All season long and probably part of last season as well, many Blackburn fans have been very public and very vocal in their wish to see Kean sacked as manager. I don't think they are unique. Many supporters of teams in relegation problems blame the manager and/or the board. Players very rarely take the shared responsibility and usually escape too much abuse. Whether Hereford supporters were equally caustic at the weekend, I don't know as their fate is far more serious than dropping into the Championship. Darlington will be playing in the Northern Premier League at best next season so leaving the bottom division has to be the worst of problems. Getting back to my point, is the public condemnation by supporters fair? Or was the reaction of certain Blackburn supporters over the top. Whilst I don't remember it happening at City with managers, we of course we very public with the condemnation of Chase.
Blackburn have gone way too far, threatening physical violence and vitriole has at times been truly shocking. I don't blame them for being upset but they have been a disgrace - and good riddance!
I like Kean, but the fans have gone too far and haven't supported him. However, I do feel that the team has spent too many seasons fighting relegation so it's about time they got relegated.
I was overseas when Rodent went. How vocal were the crowd in calling for his head, as opposed to other fora such as message boards.
The game the rodent went was quite somber. I don't really remember a lot of vitriolic chanting but the atmosphere was awful, everyone knew he was gone.
thoroughly interesting post redruth. its a difficult one - i admire the blackburn fans who have demonstrated against their catastrophically bad owners throughout the season, their love for their club is obvious. they are a small town club and the club is in the blood of everyone in their town. however, the vitriol towards their manager was over the top and i do not believe they have helped the situation on the pitch. i wouldn't go anywhere near as far as saying the fans are to blame for them going down or that they deserve to go down because they haven't got behind their team each weekend, but it sure as hell can't have helped! were the boot on the other foot and it be norwich who were bought by venky's i think we'd all have found it increasingly difficult to back the club. i do not believe steve kean has done a good job - nor do i believe he is diabolically bad - but he was always likely to be the wrong man, especially when you consider allardyce was a very capable manager before him, yet was kicked out for no apparent reason. i just find it hard to believe that most fans of other clubs would have been so vocal for so long without success and change - and thats probably the biggest problem they've had - they've made literally no difference to the situation and its been evident for some time that the owners don't care!! got to feel for their fans because their club has been turned into a laughing stock through no fault of their own. it was also bleedin' obvious this would result in demotion - the owners drew some bizarre and dopey lines when they took over. is that the fans fault? no. is it their fault the manager and players didn't do their jobs well enough? no. is it their fault they created a hideous atmosphere at just about every home game which probably meant players didn't really want to play? yes. the supporters have tried in vein to change things but in the end its collapsed into one big sorry mess. i can see it getting worse for them before it gets better too
Kean is a deluded fool! Alardyce was fired for not being "high profile" enough, then they gave Kean the job????? No money has been forth coming for transfers, and absolutely NO support for Kean from the Venky's, apart from leaving him to flounder in the public gaze, so the hatred was deflected from them to him. I think they'll wait until his contract is up and they're in division 2 before letting him go, so they don't have to pay to get rid of him. His reputation is shot, his credibility is shot, and now he believes he is going to sit down with the owners to plan for next season, as I said deluded fool. I don't condone violence, but if you are a true, loyal and honest fan and your club has been **** on from a great hight, what do you do, and please don't say turn the other cheek!! I feel sorry for the real supporters of that club. By the way, Blackburns last two games have seen 1 shot on target! That's planning to avoid relegation! ILD OTBC
IMO the treatment of Kean by the fans has been pretty despicable. If one is apportioning blame for the mess Rovers now find themselves in, I can't see that much of it attaches to Kean. R5Live's Ian Dennis gave some interesting statistics on the programme last night: from memory, Rover's income last season was £48m, of which £42m derived from their Premier League status. When Venky's took over, the club had debts of £20m. While Jack Walker was alive, he was wealthy enough to bankroll the club and since he had control of his business empire, he was free to do so. Once he died, despite setting up the Walker Trust in an attempt to safeguard the club's future, different interests -- commercial and family -- took over. Without JW's personal attachment and commitment, Rovers would look to the Trust exactly what it is, a deep hole into which money needed to be poured. Even if JW had still been alive, I would think he might well have been looking to sell the club, so as not to saddle his family with the responsibility. But he would have been a lot more careful in who he sold to. Major blame must attach to the Trust and the Premier League, whose "due diligence" procedures have obviously been totally inadequate. Most of the rest of the blame has to attach to Venkys. Re. the supporters, compare their behaviour with that of Pompey fans, who have endured far worse but never lowered themselves in that way.
