The letter Paul Hunt wrote to Venky's (From Lancashire Telegraph)

So this now confirms that the Club is in serious trouble unless the Venkys and Kean are REMOVED!!!!!!!!!

And I mean REMOVED!!!

"You're fired!!!"

Why cant the Government just tell them were taking the club back, end of!!

Forget all this International Law rubbish!

If this carrys on there will honestly be riots on the streets of Blackburn!

Surely the powers that be can see that!

Were being "eaten" away by a disease, and were expected just to sit back and let it happen!

If it was the banks then something would be done by Mr Cameron!

I swear the next thing they will try and sell will be Jacks statue!!

To all that care, we need to stick together and MOVE FORWARD!

Fair play to Paul Hunt - he did what every senior exec should do and thats give the owners bad news, even if that means you risk losing your job if they dont like what they hear.

If this is a genuine letter, then I dont see how any criticism can be levelled at Hunt (as I've seen some comments in other places start to do). He is spot on in everything he says, and Venkys simply ignored it.

Now its out in the open its no surprise he's been 'sacked', though of course I suspect he wont have been - they'll have parted company after signing a compromise agreement under which Hunt gets some money as compensation but in exchange has to sign an agreement not to talk to anyone about his time at Rovers. It's a standard policy for getting rid of people without any publicity - you pay them off.

I would love it if this isnt the case though and he comes and and sells his 'inside story' to a national paper.

Talk in the media is that "local" low paid staff will lose there jobs!

OUR PEOPLE!

The PEOPLE of BLACKBURN!

makaveli96 wrote:
I swear the next thing they will try and sell will be Jacks statue!!

To all that care, we need to stick together and MOVE FORWARD!

haha i was thinking the same the other day....i could see it being melted down. Kean and Anderson seem to have absolutely no shame.

In there country children work at an early age!

If we let them "dig-in" you will see "youth schemes" set up where kids under 14 will be working in "sweat" shops for them!

OUR CHILDREN!!

JACK STRAW, do something!!

Paul Hunt sacked!! Excellent, we get a guy on board with clearly the clubs interests at heart and what happens? And Baldy is STILL in charge!! I personally think the guy is bulletproof in Venkys eyes and will never be sacked. I didn't believe it for a while but now it is clear - asset stripping...... Sad days and no sign of light at the end of the tunnel. Gutless FA, wont do a thing - enjoy the ride, it's going to be a bumpy one....

Wellsy10 wrote:
Paul Hunt sacked!! Excellent, we get a guy on board with clearly the clubs interests at heart and what happens? And Baldy is STILL in charge!! I personally think the guy is bulletproof in Venkys eyes and will never be sacked. I didn't believe it for a while but now it is clear - asset stripping...... Sad days and no sign of light at the end of the tunnel. Gutless FA, wont do a thing - enjoy the ride, it's going to be a bumpy one....

If this was a LONDON club the FA would intervene though.........

We need segregation for the NORTH!

ANYONE at that club who dares to suggest the useless maggot of a manager is not up to the job is sacked!

Hunt was suggesting how to protect THEIR investment, HIS family and OUR club. But criticize Kean and you're out.

What pictures does Kean have of Desai?! This defies all logic!!

An odd consensus emerged on Monday night after Blackburn were relegated to the Championship. On phone-ins and chat rooms, in newspaper columns and social media one opinion was raised above the others: it was all the fans' fault. Not getting behind the team at a crucial time of the season, bickering about incidentals when the important things required their full attention, having ideas above their station: these were some of the charges on the sheet. As they expressed their anger about the club's ownership and management, the Ewood faithful were widely accused of faithlessness. And thus got their due deserts when relegation was confirmed by Wigan's late winner.

You wonder whether those so quick to attack the disputatious supporters were paying attention when a leaked letter from Paul Hunt, the club's deputy CEO, appeared on the Sporting Intelligence website yesterday. Written back in December, the letter — addressed to the club owners, the Venky's chicken empire - was stunning in its prescience. Citing poor leadership, inadequate decision making, woeful under-investment and weak team management, it predicted not only relegation, but a rapid slide into the financial mire. And nowhere did it blame the fans. Indeed, in its analysis of what was going wrong at the club it absolutely mirrored the worries of the protestors.

