get out of the habit of going. I never thought it would happen to me but it has. If Venky’s were to sell, I still probably wouldn’t buy one but I would come to several more games each season. 4k adult season ticket holders this season tells its own story and next season this will probably fall to 3.75 to 3.8k. Abysmal. Venky’s couldn’t give a f*ck either way but Waggott and Suhail must think the fans are f*cking idiots. They certainly treat us like we are. I think Waggott senses there will be supporter unrest gathering momentum and he’ll be wanting away before too long. That massive hike (and I mean massive) in his annual pension contributions from the club has convinced me of that.

The tide is slowly turning. I read the Rovers Facebook post regarding season tickets for next season. Previously, in the comments, there would have been a 70/30 split in favour of the ‘happy clappers’ shouting down the Venky’s Out brigade but now it’s the other way round. I don’t think it will be too long before there are several banners on show at games and the start of protests as momentum gathers pace. I never thought I would be able to type that.

Haha, yes, I shouldn’t have bothered with AI. I’ve just come on to suggest ‘knowledgeable’ but you’ve beaten me to it. We Are Not Knowledgeable.

Just thought of a collective term for the executive team/directors down at Ewood. Thinking about the forthcoming season ticket prices and the fact that they definitely won’t be as cheap as those at Preston and Bolton, I was looking for a word meaning clever, beginning with the letter ‘k.’ AI came up with keen. Was hoping for a better one but it will suffice. Obviously, they will now be known officially as the Wankers.

The main purpose of my original post was to highlight the appetite in the US to purchase football clubs outside of that country due to the high numbers of billionaires there in relation to the minimal amount of clubs - and other sporting institutions- available. They are looking to buy abroad and this dispels the myth that ‘nobody would buy us.’

I watched a very interesting podcast on YouTube a few weeks ago regarding the increasing number of football clubs, in the UK and beyond, being taken over by investors from the United States. You’ll have to forgive the Celtic slant on this as, in the main, it’s a discussion between Tino of The Celtic Exchange and his guest David Low and their thoughts on the possible takeover at Rangers by the San Francisco 49ers. The discussion has a much wider relevance, however, because David Low outlines some of the reasons for these takeovers and just what happens once the investors take control. David Low for many years has worked in the finance industry. In the early 1990s he was an investment analyst and was instrumental in being a member of the ‘rebels’ who ousted the old board at Celtic, paving the way for Fergus McCann to takeover and drag Celtic kicking and screaming into the late 20th century. In the podcast, he outlines the fact that there are numerous billionaires in the US who are looking to invest in sporting institutions, whether they be football clubs, baseball clubs, ice hockey, American football and so on. Far more billionaires than available clubs over there and that’s why they have been turning their attention to the UK and elsewhere. If the takeover at Rangers were to go ahead, he thinks it will follow what he calls the ‘little cheque, big cheque’ method. This is where the investors purchase the football club with a little cheque. They don’t invest much in the team but they do improve the stadium facilities, the corporate structure etc and use their expertise to streamline the club and get it in a much better financial shape. Having done all this and made the club more attractive, they then sit back and wait for another bid for the club further down the line. They then sell and receive their big cheque. This is what is currently happening at Leeds, where the SF49ers have also recently taken control. A bit different at Leeds (as opposed to in Scotland) as the riches of the English Premier League await if, as expected, Leeds get promoted either this season or in the very near future. The 49ers may choose to sell, once Leeds get to the promised land and, therefore, get their big cheque or indeed stay in control if they feel they can milk the club further. Not all takeovers follow the little cheque, big cheque method. They’re all different and some investors are in it for the long haul, although others will always sell after ploughing in considerable millions if the price is right. There was talk, a while back on here, of two approaches made to BRFC by supposed interested parties (unaware if they were from the US) but they probably never got past the phone call stage, as Venky’s refused to take matters forward. The relevance of all this, to us, is that it dispels the myth that there would be no one waiting in the wings to take us over. The myth that 98% of our support trot out if ever the discussion arises. We are an attractive proposition. Other than a thorough cleansing, we have a decent sized, attractive, relatively modern stadium, a Category One status academy and a part dormant support that would return both if we again got to the PL and/or Venky’s got shunted into oblivion. How nice would it be to also shunt Waggott, Suhail & Co into oblivion, to be replaced with a competent, forward thinking board and start to grow the club again. No wonder the above approaches never got past the telephone stage. I’m not too good at doing links but the podcast mentioned above is on YouTube, the account on that platform is The Celtic Exchange and, if you scroll down/across, it’s about the 8th one down with ‘Transatlantic Takeovers’ in the title.

