To coincide with the release of the fixtures today, The Exiled Robin
begins a series of posts introducing the six new members of the
Championship. With three relegated clubs
from the M6 corridor joining three ambitious promoted clubs, including recent
Premier League residents Charlton and Sheffield Wednesday, mean an already
tight and difficult league just got a whole lot tougher.
Here is the first in a series of six posts to be released over the next
couple of weeks, introducing you to the Championship’s new clubs, hopefully informing
you along the way. We kick off with troubled Lancastrians Blackburn Rovers, a club with a proud history but with well-publicised issues surrounding the ownership and management of the club. Will all of this distract from on-the-pitch events and prevent Rovers from having an attempt at going straight back up?
About……Blackburn
Rovers
Nickname: ‘Rovers’ Manager: Steve Kean
Play at: Ewood Park, 198 miles from Ashton Gate
Capacity: 31,154; Last Season Avg Attendance: 22,551
Interesting Facts: Blackburn’s
record transfer fee paid was £8m to take former City striker Andrew Cole from
Manchester United >>> Blackburn are one of only three teams to be
founding members of both the Football League and the Premier League
>>> Tommy Briggs once scored seven in one match – a record for Rovers –
against our friends the Gas >>> Harry Dennison is the youngest player
ever to appear for Rovers – 111 years ago against then top side Bristol City
Notable match vs
City: Bristol City 4 Blackburn 2 – Opening
day 1990/91 season
2012-13 Fixtures: 15th Sep (H), 2nd Feb (A)
These fantastic and detailed responses
have come via @St_Jimmy_77, a clearly passionate and loyal supporter desperate
for the good times to return to Ewood Park.
How are you now feeling
about playing in the Championship, a few weeks following your relegation?
Relegation was always
on the cards with Steve Kean as manager and with Venkys being owners. Rovers
survived the season before on the very last day and that should've been a
warning sign to Venkys that Steve Kean wasn't the man for the job. But still
they persist with him which shows they have no knowledge of what they have
entered into.
Even with relegation
being expected, it still upsets me and many other Rovers fans that we've gone
down. But I'm looking forward to visiting new grounds and the East Lancs derby
will be coming around again so that's something to look forward to.
What does your club
bring to a tight, competitive and entertaining division?
Well; under
"normal circumstances" I would say a well-run family orientated club.
But what we will bring is an unstable club with fans discontent at an all-time
high. These are unsettling times for many people associated with the club and
it’s a far cry from just a few years ago.
Hopefully our players
will play to their potential and we can get promotion back into the Premier
League but with the club on its knees, even that is a big uncertainty at the
present moment in time.
What style of
football/formation do you play?
No fan can really be
sure what formation we play. On a regular occurrence we play 4-4-1-1 with
Hoilett just behind Yakubu. However
Hoilett is out of contract in the Summer so he will be off. Yakubu has a
relegation clause of £1m and is interesting West Ham so looks like he will be
off too.
As for the style of
football, again no one really knows from one game to the next. Steve Kean's
lack of tactical knowledge and his subs were mind boggling at times. He would
change the entire system from one game to the next, much to the bemusement of
many Rovers fans.
Who are the star
players we should all look out for and do you anticipate a big exodus prior to
September 1st?
If they stay, I would
say Martin Olsson and Rochina. Olsson is a young Swedish international and is
very pacy. However Kean plays him at left back when his better position is on
left wing. Rochina was signed from Barcelona and the minute he gets hold of the
ball he oozes confidence and class. He rarely gives the ball away and you can
tell he's had a good footballing education at Barcelona. Another player worth a
mention is Simon Vukcevic the Montenegro international. He barely played last
year for whatever reason but those who watched Montenegro's game against
England a while back will agree he is a class act.
I don't expect there
to be a mass exodus, however I do expect players to leave. That's the case with
any team that has been relegated. There has been one player who has publically
said he will stay and that is Morten Gamst Pedersen. Pedersen is a pretty handy
player for us when he is on form but he's never quite hit the heights of the
2004/2005 season in which he scored a brace against Man Utd at Old Trafford.
But what you cannot question is his loyalty and commitment to Rovers.
And is there an
up-and-coming future star in your midst?
With Hoilett's
contract expiring soon, nobody really sticks out apart from Rochina as
mentioned previously. One player who came on leaps and bounds last season is
Grant Hanley. Initially he struggled when called upon but since his winning
goal at Old Trafford on New Year’s Eve, his confidence rose and subsequently
showed his potential. We have been quite lucky at Rovers with young players
with the Academy at Brockhall churning out players such as Damien Duff, David
Dunn, Phil Jones, Martin Olsson amongst others. I just hope that continues for
many years to come thus preserving the late Jack Walker's legacy at the club.
Dare I ask for your
views of your manager....?
Where do I start with
Steve Kean. Well to begin with, I didn't know who he was but when Sam was
sacked and Steve was appointed as caretaker, I was more than willing to give
him a chance. His first result was a great 3-1 away win at West Brom and we
played very well. Then he was given the job until the end of the season - my
initial thoughts: let’s just give the guy a chance. Our 3-1 home win against
Liverpool further gave me reason to want to give him a chance.
