Blackburn Rovers Blog: Experience could have been crucial (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Blackburn Rovers Blog: Experience could have been crucial
8:28am Thursday 1st March 2012 in Andy Cryer's Blackburn Rovers blog
By Andy Cryer, Blackburn Rovers reporter
ALAN Hansen once famously said ‘you don’t win anything with kids’.
He was wrong, as Manchester United romped to the Premier League title.
But you got where he was coming from.
Now it is up to Blackburn Rovers to prove that statement wrong once more by securing Premier League survival without many of the key faces that have helped the club enjoy such a golden era.
I’m all for injecting a new youthful look into the side but there is a difference between doing that and getting rid of almost all of the senior players on the club’s books.
David Dunn, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Yakubu and Paul Robinson remain, and they have a key role in getting the youngsters through this tough period for the club.
Off the field as well as on it.
Jason Roberts, Michel Salgado and Keith Andrews may not have been everyone’s favourite players but there is no doubt their old heads would have been invaluable for what will inevitably be a tense run in.
Add to that the loss of El-Hadji Diouf, Ryan Nelsen, Chris Samba and Brett Emerton, and the club have seen an incredible amount of experience and know-how leave Ewood Park.
Rovers’ kids have come in and done brilliantly in their absence.
The likes of Grant Hanley, Jason Lowe, Steven Nzonzi and Martin Olsson have become men in recent months. Through necessity.
You get the feeling we would not be in this posiion had Rovers looked to blend experience and youth in more delicately, rather than just the wield the axe in the way they have.
Rovers have never replaced Emerton, Diouf, Andrews or even Nelsen and that is something they must look to do this summer – as long as they can win their current battle against relegation.
If someone had told me Rovers would have been ending the season without all the players I have mentioned above, I would have thought they were crazy.
I would have written the team off and said that squad would be relegated. It is to the players’ credit, the youngsters especially, that they still stand a great chance of getting out of it during the current campaign.
The question now is how will they deal with the pressure that will crank up a few notches as the season draws to an end?
I know I would feel a lot more comfortable with a bit more experience and I’m sure a few of the younger lads would to.
Comments(11)
hasslem hasslem
says...
9:12am Thu 1 Mar 12
"....this league is an excellent environment for these youngsters to test their mettle against experienced players..."
.
"....i am confident that this bunch of lads will thrive in this division as they already have experience in the premier league and we look forward to good runs in both the league and fa cups as well as our inevitable promotion"
Shear_Brilliance
says...
9:39am Thu 1 Mar 12
RobbyRover wrote:I agree the youth we have got is fantastic especially going up the field and experienced players will always have something they can pass on.
The big 2 for me (Samba aside) were Salgado and Nelsen. Ryan Nelsen would still walk in to our first team and his experience would be a huge asset to a team that hasn't kept a clean sheet since April last year. His distribution for starters is 50 times that of kick and hope Dann!
Salgado may not be the player he was even a season ago, but with our young full backs - Lowe (even though he's a midfielder), Henley, Orr, Anderson (I'll include him as a player for the purposes of this) he would have been perfect for bringing them along. Who better to learn from?!
I think last nights England game proved a point that Blackburn should take on board because even though England where fitter, stronger and played patiently and kept plucking. But even though Hollands older players where tired and off the pace in places, players like Robben, Sneider and Kuyt started playing at their best and should've comfortably won.
This is because of their extensive experience physically they aren't the best but class is permanent.
Most people think Arjen Robben is incredibly fast but he isn't really he is explosively fast and times his runs to perfection in a foot race Richards would beat him by a country mile and his finish is unbelievable when he was at Chelsea he was young and fast but couldn't make a big impact.
makaveli96
says...
10:23am Thu 1 Mar 12
HighburyB&W
says...
11:15am Thu 1 Mar 12
However the only reason that we are not already effectively relegated is down to how bad the other teams have been and how low the points tallies of the bottom 5 are.
davemal
says...
11:29am Thu 1 Mar 12
"....this league is an excellent environment for these youngsters to test their mettle against experienced players..."
Or maybe we'll bounce right back into the premiership next season, assuming we do not end up at the bottom of the championship which I think we will with Kean in charge and Venkeys running things.
Ralph Coates' Comb Over
says...
12:59pm Thu 1 Mar 12
Furthermore, Man United won the title with "kids" because those kids happened to be Scholes, Beckham, Giggs and Neville !
Searcher
says...
1:08pm Thu 1 Mar 12
HighburyB&W wrote:Whilst the youngsters have done well there is a bigger reason we are not rooted to the bottom of the table - Yakubu! Without him we'd be sunk without trace.
Credit to the youngsters who have come from nowhere and performed - particularly Lowe, Henley and Hanley.
However the only reason that we are not already effectively relegated is down to how bad the other teams have been and how low the points tallies of the bottom 5 are.
Ronaldpetercooper
says...
3:08pm Thu 1 Mar 12
Reg Rover
says...
3:17pm Thu 1 Mar 12
First allow me some self-indulgence, when I posted my first article in March 2011, titled BLACKBURN ROVERS A DISASTER AWAITING TO HAPPEN. Not even I envisaged such carnage to one of football’s famous clubs, one of the original 12 clubs who formed the football league.
