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It's a pretty low bar to get over to be better than that.What a terrible read this is. Poor ownership really can kill a club. So different to us right now thankfully.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4238742/Blackburn-left-die-FA-Venky-s.html
Blackburn Rovers are a family club but they have been left to die by the FA and Venky's
By GLEN MULLAN FOR MAILONLINE
- Venky's have overseen Blackburn's descent from the Premier League
- Former Premier League champions are in bottom three of the Championship
- They host Manchester United in the fifth-round of the FA Cup on Sunday
PUBLISHED: 12:39 +11:00, 19 February 2017 | UPDATED: 12:45 +11:00, 19 February 2017
It wasn't so long ago that the club I've supported all my life, Blackburn Rovers, could face Manchester United on something like equal terms, both our teams Premier League winners, both long-standing Premier League members.
In fact the last time that Rovers played at Old Trafford in a top-flight league game, in December 2011, we won 3-2, Yakubu scoring twice and Grant Hanley getting the winner after Dimitar Berbatov had scored two for United.
When our proud clubs meet again on Sunday, this time in the FA Cup at Ewood Park, they do so arguably saddled with the two most detested sets of owners in English football. Yes, I'm aware that is a competitive market these days!
Blackburn Rovers were bought by Venky's when they were a Premier League club back in 2010
But the Glazer family weighed down United with hundreds of millions of pounds of debt while enriching themselves. And the Rao family - better known as Venky' s - have done nothing less than wrecked Blackburn Rovers.
Where on earth do you begin to catalogue the list of appalling mistakes they've made? How can you quantify their betrayal of our club and of us, the fans?
Perhaps it's best to start with the day they completed their takeover in November 2010, an excruciating six years and three months ago.
Venky's rolled into town like characters from a Bollywood blockbuster, full of promises. The one that sticks most firmly in the mind, and in the craw, was the promise to respect the club's history and the heritage upon which the foundations of the club were built.
Yakubu scored twice the last time Blackburn faced Manchester United at Old Trafford
Blackburn were under Steve Kean when they were relegated from the Premier League
What a load of garbage. They sacked a capable manager in Sam Allardyce and replaced him with the hapless Steve Kean.
They removed a board of directors with experience, nous and dedication most other clubs could only dream of. They sold playing assets, including Phil Jones to Sunday's opponents, went through managers like a dose of salts and then oversaw relegation, stagnation and farce.
Jack Walker made dreams come true and left a legacy. Venky's have been a nightmare and ripped it up.
Crowds have dropped by 70 per cent as fans have protested, boycotted and called for the owners to sell our club to someone who actually cares about it before things get even worse.
As a supporter who has spent a large part of the past six years trying to unearth how all this happened, and appealing to football's authorities to examine the lack of regulation and checks and balances that allowed this to happen, my life has been turned upside down.
I've personally been part of delegations to see the FA, the Premier League, the Football League and MPs at Parliament.
Blackburn fans have led extensive protests against the owners Venky's in the last six years
What's been done? Nothing. Nothing to examine the appalling stewardship, the involvement and greed of third parties, the lack of checks and balances, the absence of proper scrutiny.
- Team P GD Pts
1 Brighton and Hove Albion 32 28 68
2 Newcastle United 31 35 66
3 Huddersfield Town 31 7 61
4 Reading 32 6 60
5 Leeds United 33 11 58
6 Sheffield Wednesday 32 11 58
7 Norwich City 33 11 51
8 Fulham 31 15 49
9 Barnsley 33 4 49
10 Preston North End 33 4 49
11 Derby County 31 7 47
12 Cardiff City 33 -2 45
13 Ipswich Town 33 -7 41
14 Birmingham City 33 -14 40
15 Brentford 31 -1 37
16 Queens Park Rangers 32 -11 37
17 Aston Villa 31 -6 36
18 Nottingham Forest 33 -12 36
19 Wolverhampton Wanderers 31 -4 35
20 Burton Albion 32 -13 34
21 Bristol City 31 -4 32
22 Wigan Athletic 32 -9 30
23 Blackburn Rovers 31 -13 29
24 Rotherham United 33 -43 17
The so-called 'fit and proper person' test is not worth the paper it's written on.
No club has a divine right to success. That goes without saying. This isn't some pitiful lament because we feel we 'deserve' to be doing better.
On the pitch we should go up and down as results dictate like anyone else. But it really shouldn't be the case that absentee owners with zero credentials let a family be mashed to a pulp.
Family? Yes family. Blackburn Rovers is a family I was born into, it's my identity, my team, my passion. The Raos may hold the keys to the front door but the supporters are the lifeblood of any club. And it's draining away from us.
Where does this leave us ahead of a game with United where even under their greedy owners' self-interested stewardship they can buy the world's most expensive player among a host of stars?
It leaves us heading to the third tier, broken and in debt, with a squad assembled over the last 12 months for the price of a semi-detached house a hoofed clearance from Ewood Park.
Blackburn are rooted in the bottom three of the Championship under Owen Coyle
Our squad has been flooded with loanees, free transfers and never have-beens.
They will be on display when United roll into town, when a big crowd is expected, and more protests.