Fuck the game mate. Let’s just have a big party in Stoke town centre.

The figures from the accounts are for the executive directors. These are listed on the club’s website as Waggott, Gandhi Babu and M Sreenivasa Rao. Suhail Shaikh is a ‘mere’ Chief Operating Officer.

There’s a more than hefty jump in Waggott’s pension contributions, year on year, £12k to £159k. Wonder if the latter figure includes some form of terminal bonuses and he’s now reasonably close to retiring?

I feel for you mate. It’s not easy. I’ve mentioned this previously but the 98% of Rovers fans who know zilch about what happened following Venky’s takeover need to know. Otherwise I feel you’ll only get a trickle of a response.

The only thing in Preston and Burnley’s trophy cabinets is a pile of dust. A few years back, a Burnley supporting friend of mine had a dig by asking if we were still full time. My response was, no we’re all part time now with the exception of one employee who is still full time. He’s the guy who cleans the trophy cabinet. It’s a big one, you see.

Where obscene amounts of money can be ‘earned’ with very little effort, unscrupulous individuals rise to the surface. Football is rife with them.

Gav, Ally McCoist and Kris Boyd..

There is no myth. No one has said the likes of Celtic and, to a lesser degree, Rangers would have an immediate chance of winning the Premier League. There is too much of a disparity in income for that to be a sensible suggestion. Aston Villa’s (hardly a middling club these days) annual turnover for 2023-24 stood at €310m, which equates to circa £270m, against Celtic’s £125m. So well over double that of Celtic. Ollie Watkins is probably worth nearly as much as the whole Celtic first eleven alone. There just is no comparison at present. However, given a run of say five years in the EPL and, benefiting from the massive jump in tv revenues, sponsorship, corporate revenues etc., I’ve no doubt that both Celtic and Rangers would make a good fist of being there or thereabouts. The fan bases of both Scottish clubs are huge and most of the clubs in the EPL would give anything to have the same. You need to go to Glasgow, stay up there all day, sample the atmosphere in the city and take in a game to understand just how big the two clubs are. You’ll never get it, if you don’t. Anyway, Celtic and Rangers playing in the EPL will never happen. The current chairmen of the English clubs would be scared stiff of the added competition and, therefore, never vote in favour, if ever the opportunity arose. *Edit.. Manchester City’s t/o for the same period £715m!

Yep, I remember it and very good it was too. The other main problem with all this, is finding someone with the energy and drive to carry it forward. By someone, I really mean several people. I’m done with it now. I was just putting forward a suggestion as to how I thought the problem should be tackled. I’m weary with it all and my apathy towards the club these days is as much because of the limp wristed lack of action from the supporter base as it is because of Venky’s and their stooges. If you have a problem, in any walk of life, you analyse it, draw up a plan of action and carry that plan through in an attempt to resolve it. You won’t always succeed but at least you can say that you tried. The vast majority of the current crop of Rovers fans can’t look themselves in the mirror and say that. Over and out.

And therein lies the problem. The full fan base has no idea of the ‘shenanigans’ that went on at the time of the takeover and in the year or two afterwards. A select few who took action knew. The delegation that went to the authorities knew. A number of posters on here knew and that number has since grown over the years with folk passing on stories and info etc. The stark reality, however, is that probably around 98% of our fan base is ignorant of the facts and, after all this time, would no doubt have trouble actually believing what went on. I’m too old for this sort of thing now. It’s up to the youth of Blackburn and East Lancs if they care to step forward. As a starting point (if anything tangible were ever to recommence), I would plaster bullet points all over social media and local press with a view to arranging talks at a variety of venues in Blackburn and the wider area. Working men’s clubs, village halls and similar places. Get the fan base educated. Give them the facts. Rumble Venky’s, rumble Waggott, rumble the Shadow Man. You would never get the 98% on board but 25% would be a good start. If 25% of a current fan base of say 12k were willing to ‘take action,’ how good would that be? That would be 3k able and willing to ‘make a nuisance’ of themselves, in whatever way was felt necessary. The KEY to all this is to get those not in the know, IN THE KNOW. At that point in time, there should be a ground swell of support for the cause. It would be a point in time when something could happen. What that something is, that’s for others to decide. If our support does nothing, the status quo will remain.