Venky’s, an Indian chicken company, purchased my English soccer team, the Blackburn Rovers back in 2010. At the time, the Rovers were coming off a 10th place finish and were sitting in the middle of the table and had revered English manager Big Sam Allardyce in control. He went 2-2 in the first month of Venky’s ownership, and was summarily fired.
Steve Kean took over, and the team went into a tailspin, needing a last week victory to stay in the Premiership after the 2010-2011 season. Kean and the Rovers were brutal again last year, to the point that they were relegated to the Football League Championship. In the second tier, the Rovers started off all right, sitting in 3rd place in the league, but then they lost. Kean was axed. The manager that never should have taken over the club and should have been let go after 2010-11 or 2011-12 was finally dropped when the team was actually just finishing off a good run of form. This after the team spent a lot of money on players who came to play for Kean and Blackburn.
So the Rovers inked Henning Berg, a former Rovers defender who had previous experience with Lillestrom in Norway (where he had been fired) less than 2 months ago, and after winning only one game in 10 tries, seeing the team plummet to 17th place in the Football League, and was fired just this morning. It was one of the shortest tenures in English soccer history. Berg hasn’t had a chance to bring in his own assistants or go through a transfer window. He is working with Kean’s embittered staff and players.
Or was, rather.
So let’s run through Blackburn under Venky’s
– Allardyce: excellent manager, went .500 and was mid-table of the premiership, and was fired.
– Kean: Underqualified as a manager, given way to much leeway, the team collapsed almost immediately under his tenure, but seemed to be sorting things out before he was axed
– Berg: Extraordinarily underqualified as a manager, and was given no leeway, to the point that he didn’t even get to set his own staff or sign his own players
This was a monumental collapse, from where they were in 2010 to where they are now. Where the Twins have a farm system to rely upon, and have management that has, at least, some sort of plan, the Rovers have none of this . While the Twins make bad decisions, the Rovers seem to be making decisions that seem to be driven towards ruining the club. How do the Rovers dig out of this? It’s no longer a player or management problem. Their decision making has made it clear that this is an ownership problem.
It’s hard to make the Pohlad’s look good, but alas.
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