The Rovers Return

Michael Taylor

Rovers fan, business journalist and blogger Michael Taylor had this message for the potential future owners of our club:

Well hello!

So we understand you want to buy our wonderful football club. Good luck! I just wanted to mention a few things that might not pop up in your commercial due diligence.

Also, it’s been said that you were there at the Arsenal game at the end of last season. Clearly you enjoyed it as much as we did. It was a great day and showed off Blackburn Rovers at our best. A strong and resolute team performance, securing a top ten finish. You will have witnessed great support from the fans. And you will have savoured a man of the match performance from our local hero David Dunn. You will have noticed that scruffy French kid in the wooly hat getting some award at half time, that was Steven N’Zonzi, the player of the year. Take all that in, because contained within all of it was what makes this club special.

It isn’t always like this however. The season can seem long and a grind. When we lose at Everton, Man City and Stoke it tests your faith. You will look at these wealthy players who don’t seem to be able to perform and despair. But you have to stick with it. Form can dip, the manager can seem negative and grumpy, but at heart he’s a good man. He has a good scouting network, he finds gems, like our player of the year. Don’t get your head turned by younger managers with fancy methods, something good is building at Rovers. The Academy at Brockhall is a treasure trove. Extend it. Make it the place the best kids want to come to. That’s the place where investment is needed.

Be patient. Our local talisman is an injury prone genius. Our goalkeeper was a reject who was written off but has missed out on the World Cup because he plays for an unfashionable club. But they are stars. Our stars. So is our centre half – a teenager from Chorley. They are adored. And so is our player of the year, a young man plucked from obscurity.

Our fans are usually right. When Jack Walker owned the club he didn’t like a certain type of flash player and blocked some transfers. There are players who just aren’t Rovers players, learn about that and treasure it as a core value. El Hadji Diouf should have no place in our club.

Blackburn is a multi-racial town, but Rovers supporters are mainly white working class men. This has changed a bit over the years, but don’t expect to see much of an affinity with the local Asian population without a long hard effort to win hearts and minds and don’t expect them flocking overnight. The current marketing and management team have been focused on shoring up what we have, but with your help greater links with India, with Asian communities and with other sports can expand Rovers as a brand.

You will have seen other owners of football clubs in the Premier League see their dreams shattered because they splash the money and lose it. Rovers have a heart and soul and a family spirit that is very much in touch with the roots of East Lancashire life. But it is just one aspect of our community. Build on that, extend deeper into that, and build the links with your own heritage – it could well yield commercial rewards and enbale this club to move further forward.

Be realistic about what that could be. Be modest, be strong, value quality and there is a good chance that in the future there could be a statue of you next to the one of Uncle Jack.

There are potentilly exciting times ahead. Fingers crossed, eh?

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This season marks the inaugral Rovers Return awards. So far, I’ve come up with the following awards, although more could be announced:

Please feel free to suggest potential winners/nominees of these awards and suggestions for other awards.

Player of the Season

Pretty self-explanatory.

Young Player of the Year

Awarded to the best player this year, under the age of 24.

Emerging Player of the Year

Awarded to a youth player, either bought in or from within our ranks, who has caught the eye. Again, under-24s.

Most Improved Player

Awarded to any player who has seen a significant improvement in their performances, be that over the course of this season or improving on last season.

Goal of the Season

In no way connected to the Rovers’ own competition, and will include all goals scored this season!

Steady Eddie Unsung Hero of the Year

Awarded to a consistent performer who receives little praise in the media.

Performance of the Year

Awarded to the greatest individual performance in a single match.

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Some things transcend football. Some things make people forget their petty rivalries.

Today’s news that John Steven Taylor, a 30-year-old Rovers fan, died in the concourse at the Britannia Stadium is one such thing.

Football fans have been in mourning, so I thought, as a tribute to John, who lived in Avallon Way, Darwen, I would post a few of the tributes left by fans across the world on Facebook at John Steven Taylor – 27/10/79 – 06/02/10:

*Just to point out there are hundreds more tributes on the Facebook page. This is just a small sample…*

Geoff Wrighty Wright – A True Rovers Fan…….R.I.P.John Steven Taylor……..

