Blackburn Rovers blog: Billions don't always equal trophies

10:18am Tuesday 15th November 2011 in Blackburn Rovers blogs Photograph of the Author By Dan Clough, Reporter

NOT SELLING Venkatesh Rao NOT SELLING Venkatesh Rao

HOW nice it would be to have owners with a bank balance in the region of $2billion.

Unfortunately for us, Venky’s claim they are staying put.

The news of interest from Qatari oil giants QP came as a shock to everyone, but the end result is maybe not such a surprise.

Venky’s still own Blackburn Rovers.

Maybe it would have been nice for Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani to have expressed his interest prior to the Venky’s takeover, but there you go.

People may assume a takeover by a company with such wealth would immediately bring success.

You just have to look at history to see how money does not always buy trophies.

It certainly helps, but it’s how it is used that counts.

Rovers themselves provide the shining example. With injections of millions by Jack Walker, Don Mackay was still unable to turn the tide.

Bring in the exceptional managerial talent that is Kenny Dalglish and watch the success roll in.

Today’s models are Chelsea and Manchester City.

Without Jose Mourinho, Chelsea have struggled to emulate their achievements, despite heavy investment.

At Eastlands, Mark Hughes had to go after spending millions without winning anything, but just look at the job Roberto Mancini has done.

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Another thing to remember is that with new UEFA financial fair play rules coming into force in 2013, foreign investment is not always going to be a guarantee for success.

Once these rules, which state that clubs must operate financially within their means over a rolling three-year period, come into force the Premier League is going to be turned on its head.

Then again, we’ll probably be in a whole heap of trouble whatever happens.

I guess many people, myself included, would welcome any alternative to Venky’s.

Comments(25)

adcr says...
10:33am Tue 15 Nov 11

"billions don't equal trophies". True, but it almost certainly guarantee’s premiership safety, better players than we have now, and entertaining football. winning pots and pans, is simply the cherry on the cake

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hawaii 5-0 says...
10:54am Tue 15 Nov 11

Never mind Dan. A least we can all go down to Ewood with a smile on our face and clap politely!

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True_Blue_84 says...
10:55am Tue 15 Nov 11

adcr wrote:
"billions don't equal trophies". True, but it almost certainly guarantee’s premiership safety, better players than we have now, and entertaining football. winning pots and pans, is simply the cherry on the cake
Couldn't have been better put.

It didn't matter if we never won the Prem in 95 - at-least we were proud fans and not having the club ruined.

We are gracious fans in defeat - but to have the club torn apart is sickening.

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hawaii 5-0 says...
11:01am Tue 15 Nov 11

The UEFA rules will only apply to European competition and Man City have already shown how to get round that little obstacle.

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Vinjay says...
11:02am Tue 15 Nov 11

I'm ready to go back immediately if at least one person shows a bit of commitment to join me.

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Frisson says...
11:04am Tue 15 Nov 11

a bit more research needed before publishing this Dan, haha. As Hawaii says it only applies to teams playing in Europe!!!! whoops. Oh Im going to be smiling on Sat at Wigan and clapping nicely as you instructed last week

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RobbyRover says...
11:05am Tue 15 Nov 11

The speculation with new owners is always "will they treat it as a play thing then get bored?" But you have to remember that the World Cup is in Qatar in 2022 so they will be wanting to demonstrate their committment to football up until then (especially with all the criticism flying around), which guarantees us a good decade of security and investment.

The chance is as well that after 2022 the passion for football in Qatar will be on a high so that support will be there for even longer.

It's about as good a guarantee of long term ownership as you can have in football.

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Bazzer says...
11:23am Tue 15 Nov 11

Vinjay wrote:
I'm ready to go back immediately if at least one person shows a bit of commitment to join me.
Why don't you do it properly? Chain yourself naked to Uncle Jack's statue and refuse food and water until your "liberators" sell up?

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J.C - Rishton says...
11:28am Tue 15 Nov 11

Billions don't necessarily win you trophys but it may even be enough money for our fukwit manager to engineer a few wins with !!
.
Also, stop writing cr@p about the financial rules coming in -
.
1 - They only cover European football, NOT EPL football so with us in 19th place and staring down the barrels of relegation its not particularly relevant, is it ?.
.
2 - However these rules will NEVER be enforced anyway as teams will just put cash injections into the club under the guise of "sponsership deals" - which will actually aid those clubs (like Man City and Chelsea) not hinder them as the cash will then not be able to just be put onto their balance sheet as a "loan" - which is a "dept" and could be repaid at a future date whereas "sponsership" is revenue for the club and non-repayable.
.
IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO AN ARTICLE ON A SUBJECT - AT LEAST KNOW YOUR FACTS BEFORE YOU START WRITING !!