The article (still posted on this website) was widely ridiculed by all and sundry including former Rovers striker Chris Sutton and the editor of the Lancashire Telegraph Mr Kevin Young, who on the instructions of the Venky group shamefully banned all my adverts for the website from the Lancashire telegraph. I am still awaiting an apology from Kevin Young.
Not only have I been proved more or less 100% correct, but also shown the Lancashire Telegraph what good investigative journalism is all about.
But that is now not important, what is important is what is happening to Blackburn Rovers.
The lack of financial investment by the Venky group is alarming and begs the question why did they buy the club in the first place? The clubs assets in the form of players value has been decimated with the sales of Chris Samba, Phil Jones and Nikola Kalinic for a combined total of a reported 34 million pounds and very little re invested in player replacements.
The Venky’s are also reported to be under pressure from Barclays Bank to pay off a 10 million pound loan which they appear reluctant to do.
The Pune based group who’s purchase of the club has proved to be a disaster with open hostility to the regime from Rovers supporters. Venky’s were sounded out last week by a consortium of local business men willing to purchase the club. The consortium wanted to fly to India for talks, however Venky’s supremo Mrs Anuradha (I like to be entertained) Desai has blanked the bid to the surprise of club officials and advisors, allegedly including disgraced Jerome Anderson, who thought Venky’s would take an escape route to end their Ewood nightmare.
However Mrs Desai is planning to wreak her revenge on the people of Blackburn who have shown open dissatisfaction with her regime and favourite ‘son’ manager Steve Kean. Plunging Rovers into administration is one option. Renaming Ewood Park Venky’s stadium is another option. Like Russian Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea, Indians do not do apologies or eat ‘humble pie’ arrogance is the order of the day.
To add to the ‘rape and pillage’ of Blackburn Rovers it is reported in this week’s National press that owners Venky’s plan a fire sale of players and assets. Owners Venky’s will hire a top agent to find buyers for some of their main men ahead of major cut backs for next season.
The scheme is to have players lined up to sell quickly at the end of the campaign whether Rovers stay up or not, with the Indians keen to slash the wage bill and further cash in on some of their bigger names.
Samba’s 12 million pound exit to Russian outfit Anzhi Makhachkala has been a major boost but their budget is going to be reduced even if they avoid the drop.
Venky’s have a loan to repay bankers Barclays and need to find a new borrowing facility. With their lack of expertise and their reluctance to employ a experienced chief executive, like say Tom Finn or John Williams, for example, banks will not lend to a flawed business. The alternative is to put money in themselves and they have been slow to do that so far.
According to a leading journalist a Mr Fixit is to call round prospective bidders to test the market and possibly raise as much as a £20 million. Pini Zahavi is favourite for the role ahead of the disgraced Jerome Anderson.
The exact figure Venky’s will have to raise will be defined by Rovers final league position and how much they have to repay before the end of June, so that means deals set up before the next transfer window opens.
The likes of Paul Robinson, Geal Givet, Scott Dann, Steven Nzonzi, Ykabu, and Mauro Formica will be offered to clubs in an attempt to raise cash and reduce salaries. Michel Salgardo, Vince Grella, and Junior Hoilett will also be unloaded from the wage bill, but Hoilett could be offered a bumper deal to stay should Venky’s have raised enough cash from their alleged Fire Sale.
One does really wonder and worry what the future, if any, holds for this once great club.
The silence from the Venky’s HQ in Pune is deafening. Their continued absence from Ewood Park is astounding. Their refusal to comment on any rumour and speculation borders on ignorance. As I said before ARROGANCE IS THE ORDER OF THE DAY FROM INDIA, and we have all had enough of it.
Saturdays planned peaceful demonstration asking the Venky’s to sell the club is justified. But I ask the organisers one thing, Venky’s is a brand name, target the individuals responsible i.e. Anuradha Deasi, Ventkatesh Rao, Balaji Rao,
Vineth Rao, Jerome Anderson and the ‘not fit for purpose’ Robert Coar.
Their arrogance and aloofness will take exception to being named individually.
Please please protest peacefully, do not give them a PR victory.
Reg
www.regoftherovers.c
o.uk
Rovers til I cry
says...
10:14am Fri 2 Mar 12
I believe we would be in exactly the same position regardless of who we had in the line up, due to the fact that the current management team right to the top is weak to non existent, seemingly unable to make consistent sensible decisions on or off the field and appearing to lack experience or the know how of basic footballing principles. The calamity that has ensued was born out by this fact long before the senior player cull started.
Most of the players are average and doing a job, which if they don't do it at Rovers know in the main they can be average somewhere else.
Regardless of what the owners are doing, player quality comes out when you lead the team with confident and respected management and backroom staff with the experience to recognise how best to handle the inflated ego of these average players and how to play them at their best. Their respect and confidence rubs off on the players and in doing so invariably raises the players game.
This is why players want to play for Ferguson, Dalglish and the like, who are well respected through out the game and are good at player management across the board. Their respect rubs off to the players and they become winners.
We have the exact opposite, clueless off the field, is rubbing off on the players on it and unfortunately we are anything but winners. Regardless of whether we stay up or not, under the current regime I dont expect much change for the better going forwards.

RobbyRover says...
8:56am Thu 1 Mar 12
Salgado may not be the player he was even a season ago, but with our young full backs - Lowe (even though he's a midfielder), Henley, Orr, Anderson (I'll include him as a player for the purposes of this) he would have been perfect for bringing them along. Who better to learn from?!