Blackburn Rovers Blog: Rovers must learn to be smarter in market (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Blackburn Rovers Blog: Rovers must learn to be smarter in market
7:42am Thursday 31st January 2013 in Football
By Andy Cryer, Blackburn Rovers reporter
BLACKBURN Rovers should not have to be embroiled in the chaotic last few hours of the January transfer window. The fact they are tells us everything about their recent past.
Manager Michael Appleton is spot on when he says he needs at least three new faces before the window slams shut this evening, as he attempts to bring some balance to Rovers’ large but unequal squad.
But you can imagine the club’s owners and money men banging their heads against their desks in frustration and wondering quite what happened to the significant outlay that was made in August.
The majority of the transfer fees that were spent in the summer have actually proved worthwhile, with Jordan Rhodes looking every inch the £8million striker is.
The £3m spent on Leon Best has yet to prove beneficial through no fault of the clubs but, with him nearing fitness, that could yet be good business.
Transfer fees aren’t the be-all-and-end-all though.
A closer look at the summer business and the amount of money currently being wasted in wages is actually frightening.
Venky’s funded the arrival of 12 new players in the summer, some on considerable wages, and you could count on one hand with fingers to spare the amount of successes.
We shouldn’t be surprised either.
Ever since Venky’s took charge they have been let down on the club’s transfer business, partly through their own fault in listening to the wrong people but also because of managers’ bad judgement and the influence of agents.
With the exception of Yakubu – and possibly Rhodes – it is difficult to see many other cases of astute transfer business.
Just a look at the squad list shows a list of names who have made no impact at the club.
Others, like Radosav Petrovic and Mauro Formica, have already been moved on with the club looking to shed many more, although high wages make this difficult.
You wouldn’t blame Venky’s if they simply said there is no more money, after two and a bit years of throwing it down the drain, but if the resources are available, Appleton has to stop the recent trend.
He needs to make sure the club finally starts getting value for money in the transfer market and he clearly knows that with the appointment of Luke Dowling as head of recruitment.
The club can’t afford many more rebuilds after this one, so fingers crossed Appleton gets it right.
He has already shown signs of knowing what is needed, we can only hope he delivers.
Comments are closed on this article.

Comments (37)
8:24am Thu 31 Jan 13
thresholdweller says...
8:29am Thu 31 Jan 13
Sherwoodforest says...
as far as i was aware they made 21m from transfer trading???
millions of pounds have been wasted on paying up contracts and NDA's.
8:30am Thu 31 Jan 13
RoversSwiss says...
Have to say it again unfortunately, pre Venkys the Rovers were in desperate financial trouble. If Venkys leave Rovers now we will almost certainly go bust, at least very quickly into administration. If they leave, Rovers will be an ex-football club, they will be deceased, they will cease to exist.
Agree completely with the previous post, MA needs to reduce the squad, the loss of Robinson, Formica and Vucevic will be no loss, not sure about the incomings.
8:36am Thu 31 Jan 13
Sherwoodforest says...
8:37am Thu 31 Jan 13
Sherwoodforest says...
8:43am Thu 31 Jan 13
Sherwoodforest says...
good luck with that..
9:03am Thu 31 Jan 13
xrayspex77 says...
9:04am Thu 31 Jan 13
fitz808 says...
the trasnfer policy has been somewhat flawed and chaotic, but it's a simple fact that we will vary rarely be a club that spends more on players than it makes in sales.
we are the classic selling club in that we have a relatively small fanbase, are not particularly popular outside our catchment area, have a decent record in bringing players on, and are massively unlikely to allow an ambitious player to satisfy their desire for trophies. Kean's philosophy on recruitment did not pan out. i'm sure it was not a deliberate act, but it simply hasn't worked. Appleton now looks to redress the balance, and that seems sensible.
we can only really hope that we keep producing players that will be in demand, because that should also mean that during the time they are here, we will do well. however, by it's very nature, this means that whoever is in ownership will look like they are spending less than they are taking in. it wasn't so long ago that we were criticising the WT for not reinvesting cash for players like Duff.
fans seem to conveniently forget the amount that is spent on wages. a decent player will be on wages of close to £1m and more, so if you have a squad full of them, you quite quickly need to sell a heck of a lot of rovers mugs!!
9:09am Thu 31 Jan 13
glp says...
The chicken farmer owners have ruined all that with their inept and pathetic attempts to run this football club. God knows how they run a successful business in India. They have shown they have NO idea how to run a successful football club. You can blame bad decisions by managers and "global advisors" all you want, but who are the idiots who employed these muppets to run the football club. The fault lies solely with Venkys. The buck stops with them they turned Blackburn Rovers into the circus that it as now become. They have promised much and delivered very little in the 2 years of their ownership
9:14am Thu 31 Jan 13
xrayspex77 says...
