I hope you don't mind me butting in, b&wh. I have seen you mention previously that you see us a League One club lucky to be competing at this level, or words to that effect. Could this also be a reason as to why you believe that nobody credible will be interested in buying us? It's a view that I can't fathom myself, but I respect that it's your opinion, as I am the complete opposite in regards to how I view our club. For me, I see a Premier League club that has been ruined by owners who know nothing about football, who have reduced Rovers to this shower that we see today. The state of the club today is all down to the owners, imo. The club is littered with incompetent people above the manager, people who would never have got near the club under Uncle Jack or John Williams, people with links to SEM are stationed throughout the club (I wonder why), we have morons at the top repeatedly making the club look a laughing stock. On the pitch we have a collection of short term loanees and frees meaning we have to rebuild again in the summer. We've been hearing about rebuilds and 'journeys' since 2018 under Mowbray. It's hogwash because of these owners, who do not allow any rebuilding to take place.
I believe that 13 years of this carry on has beaten a lot of the fanbase into thinking this is as good as it gets. It isn't! A new owner will wake everybody up to how crap this ownership has been. That new owner doesn't even have to be an oil baron, tycoon or nation state. Nobody is asking for a tilt at another Premier League trophy. Quite simply somebody with a bit of ambition and care would do. We have been starved of that for 13 years. Zero ambition. £200m these prats are down, and they have sod all to show for it.
1. They have spent a fortune covering the bills/losses, which they have played a big part in causing in the first place. Covering the losses/paying the bills is not a reason for pats on the back. PNE lose £15m a season, which is covered by their owners. Why do we never hear how "wonderful and generous" the Hemmings Family is for pumping £15 a year into PNE? Why is there no song and dance made about 'PNE going to the wall' without their owner's input? Only at Rovers and among the Rovers fans does this seemingly happen. Rovers have no hope without Venky's, apparently. Yet the rest of the Championship is ok if their respective owners were to leave? This doomsday angle is only saved for Rovers. I strongly suspect it has been initiated by agents to keep Venky's in situ and now ran with by thousands repeating "who else is going to put £15m in, Venky's must stay".
2. True, there is no guarantee. There is, however, no chance of going up doing what we are currently doing. When have this lot spent a fortune trying to win promotion? It quite simply has never happened. Despite that, JDT had us close to the play offs last season and it only needed a final push from the owners. Not a massive outlay, just a reasonable push. For the second January in a row though, including Mowbray's last, they showed that they didn't give a damn, which is why they need to go. Look at the state of this January window, with everybody laughing at us, for further proof that they need to go. A new owner would bring renewed hope and restore a bit of pride about the place. Everybody connected to Rovers needs it. Hope.
3. Our fanbase shrinking might have something to do with the garbage and chaos that the fans have had to endure for the last 13 years. Right at the beginning, protests ignored, fans painted as the villains, new contract for Kean, the agency allowed to run riot. All of this caused 10,000 fans to walk away. Many never to return. Then you have the managerial appointments from the stable linked to the bastards at the very beginning. All the way up until Mowbray. People notice these things. Owen Coyle turning up pissed off many. I know people who quit at that point as they felt that the piss was being taken out of them by somebody. There are a number of diehards who are about to pack it in now after the latest transfer debacle that has everybody laughing at us. A debacle which suggests there are still big issues behind the scenes. I accept that there might be other factors at play to explain our shrinking fanbase such as: being in the Championship, a shift in demographics, ticket prices etc but the biggest reason is what these owners have done to the club and continue to do. They have almost killed the club. It is an unrecognisable shell. This is why fans have left and more are leaving. The damage that these owners have done shouldn't be underestimated. A lot of those fans will be back when a new owner is in town and there is hope again.
4. Can't argue with the fact that we couldn't find a buyer back in the Prem days. However, what I will say is that the football landscape has changed a lot since then. The TV money in the Premier League has exploded. It exploded the year after we were relegated, meaning the hapless in Pune missed out. Good! Promotion results in a £150m windfall. There are more parties out there today, and significantly wealthier parties than back then, looking to buy Clubs in England, particularly from the Middle East. We had a Qatari oil giant try to buy us off Venky's in 2011. A Middle Eastern consortium made an approach to Venky's within the last 12 months, three other consortiums were also interested, two American. All ignored by Venky's, of course. You're not seriously saying Birmingham, Hull and Wrexham are more attractive than Rovers, are you? They've done diddly in the game compared to us. We have more pedigree than a lot of clubs and aren't as unattractive as people think. I think taking the former Premier League Champions back up into the Prem and securing £150m in the process might just appeal to a few. We just need these clowns to put us up for sale. I am expecting a few pleasantly surprised Rovers fans when they see who comes forward. Everything about the club has been dead for a long time. Venky's are not the only game in town! However, reading social media, you would think nobody on this Earth could ever fund Rovers except Venky's. These are an absolute joke, being treated like royalty for paying the bills.
Just on the Muslim town comment, I would think that might be of big appeal to any potential Qatari or Saudi based investor, rather than the opposite. Even if a new owner was from another region, whether there's a growing Muslim population in Blackburn or not would be irrelevant, in my view. The Muslim fans will be there to see Rovers, just like the diehards and the fans who are staying away, because it only takes a bit of ambition and respect for the club, to bring the fans back.
) so everyone is obviously more than welcome to disagree.
