Blackburn Rovers: Beginning of the End?

I hope for all the fans out there like me that this is not the beginning of the end but the end of the Venkys/Kean era. It has been a very hard period in the history of the great club I love. Since the day the Venkys bought the club it has been on an downward spiral that seems to increase with speed everyday.

We have not only had to watch our club become the laughing stock of English football but then put up with the media backing him and putting the blame on the fans. Would any of them sit back and watch ignorant people ruin their club. Talking of ignorant people one name comes to mind, that would be Steve Kean. Would you not take some action if you had to listen to the leader of you club say this;

Steve said: “We are not going to be able to invent 10 games where we can go on an unbeaten run because there are not enough games left.”
Gordon says: Steve is certainly on top of things.
Steve said: “Our break in Dubai went really well. From a medical point of view I have been told vitamin D levels were very high in the lads when they come back due to the sunshine.”
Gordon says: So basically they just topped up their tans?


Steve said: “We've had monumental results this season, including back-to-back clean sheets".
Gordon says: This comedy writes itself.

Courtesy of Mirror.co.uk

This is only a glimpse of the nonsense we have heard over the last 18 months. How long can this nightmare continue for. How can a group of people who have created a successful chicken business not see what is going on at there new business that they same they love. Or is this part of the master plan if so it would seem like this really is the beginning of the end.

There have been a number of different rumors flying around the media circuits this week. One is that Venkys are not going anywhere but Steve Kean may be. Others are that there are new investors, Billionaire Blackburn fans (yes please), that want to buy the club. But it stills seems the most likely scenario is that we are going to be in exactly the same position we are now. Maybe just a few players lighter, or 20% less according to Venkys.

Venkys haven't listened to the fans and apparently didn't listen to Paul Hunt either back in December when he warned them of the direction the club was heading. Now we have all seen that there were people at the club that see what the fans see what happens, they just remove the only person at the club that has any sort of idea of what is going on. I guess they prefer BS to honesty!

As a huge fan of the great Blackburn Rovers I really hope this isn't the beginning of the end but that the end of this era is near and the start of the rebuild process is around the corner.

The fall of Blackburn Rovers

Blackburn Rovers have never been a huge football club but have been a prime example for small town teams in terms of stability and success. They did reach the peak of English football back in 1995 when lifting the Premier League title. Since then they have remained fairly consistent with some decent cup runs, including a Carling cup win, a remaining for the most part a solid top flight team.
Without huge gate receipts or sponsorship income the club has had to be extremely well managed to cope with the financial strains on football clubs in this era. John Williams role at the club was overlooked for many years but now that he and many others who did such fantastic jobs are gone the void they have left seems larger than a black hole.
The fall of Blackburn Rovers FC began on a day that bought joy to many Rovers fans this was the day the club was sold to Venkys. Fans had hoped this day would be the start of a new era and era where we no longer needed to sell our stars to raise cash to keep the club ticking. How this bright future we had in mind soon started to turn dark and full of lies and a seemingly endless downward spiral.
The first big fall was when Big Sam was shown the door, although many fans did not hate this decision, they were not ready to see him replaced with a first team coach with no experience as a manager let alone in the Premier League. But hey everyone deserves a chance right? Right! But there is giving someone a chance and then there is Steve Kean and Venkys. I am under no doubt that SK blew his chance a long time ago. His record stands for all to see. He has taken BRFC from a solid Premier League team to a laughing stock not only on the field but off it. He is full of not much brains but a lot of BS. I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I watch his smug face giving a post match interview talking about how many times we were in the opposition box or how all the players are united. Its great they are all united in not seeming to give a damn Steve!! But you should have united them into a team that looks like they train and play together on a regular basis.
Steve Kean seems to get a lot of backing from the footballing community and this really irritates me. How can you come out and defend a man who tells the national media that Ryan Nelson is not fit to play but will be back in the team soon and then release him and he is playing for Spurs the next weekend. Or a man who is willing to fly to India every week instead of being on the training ground with a team that clearly needs some organising. He even feed us all the talk of bringing in superstars such as Beckham and Ronaldinho but we end up signing the likes of Slew and the other Ollson twin.
I still find it hard to believe that this is all real. I am starting to believe the conspiracy theories about Venky's asset stripping the club and wanting them to be relegated to collect parachute payments. They have already collected nearly the amount they paid for the club, if not more from player sales.
They clearly have no interest in the football side of things as I could count on my fingers they amount of games they have seen live since taking over. So what is there real motive. I guess only time will tell but I hope for sure some higher powers are looking into the situation, for the sake of all the average fans like me out there, before one of the Greatest clubs in British football is no more.

Hosting a Super Bowl Party

My girlfriend and I are planning to host the super bowl party at our new house for the first time. Being the first time but knowing how big a day this is I am feeling some pressure. I know that its a day enjoyed by all not just those football fans that follow their team all season long. With the super bowl comes half time entertainment and of course the commercials as well as the much anticipated championship game.

I have tried to do as much research as I can, without overloading my brain, by looking for hints and tips to being a great super bowl party host. It seems that the most important thing besides having a TV that works is the food. The food should be finger food with a range of options and have it ready. There is nothing worse than trying to get it all finalised once the game has started! I am all ready working on ideas for the spread we will offer.