9:15am Thu 31 Jan 13
fitz808 says...
most of the footballing hyperbole we are subjected to nowadays is purely about selling more sky subscriptions. that's why we have trailers for matches described as 'Battles' whilst explosions go off in the background and an orchestra goes at it hammer and tongs!! i'm pretty sure there is no real need for sky to have a countdown on SSN starting from 30days, 23 hrs, 59mins, 59secs to go.
the coverage is certainly largely good and without it there would not be as many good players playing in this country, so i apply a nonsense filter to help me get through some of the more ridiculous aspects of their broadcasts. this basically involves distracting myself by humming the most bland sections of the coldplay catalogue and wearing dark glasses. it's like a temporary lobotomy.
9:17am Thu 31 Jan 13
Sherwoodforest says...
everyone is entitled to an opinion, me you, andy bill taylor etc, etc, etc
only good champ players are on 20k a week btw, the majority are on nowhere near that amount.
venkys gross neglect and mismanagement is the reason BRFC are where they are now, nothing more nothing less, and that is my opinion..
You can gush and praise Venkys all you want, im not stopping you, happyclappers.com, either that or agenda ridden..
9:27am Thu 31 Jan 13
eddie the eagle says...
9:31am Thu 31 Jan 13
peely says...
9:37am Thu 31 Jan 13
Is Eckersley playing? says...
9:42am Thu 31 Jan 13
fickle fan says...
9:43am Thu 31 Jan 13
Racing Rover says...
9:44am Thu 31 Jan 13
Sherwoodforest says...
sell one player Jones= debt gone, bingo!
not rocket science is it??
9:50am Thu 31 Jan 13
To.guy says...
9:50am Thu 31 Jan 13
Sherwoodforest says...
9:54am Thu 31 Jan 13
inflightmagazine says...
And just how much are QPR paying for him after complainints he was being over priced.
10:24am Thu 31 Jan 13
vicn1956 says...
10:37am Thu 31 Jan 13
srvp28 says...
Maybe on another page but certainly not on this one so why bring it up? Argument, self, phone box springs to mind.
10:44am Thu 31 Jan 13
jinkyjase says...
10:45am Thu 31 Jan 13
Dukes says...
10:45am Thu 31 Jan 13
jinkyjase says...
11:06am Thu 31 Jan 13
roverfor60years says...
However, let’s hope they have learned a painful lesson and come to their senses. But the wreckage is there for all to see and it’s going to be a long, hard road to repair the damage they have inflicted on the club.
If they set out wanting to reduce the wage bill and get the club onto a more sound financial footing why didn’t they give the highly respected management team they inherited that task instead of bringing ridicule on themselves with their crass mismanagment?
11:40am Thu 31 Jan 13
buckoff says...
11:47am Thu 31 Jan 13
fickle fan says...
11:48am Thu 31 Jan 13
Sherwoodforest says...
B) they have put player profits back in, however the operating costs have been astronomical in comparison to the previous regime.
They needed the 21m transfer surplus just to turn the club over for 18 months, ????
Don't bother commenting if you are going to stoop to silly, childish insults.
11:54am Thu 31 Jan 13
Sherwoodforest says...
They've been badly advised, wasted tons of money, sacked all the wrong people, sold players to cover operating losses, and brought in dross to replace premier standard players.
And now they are on their second cull of the squad.
20 years of 'Arte Et Labore' wiped out in a little over 2 years
12:30pm Thu 31 Jan 13
fickle fan says...
2:07pm Thu 31 Jan 13
Is Eckersley playing? says...
2:33pm Thu 31 Jan 13
bburnrover says...
The Venkeys should listen to public opinion a bit more and save themselves millions they should have heeded the fans when they sacked Allardyce by getting O'Neil or similiar types of manager with experience of the all important transfer market, Kean was a disaster,Shebby still is a disaster,Berg could have been good,Appleton is looking to low and should look for class not lads he has worked with before. Ince and Kidd were other useless managers without a clue of what constitutes a good player,Kenny was middling and had lots of money but best of all was Mark Hughes he was brilliant and made the club a fortune on the players he brought in.
3:20pm Thu 31 Jan 13
Is Eckersley playing? says...
4:53pm Thu 31 Jan 13
Stone Island: says...
If whoever our debt is to, were to call it in, I suspect Venky's would put BRFC into administration, and we'd become another Portsmouth.
6:10pm Thu 31 Jan 13
fickle fan says...