Ben Hoyland R.I.P from a Sheff utd fan

Andrew Huxley Rest in peace from a Doncaster Rovers fan.

John Guilfoyle Rest in peace, from an Accy Stanley supporter

Wayne Blundred Rest in Peace from a stoke fan. Read more »

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The Rovers Return is devastated to hear the news that the man found unconscious in the concourse during the game at Stoke yesterday has died.

He is as yet unnamed, but I pass my condolences on to his family.

I’d also like to thank the stewards of Stoke City. I hear they were fantastic in dealing with the incident.

*EDIT You can pay your respects to John Steven Taylor by joining this Facebook group*

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Brief chat with Sam Haseltine, of Football United and The West Ham Process, before the game at Upton Park.

Our predictions would turn out to be way off the mark…

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In recent weeks, a new group of Rovers supporters has emerged.

With the introduction of the cheap, unreserved seats in the Darwen End lower tier, as well as the ‘Big Three for £30′ offers gaining popularity, a new breed of fan has started to make its mark.

Of course, I’m referring to the newly-established Darwen End Singing Section, which is gaining in popularity.

It’s great to see some people trying to improve the atmosphere at Ewood. The introduction of the unreserved seats in the Darwen End was a great initiative by the club, not only in terms of improving the amount of fans in the ground and making football more affordable for the community, but in terms of banishing the away fans to the top tier.

This small touch improves atmosphere and, when the players can only see Rovers fans from every angle, it is sure to give them a boost.

I’ve missed a couple of home games recently, but had heard about the new singing corner, but upon seeing it for the first time at the Fulham game I was very impressed and it seems to be growing in size, which in turn makes it noisier!

It’s something that’s needed at Rovers as the Blackburn End (which is where I sit) is getting more and more on the team’s back and is very quiet if things aren’t going in Rovers’ favour.

The group, which labels itself  ’Supporters, not spectators’, now has its own website at http://blueandwhitearmy.weebly.com/ where the group makes this statement:

If you miss the songs and great atmospheres at Ewood, Why not relocate to the Darwen End to sit with like minded fans and help create a better atmosphere!

In recent seasons, with the notable exception of local derby games and the visits of the so called ‘Big 4′, the atmosphere at Ewood Park has often been missing from the ordinary domestic fixtures. When criticism of individual players and the sound of small bands of away fans can be heard instead of our songs and chants, we’re in danger of becoming spectators rather than supporters.

Dont forget to tell your friends and workmates and add to the increasing number of people singing in the Darwen End.

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With no Rovers action this weekend, I was struggling for content. That was until a work colleague forwarded me a hilarious email.

Nothing to do with Rovers. Just a disillusioned supporter of a club that has fallen from grace having a good old pop at the Premier League. Enjoy:

I take more pleasure in seeing Chelsea lose than I do in seeing QPR win at the moment.

I sat through so many matches when we were absolute dogs**t under the likes of Ray Harford and with people like Paul Bruce, Matthew Brazier and Mark Perry in the squad and I never felt like this.

The club isn’t ours anymore but moreso than that – football is just properly gash these days.

I mean really gash.

football generally.

I hate nearly everything about it these days….

I hate the Prem and the myth that it is exciting this year. ManCity breaking into the top four isn’t exciting. They spent loads of money. It’s no more exciting that Nameless C*** getting to number 1 in the charts after winning the X-Factor.

I hate the myth of Arsene’s kids. Buying some French kid when he’s 17, playing him in the League Cup and then selling him when he’s 20 after about 3 appearances in the league is NOTHING SPECIAL. Read more »

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A few pictures of Ewood Park and Brockhall in the snow have been posted on Rovers’ official site. See the whole collection here

Here are a few that I’ve nicked, hope the club doesn’t mind…
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