Blackburn Rovers Blog: Biggest loss this week is Williams (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Blackburn Rovers Blog: Biggest loss this week is Williams

3:40pm Tuesday 8th February 2011 in John Myles By John Myles, Blackburn Rovers fan columnist

Blackburn Rovers Blog: Biggest loss this week is Williams

THEY say bad things come in threes and we have had a hat-trick of blows for Blackburn Rovers this week.

Ultimately the two Premier League defeats will hopefully rate as nothing more than statistical footnotes at the end of a season where we will preserve our position in the top division.

The loss of John Williams as chairman might however have more fundamental and far reaching consequences for our club.

His value to Rovers over the last 14 years should not be underestimated.

You’ve read the tributes. They are accurate and well deserved.

I don’t know Williams well but I was always tremendously impressed with his incisive and inspiring speeches at the end of season celebrations that I have been privileged to attend over the last few years.

Here was evidently a man who, while not a Blackburner by birth, had a genuine passion for the club.

Even so he could temper that with a keen business brain.

He knew long before the lessons of Portsmouth and others how important it was for a football club like any business to live within its means.

It’s maybe a pity he wasn’t running the country over the last 14 years.

For me Williams has been a more important factor in the successes of our club than any of the managers we have had during his tenure.

I don’t suppose the full reasons for his departure will ever become public but it seems clear he was too closely connected with the old regime to fit in with the Venky’s vision of the future.

That vision, we are told this week, apparently will also not include as much influence for Jerome Anderson and his SEM group and associated sports agency Kentaro.

I have voiced concerns in the past about the potential conflict of interests presented by the advisory involvement of this organisation.

If our new owners are really going to distance themselves from their current mentors, it begs the question as to who they will now look to for guidance.

Given that they admit knowing little about football, could I be so bold as to advise them to appoint a chairman who not only knows football but preferably has a good knowledge of Blackburn Rovers and our heritage?

That would accord with most fans’ wishes but something tells me we are probably heading for a Rao.

Our next game against Newcastle now takes on increased importance after the debacle at Wigan.

You shouldn’t score three goals away from home and lose, but we’ve managed it twice now at the DW Stadium (DW obviously standing for ‘Defending Woeful’).

I hate to remind Steve Kean but Sam Allardyce never lost more than two consecutive league games at Rovers.

No pressure there then!

We do like the prettier football but we want to be playing it in the Premier League.

Williams was proud of his contribution to Rovers’ longest period in the top flight since 1936.

We must thank him for playing a massive part in that success and can only hope our next chairman is able to build on such solid foundations.

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