However things on and
off the pitch were sliding down a very slippery path and we were flirting with
relegation. That coupled with the announcement that Kean had signed a two year
deal started to make fans wonder what was going on at the club.
His first full season
in charge saw him charged and prosecuted for drink driving. Many Rovers fans
thought he would be dismissed for this but the silence from the owners was
deafening. Protests, sit-ins, marches to the stadium and static protests have
all been made, both against Steve and the Venkys, and the season eventually culminated
in our relegation from the Premier League, 11 years after coming back up.
A few weeks ago a
video was released in which Steve Kean is shown referring to Sam Allardyce as a
"f*cking crook" This made a lot of fans (myself included) very angry.
He has been subject to a petition on which more than 5,000 fans have their
names on for his immediate removal as manager. This was sent to our owners the
day before he was due to arrive over in India for talks. All this has seemingly
been ignored and he still remains as manager. The silence from our owners and
Kean is causing a lot of rumours and that's no good for fans and anyone else
associated with the club. My opinion on Steve Kean is that he doesn’t deserve
to be anywhere near Blackburn Rovers. His lies, his arrogance and just him
makes my skin crawl as I'm sure many fans would agree.
….and of your
owner/board/Chairman?
Owners: Plain and
simple, they are clueless in how to run a football club. They are very naive
and seemingly don't want to invest any time or money into the club. It is
hurting a lot of people associated with the club because we were so astutely run
before they came along. They promised to continue in the same vein, but what
has happened since has been so far removed from what I perceive as the
"good old days".
Board: The only person
I know on the board is our "General Manager" Paul Agnew. He has
recently been promoted into this role. Nobody knows what his official duties
but local press have likened it to a Chief Executive role. Paul Agnew before
promotion was Rovers' PR person and you only have to look at the "PR"
from the last 20-22 months to see he's not at all capable of fulfilling the
role he has been promoted into effectively. The other two I know of, but don't
know anything about, are Simon Hunt (Sporting Director) and Karen Silk (Finance
Director). They are rumoured to be leaving the club soon, which will further
plunge the club into meltdown.
Chairman: Well we
don't have a chairman per se, we have a chairlady - Mrs Desai, or as she likes
to be called Madame Desai. She doesn't have a clue about football and is Steve
Kean's biggest fan. I think that in itself gives you my and MANY others opinion
on her.
What are your
expectations for the upcoming season?
My expectations for
the upcoming season? Well under normal circumstances it would be automatic
promotion with winning the league a bonus. However these aren't normal
circumstances so the best I can really hope for at this moment is to stay in
the league because the instability off the pitch will only emanate onto match
days and the players and staff will inevitably suffer as a result. To put it
into a bit of perspective, Bolton have sold 11,000+ season tickets. That's more
than at this stage last season. We have sold 5000+ on an early bird deal and
they are currently off sale. At the time of writing it is two days before the
fixtures are released. It is nothing more than a sham that fans cannot purchase
their season tickets ready for the new season. What is even more alarming is that
the staff who work at the ticket office don't know when they'll be on sale. So
as you can imagine we aren't exactly prepared to go into battle come August
when the season starts.
You touched upon the renewal of the East Lancs derby earlier, are you at least
looking forward to renewing rivalries with Burnley, and do you have any other
big rivals in this division?
I am absolutely
looking forward to renewing rivalries with Burnley. It has been 33 years since
they last beat us and just extending that would be great. The atmosphere at the
game is electric and the games always are feisty affairs. It has an extra bite
to it with Rovers player David Dunn being a lifelong Rovers fan and him having
mates that are Burnley fans. There should be a great set of matches on offer
which hopefully will pass without much trouble.
We do have a bit of a
rivalry with Bolton but nowhere near on the scale as Burnley. I actually live
in Bolton and there are a few Rovers fans over this way which is pleasantly
surprising. Other than that, no we don't have any rivalries. Though I am
looking forward to visiting a few grounds and hopefully meet up with people off
Twitter I regularly chat to.
And finally, Bradley Orr is a bit of a legend at Ashton Gate but caused mini-controversy at the end
of last season with his interview after the final home match. Has that feeling
settled down, how has he generally performed for you and does he have a future
at the club do you think?
Bradley Orr has given
us more stability on the right side of defence. Initially I wondered why we
were signing someone who couldn’t even get into a relegation rivals team. Over
the course of time, he proved me wrong and would like to think he will be a key
player for us this coming season. His comments regarding Kean, though very
stupid, seemed rehearsed. And with him being a Kean signing, naturally you
would expect him to back the man who has given him the chance to play more
first team football.
Fans are still angry
at his comments but the abuse he's been getting has been intolerable at times.
I personally think he should let his football do the talking next season and
maybe the people who are abusing him will think differently. The fans are
rightly angry and frustrated at what is happening to the club but I feel they
are directing their anger at the wrong person in Orr.
Many thanks again to @St_Jimmy_77 for these answers, you can follow him on Twitter here:
Comments
Post a Comment