As I write this, the Blackburn squad, what remains of it, travels to India to play the Red Lizards of Pune over the weekend. It’s a nice way to get away from the pressures of Blackburn and get on with some team-building and sight-seeing. That’s possibly the view of manager Steve Kean. My guess would be that he rather fancies the fact that he’s getting away from the fans who have been asking for his head for some time now and almost sang him out after a crushing defeat at the hands of Manchester City.
Venky’s has made a right mess of the team that is the only one outside Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea to have won the Premier League. Of course, that came due to the spending spree that then owner Jack Walker went on, purchasing the likes of Alan Shearer. But as we look back over the past 12 months, Venky’s have taken a mid-table stable club to the relegation-threatened one. These guys came in with high standards and ridiculous claims. Everything happened with the help of the dubious Jerome Anderson, who is an agent and works for SEM. This firm, along with their partner, Kentaro, has apparently influenced the owners’ decisions all the way.
First, and up until now, the most controversial and damaging decision was to let go Sam Allardyce. A manager who brought them from the brink of relegation and stabilized them was removed over alleged signing issues. Anderson and Kentaro’s decisions to sign some players went against the manager and Venky’s went about removing the obstacle and installing Steve Kean, a man represented by Jerome Anderson himself. If that was not enough, the team signed a pre-contract with Jerome Anderson’s son, Myles. Then came the ludicrous claims of bringing in Ronaldinho and Raul. For a club battling relegation, this was not just a mere stretch, but a fantasy. Kean went on claiming that contracts for these players would be worked out in the near term and tried to calm reports of this just being a dream. Of course, the two did not come to the club, as expected. But in place he bought a Scottish unknown, Goodwillie.
Such preposterous decisions have been the reason that Venky’s now is a joke on the UK. Being called “poultry farmers” all along, the Indian owners are ridiculed in every section of the paper. After a poor run last year, Kean somehow managed to pull off a miracle and keep Blackburn afloat. The owners must have been delighted, but their management will always be in question. Take for instance, Kean travels to India once a month to chat with Anuradha Desai, the matriarch of the Venky’s venture. The brothers are seen at games wearing suits and sporting ponytails, trying to understand what is unfolding before them. Clearly they bought this club to promote their product, they aren’t the first. But then use your players to make a ridiculous advert to sell that product was nonsensical. I would be amazed to know how many people in India know any Blackburn player. These people know nothing of what football is, in England at least. Without understanding the culture of football, Venky’s has dived into a pool without learning to swim.
And mind you, the team is not bad. It’s a team a good manager can keep in the middle of the table, maybe even squeaking into the top half. Players like Samba, Robinson, Johnson and many others may warrantee a place in many other squads around the league. But the fault lies with the owners for getting rid of a popular and successful manager and rocking the boat that already had a few holes in it. Then to steady the boat, they brought in a manager who has never managed a first team and never really played at the highest level. Kean has been the whipping boy of the league this season and only saw fewer columns in the papers because Arsene Wenger was making a fool of himself elsewhere.
The current season has started very badly and there is no indication that this will improve without the manager going, or some drastic change in the players and tactics. They are out of sorts and out of ideas. The lonesome win in the League came against a clueless Arsenal that did more for Blackburn than Blackburn itself. After the win, Kean tried to make good with the press and fans by interviewing for everyone who asked him the time, in the process saying how his team was back. Nobody pointed out to him that they had only beaten Arsenal who were thrashed at Old Trafford, scraped a win against Swansea and were beaten thoroughly by Liverpool. And who scored more goals than they did in the match for Blackburn.
It’s not a team that gets a lot of mentions around the place, but I felt it was worth displaying the carelessness and stupidity that has been going on at the club for the past year. Blackburn has Venky’s to blame and Venky’s have themselves to blame. Whatever the owners might say to calm the supporters, they cannot stop the singing from the terraces for the manager’s head. They need to make a decision fast, before the fans turn their heads against them. Then there will be hell to pay, and not even free nuggets for the season will stop the fans clucking around with protests. Right now, Blackburn is like a headless chicken, running wild. Something needs to be done to stop the chaos.
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