On Friday evening, my patience with comments from members of the Venkys family finally snapped. I sat down and said exactly what i and other thoughts from other fans had been saying since the latest influx of daft comments were revealed coming from Balaji Rao (otherwise known as ‘Big Sam’ Rao).
It came as mass relief to unload these thoughts it must be said and i figured i would at least get a weeks freedom from the madness that is Steve Kean and the Rao’s… Or what i like to call ‘Chicken Run’.
Alas, it has been barely days, yet more daft comments have been revealed, this time coming from Venkatesh Rao (otherwise known as ‘Venky-Moustache’ Rao) and yet again i can feel my blood pressure rising. So consider this ‘Tombos Rant Part 2’, or ‘Tombos Rant Part 1B’.
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During Steve Kean’s ‘frank and straight’ (insert joke here!) meeting with the Rao family, Venkatesh Rao revealed that he was confident that team form under Steve Kean would improve after the match vs FC Pune.
If a friendly against a semi-pro team was what was needed to boost the player season. I could have organised that for thousands of pounds less in the form of a adult return on the train from Blackburn to half a dozen pub teams around the country.
Let’s not see this as anything else then it actually was. A publicity stunt to boost the profile of Venkys. Denying the obvious fact that it will have the same impact that the Blackburn Rovers Venkys Chicken advert had… Namely negative.
The attention that it brought to Blackburn Rovers FC as a brand was negative, but likely boosted Venkys profile in India. Now much like that publicity stunt, having the players over for this mid-season friendly when other players at other teams are regaining their fitness will also have a negative impact, something i don’t think any sane person can deny. The teams players have been ‘requested’ to spend a couple of days in total on a plane, and play football on the other end, when they should be preparing for the next Premier League game!
MADNESS!
Now back to the meeting that took place!
Rao said: ‘Believe me, it was frank and straight and we need results’.
Much like when we needed results last season and got one or two… It isn’t going to cut it!
‘Everyone is looking forward – from the players to the manager to the owners’.
What so they weren’t before? Why?
I’m sure the players are looking forward… Like Junior Hoilett, to whom it has been widely reported that he has declined to sign a contract extension, and is likely to leave at the end of the season on a Bosman.
But hey, never mind, it’s not like he’s the only key player to be left bemused at Blackburn Rovers of late. With Phil Jones jumping ship and Christopher Samba still seemingly feeling the effects of not getting what he wanted in the Summer transfer window…
I am positive. The luck didn’t go for us in the first two games and then we had a wonderful win (against Arsenal) before we were sliding down’.
That load thud you just heard was me falling off my chair?!
How the hell can you blame bad luck for 2 results at the beginning of the season. But climb allover the Arsenal result and not mention luck at all?!
For the best part of the latter half of last season. I spoke with Vineeth Rao on Facebook. On the run of 10 games from the end of January until the end of April where we didn’t win a single game. He gave the excuse ‘bad luck’ throughout.
Now yet again, the ‘family’ are using the same dusty excuse! Where will it end?!
Let’s look at the facts:
Blackburn Rovers vs Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolves had 4 shots on target to our two. On paper, the ball possession was even at about 50/50, but to anyone who watched the match, it was very much but even.
Wolves had their defense organised and apart from Formica’s goal in the 20th minute, they did not look likely to concede a goal.
Roger Johnson had a excellent match at the back. Although it never looked likely we would test the goal.
On the other hand, our defensive line looked poorly organised and like it might crumble on any Wolves attack.
That isn’t luck Mr Rao, that is Barclays Premier League football.
Aston Villa vs Blackburn Rovers
Again, possession was very even, Villa just shading it. But other then that, they were in a whole other league to us!
We had 5 shots on target to their 5, our defense still looked wobbly, and it was about as one sided as a 3-1 defeat could be.
As a Blackburn Rovers fan, i don’t hesitate in any way shape or form in admitting that Villa were deserved winners in this match, and luck never came into it?!
If you don’t believe me. Ask any other Blackburn Rovers fan who may have been wearing rose-tinted glasses on the day. There is no way we deserved anything from these games?!