The club's response, reported this morning by Sporting Intelligence, was to sack Hunt.

In the way it operates, football has little in common with wider business. But rarely even in a game as widely mismanaged as this can there have been set out such a damning indictment of an organisation's ownership. Lack of leadership is one thing, but this spoke of a complacency and lethargy that was astonishing. Not since the captain ordered the band to keep playing even as the Titanic was holed below the water line can there have been such astonishing inability to understand the gravity of a situation.

When I heard the rumours that Venky's bought Blackburn without appreciating that there was such a thing as relegation from the Premier League, I assumed it was a tale too far: nobody could be that negligent. Now it appears that is the least of it. Sponsors and corporate backers are deserting the club in their droves; one long-term box holder has not taken up the offer to renew his relationship with the club next season, despite being offered a price less than a fifth of what he has been paying. Worse, the owners appear entirely cavalier to existing partners: Hunt warns that shirt sponsors Umbro, whose contract is worth £800,000 annually, were taking rapid umbrage at Venky's allowing cheap rip off casual wear to be manufactured in the club colours in India.

But the biggest problem of all, the one from which all the rest stemmed, was Premier League survival. For Blackburn, the overwhelming majority of their income comes from membership of the top table. To lose the right to £40 million a year in television income is to jeopardise the future existence of the operation. While other clubs — Wolves and Wigan among them — make wise provision for the possibility of demotion, Blackburn had been neglectful in contract discussions. Many of the first team squad did not have relegation clauses, meaning they will still be paid Premier League wages in the Championship. That is not management. It is gross negligence. And nothing to do with the fans.

Hunt warned that such was the inertia within the club as it drifted downwards, administration was a real possibility. Never mind making their way to the top four as Venky's promised when they took over, Blackburn could soon be finding themselves docked 10 points. The bank, in the new climate of zero tolerance of bad debts, is pressurising the club to repay its borrowings; foreclosure remains a real possibility.

Hunt was not shy either of pointing to the inadequacies of the team management. His letter, written in December, suggested Steve Kean was simply not good enough to run the club. He was right there. Sure Kean has been hugely dignified as the vitriol has poured in his direction from the stands. But dignity does not equate to competence. And as Roberto Martinez has demonstrated a few miles down the road, as the season reaches its critical edge, the skill of the team management is all that stands between continuity and catastrophe. Kean's failure has condemned his club to the most uncertain of futures.

It is now too late for the owners to progress Hunt's eminently sensible plan for survival. Now Venky's need to wake up to the reality of horribly straightened circumstances. Income will now plummet, the best players will depart, yet plans need to be quickly made to ensure a speedy return to the sunlit financial uplands of the Premier League. Sources suggest they are doing that by frantically trying to sell the club for £10 million more than they paid for it. The belief that the abject failure of their tenure requires such reward is yet further evidence of quite what a deluded operation they have been. The truth is, they have not been owners. They have been vandals.

Blame the fans? At Ewood Park, as the storm clouds bank up over the moors, there is only one certainty around Blackburn: the fans were right all along.

makaveli96 wrote:
An odd consensus emerged on Monday night after Blackburn were relegated to the Championship. On phone-ins and chat rooms, in newspaper columns and social media one opinion was raised above the others: it was all the fans' fault. Not getting behind the team at a crucial time of the season, bickering about incidentals when the important things required their full attention, having ideas above their station: these were some of the charges on the sheet. As they expressed their anger about the club's ownership and management, the Ewood faithful were widely accused of faithlessness. And thus got their due deserts when relegation was confirmed by Wigan's late winner.