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petergray says...
11:54am Tue 15 Nov 11

Who cares about trophies?

We're talking about the future of Rovers here.

Without someones millions ( and it doesn't look to me like venkys are going to pay back the millions they are ripping out of the club ) the exponentially increasing debts we are building up will soon see us in administration. At least that is how it looks to me.

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eddio says...
12:35pm Tue 15 Nov 11

???? and what f##kin planet have you beamed down from, you alien nugget?
I hoped that diatribe of your's from last week was a one-off, alas no! I suspect you have eaten off the Venky platter and joined Fester et al in spewing forth utter tripe!
Tell you what, let's just leave things as they are and see where that gets us eh?

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Russ ov the rovers says...
1:38pm Tue 15 Nov 11

...shut up Clough after last weeks blog you lost my respect..p.s at this moment in time we are not interested in trophies just prem survival.

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OnePostThenTheOther says...
2:51pm Tue 15 Nov 11

The new "fair-play" rules won't "turn the Premiership on its head". Rather they will serve to reinforce the status quo. Indeed, there wouldn't have been a Walker Revolution if these rules had been in force at the inception of the Premier League.

Is this the same Vinjay that was hailing the arrival of Venkys has "Liberation Day" last year and chastising any detractors for their parochialism. If he does decide to fulfil his promise I suggest he incorporates a sackcloth and ashes routine and some prodigious self-flagellation.

Premiership survival without trophies sounds like a far far more attractive proposition than the unburnished turd that Venkys custodianship has proved itself to be.

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formerover says...
3:42pm Tue 15 Nov 11

I Think if you asked most fans what they would be happy with their reaction would be to stay in the PL. and play good football, mid table is fine for most of us so don't presume Mr.clough we all want to emulate man.city, I think rovers fans are about as realistic as they come. Oh and by the way the last article you wrote was also ****.

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Justjes says...
3:59pm Tue 15 Nov 11

You are so full of Cr@p and drivel do they pay you for this?

You should have the entire back page blank but for Two words....


"VENKYS OUT"

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alfa111 says...
4:54pm Tue 15 Nov 11

wont comment on the desperate dan talk other than no more judases

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Super Colin Hendry says...
6:11pm Tue 15 Nov 11

Billions might not guaratee trophies but I doubt Rovers fans are particularly concerned about this with the club sitting in the relegation zone with a manager who has an abysmal record and cluelesss owners. Money is important but its not the main issue here - the Walker trust era is an example - we had next to no money but were being run by sensible owners. The main issue is the decisions made by the owners and I doubt many other owners could do a worse job in that respect than Venky's. Like you say any alternative to Venky's seems a good option at the moment.

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bburnrover says...
6:22pm Tue 15 Nov 11

I think Dan has got it totally wrong every established club with billions to spend have won trophies even Rovers did with the equivalent 300 million at the time.I cannot believe it even if the owners splashed out enough on players Rovers would win another cup.We may get into the semis of the league cup with an fairly inexpensive side so I am certain an Eto and Bebatov up front would ensure we got into the final.

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bburnrover says...
6:23pm Tue 15 Nov 11

I think Dan has got it totally wrong every established club with billions to spend have won trophies even Rovers did with the equivalent 300 million at the time.I cannot believe it even if the owners splashed out enough on players Rovers would win another cup.We may get into the semis of the league cup with an fairly inexpensive side so I am certain an Eto and Bebatov up front would ensure we got into the final.

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bburnrover says...
6:23pm Tue 15 Nov 11

I think Dan has got it totally wrong every established club with billions to spend have won trophies even Rovers did with the equivalent 300 million at the time.I cannot believe it even if the owners splashed out enough on players Rovers would win another cup.We may get into the semis of the league cup with an fairly inexpensive side so I am certain an Eto and Bebatov up front would ensure we got into the final.

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Rod of the Rovers says...
6:42pm Tue 15 Nov 11

Is this the same Dan Clough who was blaming the protesting fans for our clubs troubles the other week? And now he dreams of a life after Venky's. Make your mind up sunshine.... Large amounts of money can never guarantee trophies, but what it does do is strengthen a clubs position in the league and help to provide the team with a competitive edge on a yearly basis.

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Roverthere says...
4:19am Wed 16 Nov 11

Lack of money + incompetent management + inexperienced manager = relegation

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Justjes says...
8:24am Wed 16 Nov 11

nether do CLUELES Dlck heads like you f@ck off you incompetent T@ssers

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Justjes says...
8:24am Wed 16 Nov 11

nether do CLUELES Dlck heads like you f@ck off you incompetent T@ssers

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Sherwoodforest says...
2:32pm Sun 20 Nov 11

Man City?

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