‘Now after this meeting and the team coming especially to India, they have had a refreshing time, and I think they will go with a positive note after this meeting.’
Yes i am very sure that (as i said above), a jaunt halfway around the world on a plane will have done them the world of good. Add to that foreign food, playing a football match that serves no logical footballing purpose and the negative publicity the club has got for doing it will do everyone the world of good.
How can a 3-0 victory against a semi-pro team boost anyone’s confidence…?
‘I would like to assure the fans we are very much concerned about the situation’.
Obviously! Concerned enough to say the guy that brought us to this stage is a ‘brilliant manager’, the same ‘brilliant manager’ who has only won us 21% of his games in charge!
Kean is under absolutely no illusion that his job is under threat, and your brothers and sister are not even considering removing him from his job a) regardless of the current situation and b) regardless of any continuation of this poor form in the future.
So how the hell do you expect the fans to take these comments seriously…
Every single media outing your family makes only owes to lessen the fans support of you.
As has already been said. You are eager enough to get a select group of players to come out and support you in the media, but how you can gloss over some very real problems is absolutely beyond any Blackburn Rovers football fan!
– Where is the replacement chairman that was promised?
– Where is David ‘Junior’ Hoilett’s new contract that Steve Kean himself promised on Soccer Saturday, barely hours after we won our only game of the season?
– Where are the responses to fans worries that were sent to Balaji Rao and Vineeth Rao?
– Where is a new manager when our manager has proven so utterly incapable of performing his role at the club…
I and many other Rovers fans could not give a damn what your five year plan is!
We want action now, or any positive five year plan will not be able to save your role with this club!
‘It is really painful, I know that. It is painful for the owners with what is happening’.
With all due respect. How long have Venkys even been aware of this great club?
A year? Two years?
We have fans of this club in their late 70’s that i have spoken to and i find it truly insulting that your family could so much as try to make the fans feel that you feel pain for the club…
If it is painful… Why don’t you act now instead of reinforcing the situation with positive comments in support of the man who lead us here?
Let’s get this straight… It isn’t the players that lead us here. The vast majority lead us to 10th place under Sam Allardyce…
It’s not the former assistant John Jensen, you don’t have to look any further then the drubbing we got at Manchester City for that fact…
It is the ‘manager’.
‘I would like to be honest – we will show some results and we will produce some results and make our fans happy.’
You have never been honest since the day you took this club over…
We don’t believe you, we don’t expect results and you can expect protests ‘which i wholeheartedly support i might add’ until action is taken against the manager…
Relieve the manager of his duties, and then maybe the protests will die-down, they won’t before then…
If you want to deny the facts ie: the fans are currently unhappy look at some very simple facts.
1) the club is currently 1,500 odd season tickets down regardless of one of the cheapest season ticket prices in the league. Meanwhile Bolton Wanderers has gone up. So the excuse of the Global Economy can go right out the window!
2) Opening fixture of the 2010/11 season: August Sat 14 – Ewood Park – Blackburn Rovers vs Everton (score 1-0 to Rovers) Attendance 25,869 compared to this season (2011/12 season):
August Sat 27 – Ewood Park – Blackburn Rovers vs Everton (score 0-1 to Everton) Attendance 22,826
Just to add some comparison for the opening fixture of the season:
August Sat 13 – Ewood Park – Blackburn Rovers vs Wolves (score 1-2 to Wolves) Attendance 21,996 .
That represents a nearly 4,000 person drop in season opening fixtures. But hey never mind. We will be in the Championship/Champions League in 5 years. That’ll effect the attendance!
3) Over a thousand fans signed a online petition to have Steve Kean removed as manager
4) Fans have protested at 2 seperate matches and plan to be for a 3rd at the Tottenham Hotspur game
So please. Stop making these daft statements.
Open your eyes, we certainly have!
SO AGAIN… ACT NOW BEFORE THE DAMAGE IS DONE, THEN YOU MIGHT HAVE A SLIM CHANCE OF WINNING BACK (US) THE FANS!
These above thoughts are mostly my own. They are in no way reflective of a attitude undertaken by Vital Blackburn Rovers (granted they are reflective of many a fan who has spoken to me since the comments were made!)
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