You wonder whether those so quick to attack the disputatious supporters were paying attention when a leaked letter from Paul Hunt, the club's deputy CEO, appeared on the Sporting Intelligence website yesterday. Written back in December, the letter — addressed to the club owners, the Venky's chicken empire - was stunning in its prescience. Citing poor leadership, inadequate decision making, woeful under-investment and weak team management, it predicted not only relegation, but a rapid slide into the financial mire. And nowhere did it blame the fans. Indeed, in its analysis of what was going wrong at the club it absolutely mirrored the worries of the protestors.

The club's response, reported this morning by Sporting Intelligence, was to sack Hunt.

In the way it operates, football has little in common with wider business. But rarely even in a game as widely mismanaged as this can there have been set out such a damning indictment of an organisation's ownership. Lack of leadership is one thing, but this spoke of a complacency and lethargy that was astonishing. Not since the captain ordered the band to keep playing even as the Titanic was holed below the water line can there have been such astonishing inability to understand the gravity of a situation.

When I heard the rumours that Venky's bought Blackburn without appreciating that there was such a thing as relegation from the Premier League, I assumed it was a tale too far: nobody could be that negligent. Now it appears that is the least of it. Sponsors and corporate backers are deserting the club in their droves; one long-term box holder has not taken up the offer to renew his relationship with the club next season, despite being offered a price less than a fifth of what he has been paying. Worse, the owners appear entirely cavalier to existing partners: Hunt warns that shirt sponsors Umbro, whose contract is worth £800,000 annually, were taking rapid umbrage at Venky's allowing cheap rip off casual wear to be manufactured in the club colours in India.

But the biggest problem of all, the one from which all the rest stemmed, was Premier League survival. For Blackburn, the overwhelming majority of their income comes from membership of the top table. To lose the right to £40 million a year in television income is to jeopardise the future existence of the operation. While other clubs — Wolves and Wigan among them — make wise provision for the possibility of demotion, Blackburn had been neglectful in contract discussions. Many of the first team squad did not have relegation clauses, meaning they will still be paid Premier League wages in the Championship. That is not management. It is gross negligence. And nothing to do with the fans.

Hunt warned that such was the inertia within the club as it drifted downwards, administration was a real possibility. Never mind making their way to the top four as Venky's promised when they took over, Blackburn could soon be finding themselves docked 10 points. The bank, in the new climate of zero tolerance of bad debts, is pressurising the club to repay its borrowings; foreclosure remains a real possibility.

Hunt was not shy either of pointing to the inadequacies of the team management. His letter, written in December, suggested Steve Kean was simply not good enough to run the club. He was right there. Sure Kean has been hugely dignified as the vitriol has poured in his direction from the stands. But dignity does not equate to competence. And as Roberto Martinez has demonstrated a few miles down the road, as the season reaches its critical edge, the skill of the team management is all that stands between continuity and catastrophe. Kean's failure has condemned his club to the most uncertain of futures.

It is now too late for the owners to progress Hunt's eminently sensible plan for survival. Now Venky's need to wake up to the reality of horribly straightened circumstances. Income will now plummet, the best players will depart, yet plans need to be quickly made to ensure a speedy return to the sunlit financial uplands of the Premier League. Sources suggest they are doing that by frantically trying to sell the club for £10 million more than they paid for it. The belief that the abject failure of their tenure requires such reward is yet further evidence of quite what a deluded operation they have been. The truth is, they have not been owners. They have been vandals.

Blame the fans? At Ewood Park, as the storm clouds bank up over the moors, there is only one certainty around Blackburn: the fans were right all along.

Wow Maka, brilliantly put and very comprehensive!

And there was me thinking you were all jokes and xenophobia...

I think the best way to hit Venkys is to identify thier customers in India and harrass/vandalize them until they cease trade with Venkys. No company wants a bad name and if they can avoid a bad reputation then they will cease activities with them.

I think the most important (and seemingly unmentioned) thing to say to Venkys is:

You don't have the skill to run a business, Desai, your father was the brain, if he could see you now, you'd be the biggest dissapointment to him. Do what he would have ordered you to do and sell the club.