Very closely following the food is the beer and to some this would be way ahead of the snacks. Make sure one there is enough and two that you have a place to keep it cold. Whats the use in having cases of beer if they are all going to be warm. This week I will be working on eating my way through the food that is in the fridge to make space. Also be sure to have a couple other options in the beverage department for non beer drinkers and also the drivers.

Another key to making it feel special and different from other parties you host is to decorate the place in the team colors. We have a couple jerseys to wear and have to look into some other blue and white decorations to support the Giants!

A few websites also suggest making the game more interesting for the non die hard football fans by having some friendly money on the game in the form of boxes. The key being friendly money don't gamble your rent money keep it reasonable. I also like to have a lucky dip for first and last touchdown scorer which I used to have a lot of fun with watching football (soccer) matches with my college flatmates. This gives people someone to cheer for and get excited about touchdowns even if they don't really care who wins.

But the key seems to be keep it simple lots of food, lots of drink, liven the place up a little and add extra interest in the game by putting friendly money on the line. So average sports fans and more experience super bowl hosts please offer me any other advise that will make our super bowl 46 party a hit.

Transfer Deadline Day Drama

Well this January transfer deadline day was not quite as intense as last January (60 million compared to 225 million last year) but it is still one of the most exciting days of the football season. There are people who are against the transfer window format but I personally like it a lot. It brings excitement to the middle of the season and it also gives teams the peace of mind that they have the squad they have for the rest of the season.

As a Blackburn fan I am now safe in the knowledge that the squad we have is the one that is going to finish out the season and hopefully be good enough to keep us up. There was a fair bit of action for the Rovers today with both some ins and some outs. We were involved in one of the bigger stories of the day with Ryan Nelson being released so he could join spurs which I am not that happy about as he is a true leader and would add some valuable experience to the situation we find ourselves in. It was also a classic deadline day move were there was a press release stating he was playing in a behind closed doors game to get his fitness back and the next thing you know is he has been released. That's the drama of transfer deadline day. It also is standard that Harry Redknapp is involved in the late action as with pretty much all the transfer windows. But don't ever call him a wheeler dealer to his face (see below).



But as an average sports fan I spent the majority of my work day following the live feed on the BBC sport website. Hoping for a big signing for my team (it didn't happen) but also just enjoying the gossip and rumour mill turning in full force. Its not only about the signings however its also about keeping your players which was a big deal for the Rovers but no major outs, Nelson aside, so know its time for tomorrows game with Newcastle and pushing on through the season with the squad we have. I believe we have enough to stay up and hopefully push on next season.

Hope all you average sports fans enjoyed the transfer deadline as much as I did!

Is there any loyalty left in sports?

It is not often you see players playing for only one team throughout their career. This has not always been the case though so why the change.

The following link shows a list of one-club players. The trend I immediately noticed is that the majority of these players were in the game years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_one-club_men

You do however see some players from today's era. There are players such as Francesco Totti at Roma, Ryan Giggs at Manchester United and Carlos Puyol and Xavi at Barcelona.

However what you will even notice here is these are players at top teams, Champions league teams. You don't see many, if any at low level teams such as my team Blackburn Rovers. As a Blackburn fan I have seen many great talents playing at Ewood but eventually they move on. But can we really blame them is the question. We talk about loyalty but we have to understand the players position too. They want to be the best they can be and teams in Blackburn's position are not going to be able to offer them regular European football. I think most fans understand that and it is not the players leaving that gets to fans it is the way the players go about it. Two perfect examples are Phil Jones and Chris Samba.

I strongly believe, and have no grudge towards, Phil Jones for leaving Blackburn. He left in the summer after having a great season in which he played a huge part in saving the club from relegation. We got a lot of money for a young player and for him personally it was time for him to challenge himself on another level.

Chris Samba on the other hand is going about it completely the wrong way. I understand that he himself feels let down by the owners but coming out an saying you don't think you can give 100% anymore to the club that is paying you an outragous salary and has brought you from a team where you were not in the starting line up. Blackburn put Chris Samba on the map and he should appreciate that and at least help the team get through this season and help keep us in the league and then in the summer you can push for that move and force your hand. But what he is doing know is disrupting the club in a crucial part of the season and history of the team.

It is not only the players that lack loyalty however. In the modern game which is now very money driven and business like. Players are seen as assets and money makers for owners, agents etc. They are not given the loyalty that players once were. They know that a bad season can mean the end of there time at a club no matter how many good years they have given to the club. The amount of money in modern sports is the main reason for the dimise of loyalty in sports. Lower level teams need the income from the sale of there best players to survive and the top teams cannot afford to carry players that have given 10 plus years to the team in the risk of missing out on Champions league football and the revenue that it brings.

It is not just in football that this is happening. In american sports there is the same problem. The big teams are able to offer not only bigger wage packets but exposure to the bigger media interest leading to bigger advertising and marketing deals for these players. Look at the NBA the superstars are all pulled towards the big city media in the cities of Miami, New York and LA. However hats off to Kevin Love for recently signing a long deal with Minnesota.

That is another thing though contracts really mean nothing in sports anymore. Look at Samba again he only just signed a long 5 year contract but it was really just a way for him to get more money. Money is the drving power in todays sports world and money and loyalty do not fit together at all well. This makes it hard for us average sports fans to have idols as players pass in the blink of an eye rather than an era of a sports team.