If I have one message for Venky's it is this: as a fan I'm still standing. I was here long before you, and will be here long after you disappear.
We, the Rovers supporters, will continue to wait in the wings as guardians until that day comes.
In the meantime we will support our side in the Football Association Cup. And we will thank the FA for the square root of nothing. You are custodians of our game - but you have left us to die.
Glen Mullan was a founder member of the Blackburn Rovers Action Group and former secretary of the Rovers Trust.
I'll take that as a belated positive posting from you mate
We just dont know where we are at the moment with this feller. He might not be a Venky type new owner, but he could be a Lerner type who charges no interest on loans but sees no progress and leaves. At the moment he's way short of being a Steve Gibson.I'll take that as a belated positive posting from you mate
And so this Monday, as the first day of the new working weeks hits 4:45pm, Evertonians can reflect on the anniversary of, perhaps, the most significant moment in the club’s modern history: the arrival of Farhad Moshiri.
Phrases such as “the promise of investment”, “financial wherewithal” and “perfect partner” were given the green light for public consumption as Everton’s pain-staking search for an injection of cash had come to an end.
But maybe his biggest stride Moshiri has made since joining Everton is not in any of those tangibles, not in something Blues fans can see or touch. It's in what they can feel.
Time will be the ultimate judge of his Blues’ reign and what he ends up achieving in his time at the club but, for many, he will have given them more reason for hope, more reason to be optimistic and more ammunition to believe the next chapter in Everton’s history is going to be better than it has been for a generation.
It’s not just his ambition for Everton but the faith he has already earned from supporters, who trust he has the means and ability to act on it.
For Moshiri that has to be savoured as much as anything else he has already done.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing, the transfer market has at times proved sticky business in the opening year, but with him at the wheel Everton are moving in the right direction, no longer just there to make up the numbers.
What as it that he said? Everton cannot be allowed to become a museum?
Never has a truer word be spoken - but Moshiri can still look back on his first 12 months at the club with contentment and safe in the knowledge that February 27 will never become a shoulder shrugging day in the Royal Blue calendar again.
"And so this Monday, as the first day of the new working weeks hits 4:45pm, Evertonians can reflect on the anniversary of, perhaps, the most significant moment in the club’s modern history: the arrival of Farhad Moshiri"Everton Royal Blue: Why Feb 27 will never be just another day for Blues
It was Diniyar Bilyaletdinov’s 30th birthday, but few Evertonians cared.
The team were without a game, Roberto Martinez was talking about Gareth Barry leaving a legacy, while this column explained why the Catalan wasn’t always Mr Nice Guy.
But none of this was setting the agenda or getting people talking. Few Blues fans gave two hoots to be frank, because all they wanted to know about was whether the rumours were true.
As late afternoon was drawing into early evening, they were confirmed.
And so this Monday, as the first day of the new working weeks hits 4:45pm, Evertonians can reflect on the anniversary of, perhaps, the most significant moment in the club’s modern history: the arrival of Farhad Moshiri.
The 12 months on from February 27, 2016 have, almost, whizzed by in a flash since word of a mysterious Middle East investor gathered pace before turning into an official club statement revealing the billionaire’s intention to buy 49.9% of shares.
Time flies when you’re having fun. It also hurtles past when you’re getting things done.
Even by the forensically constructed standards of club press releases, the one issued by Everton failed to suppress the feeling of excitement.
Phrases such as “the promise of investment”, “financial wherewithal” and “perfect partner” were given the green light for public consumption as Everton’s pain-staking search for an injection of cash had come to an end.
There were more questions than answers at this stage, information wasn’t emerging at a rate to satisfy the excitement and intrigue of Blues fans who wanted to know who, what, why, where and when, but mainly who - who was this man who was pledging to bring success back to Goodison?
The answers were soon emerge. Not in his rare moments of public speaking, but in his actions, decisions and the delivery on his intent.
Once the Premier League ratified the move, Moshiri’s tick list began to grow.
One manager sacked, a top class replacement found, a director of football appointed, a Goodison face lift, players signed, players sold and players kept, a new wage structure, new faces on the board and significant progress made in the search for a new stadium.
But maybe his biggest stride Moshiri has made since joining Everton is not in any of those tangibles, not in something Blues fans can see or touch. It's in what they can feel.
Time will be the ultimate judge of his Blues’ reign and what he ends up achieving in his time at the club but, for many, he will have given them more reason for hope, more reason to be optimistic and more ammunition to believe the next chapter in Everton’s history is going to be better than it has been for a generation.
It’s not just his ambition for Everton but the faith he has already earned from supporters, who trust he has the means and ability to act on it.
For Moshiri that has to be savoured as much as anything else he has already done.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing, the transfer market has at times proved sticky business in the opening year, but with him at the wheel Everton are moving in the right direction, no longer just there to make up the numbers.
What as it that he said? Everton cannot be allowed to become a museum?
Never has a truer word be spoken - but Moshiri can still look back on his first 12 months at the club with contentment and safe in the knowledge that February 27 will never become a shoulder shrugging day in the Royal Blue calendar again.