MxMave wrote:
I think the best way to hit Venkys is to identify thier customers in India and harrass/vandalize them until they cease trade with Venkys. No company wants a bad name and if they can avoid a bad reputation then they will cease activities with them. I think the most important (and seemingly unmentioned) thing to say to Venkys is: You don't have the skill to run a business, Desai, your father was the brain, if he could see you now, you'd be the biggest dissapointment to him. Do what he would have ordered you to do and sell the club.

Dig?

Perhaps the guys who organised the plane could collect again and put a couple of half page ads in the Indian press asking people to boycott Venky's products and businesses. One in the top English language paper and one in a Hindi language paper. Doesn't even need to be a big ad..it will generate its own publicity as the press pick up on it. Shame them in their own neck of the woods...let people over there know they are bringing Indian businesses into disrepute.
l already read an article in the Indian press describing how their reign over here has been a total nightmare for everyone involved.So true!

Well done Paul Hunt. Finally someone has emerged from this whole sorry fiasco who actually had the club's best interest at heart. It is regrettable, but hardly surprising that his warning of impending disaster fell upon deaf ears. All of this begs the question, "what does Kean, Kentaro and Anderson have on Venky?"

RobbyRover wrote:

makaveli96 wrote: An odd consensus emerged on Monday night after Blackburn were relegated to the Championship. On phone-ins and chat rooms, in newspaper columns and social media one opinion was raised above the others: it was all the fans' fault. Not getting behind the team at a crucial time of the season, bickering about incidentals when the important things required their full attention, having ideas above their station: these were some of the charges on the sheet. As they expressed their anger about the club's ownership and management, the Ewood faithful were widely accused of faithlessness. And thus got their due deserts when relegation was confirmed by Wigan's late winner. You wonder whether those so quick to attack the disputatious supporters were paying attention when a leaked letter from Paul Hunt, the club's deputy CEO, appeared on the Sporting Intelligence website yesterday. Written back in December, the letter — addressed to the club owners, the Venky's chicken empire - was stunning in its prescience. Citing poor leadership, inadequate decision making, woeful under-investment and weak team management, it predicted not only relegation, but a rapid slide into the financial mire. And nowhere did it blame the fans. Indeed, in its analysis of what was going wrong at the club it absolutely mirrored the worries of the protestors. The club's response, reported this morning by Sporting Intelligence, was to sack Hunt. In the way it operates, football has little in common with wider business. But rarely even in a game as widely mismanaged as this can there have been set out such a damning indictment of an organisation's ownership. Lack of leadership is one thing, but this spoke of a complacency and lethargy that was astonishing. Not since the captain ordered the band to keep playing even as the Titanic was holed below the water line can there have been such astonishing inability to understand the gravity of a situation. When I heard the rumours that Venky's bought Blackburn without appreciating that there was such a thing as relegation from the Premier League, I assumed it was a tale too far: nobody could be that negligent. Now it appears that is the least of it. Sponsors and corporate backers are deserting the club in their droves; one long-term box holder has not taken up the offer to renew his relationship with the club next season, despite being offered a price less than a fifth of what he has been paying. Worse, the owners appear entirely cavalier to existing partners: Hunt warns that shirt sponsors Umbro, whose contract is worth £800,000 annually, were taking rapid umbrage at Venky's allowing cheap rip off casual wear to be manufactured in the club colours in India. But the biggest problem of all, the one from which all the rest stemmed, was Premier League survival. For Blackburn, the overwhelming majority of their income comes from membership of the top table. To lose the right to £40 million a year in television income is to jeopardise the future existence of the operation. While other clubs — Wolves and Wigan among them — make wise provision for the possibility of demotion, Blackburn had been neglectful in contract discussions. Many of the first team squad did not have relegation clauses, meaning they will still be paid Premier League wages in the Championship. That is not management. It is gross negligence. And nothing to do with the fans. Hunt warned that such was the inertia within the club as it drifted downwards, administration was a real possibility. Never mind making their way to the top four as Venky's promised when they took over, Blackburn could soon be finding themselves docked 10 points. The bank, in the new climate of zero tolerance of bad debts, is pressurising the club to repay its borrowings; foreclosure remains a real possibility. Hunt was not shy either of pointing to the inadequacies of the team management. His letter, written in December, suggested Steve Kean was simply not good enough to run the club. He was right there. Sure Kean has been hugely dignified as the vitriol has poured in his direction from the stands. But dignity does not equate to competence. And as Roberto Martinez has demonstrated a few miles down the road, as the season reaches its critical edge, the skill of the team management is all that stands between continuity and catastrophe. Kean's failure has condemned his club to the most uncertain of futures. It is now too late for the owners to progress Hunt's eminently sensible plan for survival. Now Venky's need to wake up to the reality of horribly straightened circumstances. Income will now plummet, the best players will depart, yet plans need to be quickly made to ensure a speedy return to the sunlit financial uplands of the Premier League. Sources suggest they are doing that by frantically trying to sell the club for £10 million more than they paid for it. The belief that the abject failure of their tenure requires such reward is yet further evidence of quite what a deluded operation they have been. The truth is, they have not been owners. They have been vandals. Blame the fans? At Ewood Park, as the storm clouds bank up over the moors, there is only one certainty around Blackburn: the fans were right all along.