good comparison between pompey and blackburn fans robbie. from what i've seen though, the difference is, most pompey fans were happy to go along for the ride and the success they achieved from their takeovers - it wasn't until it all started going wrong that they campaigned against it, though i take on board they've done it in a more measured manner; rovers fans however were generally against their takeover from the start and could see what was going to happen
One of the reasons I asked the question has been touched upon by Supers and Robbie. Blackburn are indeed a small town club who at one time spent a long time at the top table of football becasue they had a decent side side and decent support. Older posters will remember the 60's teams that had England players in them. They declined in the seventies and eighties until Jack Walker threw his millions at the club and success was achieved. And the only reason that success was achieved was because of Jack Walker. Now it appears they are reverting to having to slog it out with the rest of us on a more level playing field. And they have failed. I don't know what group of supporters is causing the mayhem. If they don't remember how they got into the position of strength they enjoyed for so long, then they have nothing to complain about. Nothing says that club owners have to throw money at it. Venkys appear to be tossers but they did pay off the debt. So what do the supporters want. Kean has been very dignified and never once alluded to the guys barracking him so cruelly. But as ILD says he must be slightly deluded if he thinks things can carry on as they have. They will lose players next year. (Anyone think we are in with a chance of Hoillett). Their support will dwindle unless they can make a fist of coming straight back.
Presumably a Venkys chicken -- barbecued. Another thing that Ian Dennis said was that Venkys bought the club believing they were buying a US-style franchise! How on earth could the sale have been completed without this misunderstanding coming to light?
Robert Chase had a trailer load of **** dumped in his driveway, presumably by a Norwich City supporter! What would you lot prefer, a trailer load of **** or a few tennis balls with ****** out written on them. ILD OTBC
Steve Kean is human and is entitled to live his life away from the ground without being attacked and abused. Protests at the ground about his incompetency are valid but should not be in relation to his family or threaten/ incite violence etc. I worry about the line crossed with Neil Lennon when supporters can attack a manager/ send bullets in the post. When it gets to that point it is not legitimate. Fans are entitled to boo and shout their opinions at chairmen/ managers if they wish because they have paid their money and care about the club often more than the incumbants. Personally I wouldn't during the game as it affects the players but I reserve my right to if I want to.
Anyone listening to the post-match interviews on R5L last night will have heard Rovers player Bradley Orr's tribute to Kean. He basically said that, as far as the dressing room was concerned, Kean had been first class since taking over and that they, the players, had nothing but admiration for the way Kean had conducted himself, in particular his dignity, courage and composure in the face of all the hostility and abuse. They had been relegated, not because of Kean, but because they simply weren't good enough. To me Orr sounded honest and sincere; he put the protesting Blackburn fans and that idiot Savage to shame.
Poor old Worthy got a rough time if memory serves me correct? His final days at CR weren't the most pleasant !
So any or every clubs supporters will let their feelings be known if they believe the need arises. Considering everything that Nigel did in his time and they way he spoke after getting the sack, I would not hear anything bad said about him. His time at the club was up was all it boiled down to. Players tend to get away scot free in the main. There has been much debate about Steve Morison but I'm led to believe that Ian Henderson was subjected to the boo boys in his time here. And in a way that makes the mere criticism of a player pale into comparison. It seems even nice family club Norwich can be spiteful.
Speaking personally (how else!), I find a great deal to dislike about the general "culture" surrounding football in this country; it panders to an unpleasant extremism, ranging from extreme nastiness (not made any better in many instances by being labelled "WUMMING" on forums such as this), to an extreme sentimentalism. Supporting a football club is not a reason for abandoning normal human decencies, nor for indulging in cloying over-emotionalism and self-righteousness indignation.