Wow Maka, brilliantly put and very comprehensive! And there was me thinking you were all jokes and xenophobia...

Absolutely....... I'm stunned, I don't know which Mak I like more.

It must be great, after all, a schizophrenic is never alone.

Excellent piece; sums up the situation perfectly.

This has been an issue of gross mismanagement and not, as has been put forward on these pages, one of machiavellian plots by unscrupulous owners and agents to "milk" the club's assets.

The Venky's have been reckless, irresponsible and, at best, incredibly naive in the way they have dismantled the solid structure which was in place.

It seems amazing business people can go into a totally new industry with their eyes so firmly shut. If they did research their new field, as would seem logical to do, it beggars belief they could have come up with the business plan which saw them drive out experienced and respected senior members of the club's management and put their faith in a self-serving individual who's primary concern was extracting as much money as possible OUT of the business.

It is like their Chief of Human Resources only hiring staff who paid him bribes. Surely they would see the conflict of interest.

Paul Hunt is now saying much the same as Williams, Finn and Goodman did. There is no one of authority at the club and little or no communication with the owners regarding their intentions or plans. Venkys did not listen a year before, why should they now?

Mr Hunt will doubtless pay the same price as Williams, Finn and Goodman.

I've just seen Richard Scudamore on SSN reiterating what was reported in this paper recently; he says Venkys have done everything by the Premier League's book. Anything that has happened is due to the decisions they have taken.

Maybe so; it doesn't make it any more palateable though.

RobbyRover wrote:

makaveli96 wrote:
An odd consensus emerged on Monday night after Blackburn were relegated to the Championship. On phone-ins and chat rooms, in newspaper columns and social media one opinion was raised above the others: it was all the fans' fault. Not getting behind the team at a crucial time of the season, bickering about incidentals when the important things required their full attention, having ideas above their station: these were some of the charges on the sheet. As they expressed their anger about the club's ownership and management, the Ewood faithful were widely accused of faithlessness. And thus got their due deserts when relegation was confirmed by Wigan's late winner.

You wonder whether those so quick to attack the disputatious supporters were paying attention when a leaked letter from Paul Hunt, the club's deputy CEO, appeared on the Sporting Intelligence website yesterday. Written back in December, the letter — addressed to the club owners, the Venky's chicken empire - was stunning in its prescience. Citing poor leadership, inadequate decision making, woeful under-investment and weak team management, it predicted not only relegation, but a rapid slide into the financial mire. And nowhere did it blame the fans. Indeed, in its analysis of what was going wrong at the club it absolutely mirrored the worries of the protestors.

The club's response, reported this morning by Sporting Intelligence, was to sack Hunt.

In the way it operates, football has little in common with wider business. But rarely even in a game as widely mismanaged as this can there have been set out such a damning indictment of an organisation's ownership. Lack of leadership is one thing, but this spoke of a complacency and lethargy that was astonishing. Not since the captain ordered the band to keep playing even as the Titanic was holed below the water line can there have been such astonishing inability to understand the gravity of a situation.

When I heard the rumours that Venky's bought Blackburn without appreciating that there was such a thing as relegation from the Premier League, I assumed it was a tale too far: nobody could be that negligent. Now it appears that is the least of it. Sponsors and corporate backers are deserting the club in their droves; one long-term box holder has not taken up the offer to renew his relationship with the club next season, despite being offered a price less than a fifth of what he has been paying. Worse, the owners appear entirely cavalier to existing partners: Hunt warns that shirt sponsors Umbro, whose contract is worth £800,000 annually, were taking rapid umbrage at Venky's allowing cheap rip off casual wear to be manufactured in the club colours in India.

But the biggest problem of all, the one from which all the rest stemmed, was Premier League survival. For Blackburn, the overwhelming majority of their income comes from membership of the top table. To lose the right to £40 million a year in television income is to jeopardise the future existence of the operation. While other clubs — Wolves and Wigan among them — make wise provision for the possibility of demotion, Blackburn had been neglectful in contract discussions. Many of the first team squad did not have relegation clauses, meaning they will still be paid Premier League wages in the Championship. That is not management. It is gross negligence. And nothing to do with the fans.

Hunt warned that such was the inertia within the club as it drifted downwards, administration was a real possibility. Never mind making their way to the top four as Venky's promised when they took over, Blackburn could soon be finding themselves docked 10 points. The bank, in the new climate of zero tolerance of bad debts, is pressurising the club to repay its borrowings; foreclosure remains a real possibility.

Hunt was not shy either of pointing to the inadequacies of the team management. His letter, written in December, suggested Steve Kean was simply not good enough to run the club. He was right there. Sure Kean has been hugely dignified as the vitriol has poured in his direction from the stands. But dignity does not equate to competence. And as Roberto Martinez has demonstrated a few miles down the road, as the season reaches its critical edge, the skill of the team management is all that stands between continuity and catastrophe. Kean's failure has condemned his club to the most uncertain of futures.

It is now too late for the owners to progress Hunt's eminently sensible plan for survival. Now Venky's need to wake up to the reality of horribly straightened circumstances. Income will now plummet, the best players will depart, yet plans need to be quickly made to ensure a speedy return to the sunlit financial uplands of the Premier League. Sources suggest they are doing that by frantically trying to sell the club for £10 million more than they paid for it. The belief that the abject failure of their tenure requires such reward is yet further evidence of quite what a deluded operation they have been. The truth is, they have not been owners. They have been vandals.

Blame the fans? At Ewood Park, as the storm clouds bank up over the moors, there is only one certainty around Blackburn: the fans were right all along.

Wow Maka, brilliantly put and very comprehensive!

And there was me thinking you were all jokes and xenophobia...

It's a copy and paste from Jim White's piece on Yahoo Sport.

Just as his jokes are a copy and paste from Sickipedia.

I can only imagine, however, where the xenophobia is copy and pasted from.

On topic, the letter goes to show the ignorance of the owners, their intolerance of others input and intent to run this club in a dictatorial manner.

It's my belief that this is actually the tip of the iceberg. As someone said above, we're in absolute crisis and we don't know the half of it. And as long as fans keep signing up for more, acting like fools on the terraces then the media's fall-guy is willingly presented.

The fans who have renewed season tickets should hang there heads in shame. Kean and Venkeys make me sick kean is no longer there puppet he's there mastermind he surely has to more involved in running the club. Don't tell me fergie goes straight to the yank I'm sure as eggs r eggs he let's gill sort that out so he can concentrate on the most important thing like winning football matches. He said he has no comment on hunt being fired that sounds about right u had nothing to say when bfs got the bullet either.