by Jack Heaney
So the vast majority squawk; it is ‘just a game’. This football stuff, it doesn’t matter really. It is meaningless in comparison to other, more sugary aspects of our life such as love, or perhaps living itself. Any website – any facebook page. I guarantee you will stumble across that type of comment. The type which I still maintain is vacant, hollow and inherently contradictory. Just a game. Just like scrabble. Or drunken twister. Or perhaps a few rounds of Snap!
Of course, if we are to take this notion to its logical conclusion…well, then it all becomes rather convoluted and inconveniently tricky, doesn’t it? Bob Dylan is not the poet of a generation. He’s just a guy with an acoustic and a way with words. The film Philadelphia with Tom Hanks? Not the profound masterpiece which lightened eyes from a homophobic darkness; nope, just a handful of people playing pretend, perched in front of lights and cameras. George Orwell’s 1984? Just words.
I hope my point is clear. Anything that relentlessly hypnotises humans – anything that consumes us like football does – is more than its raw, base description. It is art. If you’ll allow this headstrong lout to opine, the ‘just a game’ saying is a vapid, desecrated, skewed viewpoint. We bestow upon life such a sacred, tender gracefulness and awe; yet how interesting that hours upon hours of that precious life are spent watching football. The game is more than a game. Therein lies the allure, and it should be imbued and inculcated within every one of us. We must cherish and promulgate that point to the heavens above. And of course if football is more than a game, then football clubs are more than just clubs.
And this is why Blackburn Rovers, still flush with the unsubtle, supine disease of Venky’s, are so tragic. I am not a Rovers fan. But this club are not to be laughed at. They are not to be insulted. Any dignified football fan must stride with them in a battle against what amounts to nothing more than sleazy, repugnant molestation, hidden under a carapace of insulting, lip-trembling, woe-is-me delusion by the bone-jarring joker of the putrid pack – Steve Kean. Remember in May, when Blackburn were relegated? The enduring image of the Blackburn Rovers crest sullied by Lancashire rain and syringed by infection should never leave you.
It could be your club. Would Mr Kean have ‘dignity’ then?
I hesitated before writing this article because the latest development in the sorry saga was so very inevitable. The reports came in: Kean to be sacked. He was supposed to pick up 16 points yet picked up 14. Hilariously some even offer that as a reason to be a Kean-apologist. The reports came in again: Kean will still be in charge for at least one more game. Haven’t we heard this one before? Who exactly is this man? What credentials does he possess? Does his ego know no bounds: to have the audacity – the gall – to claim that exciting times lie ahead for Blackburn after overseeing their relegation is an insult. And there’s a long list of them.
If this charlatan cared a jot about the club he ‘represents’ (in actuality he embodies not a hair on the Blackburn head) he would have resigned. That would be dignity; but then, just how did Kean get the Blackburn gig again? Oh. Oh yeah, we remember. He is not ‘optimistic’ or ‘determined’, but deluded and deranged. A selfish man concerned with his own needs, not his clubs.
Perhaps some of the spotlight has been diluted since Rovers relegation. With fans exiting the stands and not returning, one would expect the common sense to prevail. Perhaps the most baffling aspect of it all is the Media’s sympathy for Kean. Especially towards the end of last season, it was the Blackburn fans being tarred because of ‘violence’. What is honestly expected of them? Should they merely stand there while a nugget of their town is buried underneath swindlers, corruption and moral abjection? Just imagine the feeling – be empathetic. You spend your money to watch the team. A connection between you and the club matures: memories of visits to the stadium with mums and dads, or triumphant wins that are etched into your memory delicately but deeply.
And now it is sapped from you; over a century of history; an institution that began 37 years before the Titanic sunk. The football world often sees things haphazardly, but the way some protected the incompetent Kean was earthworm low. Not to mention Venky’s: parachute payments, believing they could challenge for the Champions League on an absurdly low budget, the absentee landlords aspect of their egotistically ignominious era. If Kean is ever removed – and sometimes it feels as though he never will be – it is a step. But Venky’s intentions are still dark and murky. They are still morally bankrupt. And remember what happens when one is eliminated? A power vacuum. The truth is, Venky’s are so far removed from logic that an afterbirth could convince them to fork out a salary. Who knows who they could pick to replace Kean?
As ever with these situations, it is the fans that pay. Cross-town rivalries should pale. When Kean holds his hand up to the fans after the final whistle of a match, he is drowning – not waving. Any football worth his or her salt should realise that the work of every legendary figure at the club – from Jack Walker to Simon Garner – is being undone. By now, hopefully most stand with Blackburn. But there’s always room for improvement.
Alas, Rovers neighbourhood is being ravished. But collectively now we should all stand alongside Blackburn fans. For they are the only ones trying to restore it.
Brilliant piece. Thank you on behalf of all rovers fans.
Thank you
Thankyou for writing this article. No club deserves what is happening to us at Rovers
I almost shed a tear reading this.
Thanks, if only other non-blackburn fans saw it this way.
The truth.
Excellent well informed article. If only some of these seasoned journalists who have knocked Rovers fans would do their research too.
At last, a balanced, passionate and informed piece about Rovers.
Aside from the talk sport/sky sports media sneering, one utterly depressing aspect of of this whole sorry episode has been a lack of solidarity from the less informed fans of other clubs, who see Blackburn as a backwater shithole and the fans as having some kind of collective mental illness.
A non-league footballer as a manager, mulleted cowboys for owners, and a reptilian agent calling the shots whilst seemingly having the club employ his son as a reserve team footballer… the list goes on.
If this happened to your club, you would kick up a stink.
Take heed from this article people, show some solidarity with Blackburn Rovers fans.
Fabulous article, so refreshing to read an article by someone who has actually done a bit of research and doesn’t jump on the ‘Nasty Rovers Fans’ band wagon.
The sad thing is this really could happen to any club, I wouldn’t wish what’s happened to us to anyone.
It’ll be very interesting to see where Kean, ‘a talented young manager with dignity who never seeks to be positive’ ends up next, should have no problem finding a job you’d think with all the pundits and media who have backed him, my bet is he’ll be lucky to find employment at football even at coaching level after this.
thank you from every rovers fan,
wish other fans would look into rover to find out what we are realy fighting for
Brilliant article!
Thank you for writing this excellent, researched article about our beloved club. We hope and pray this whole sorry episode comes to an end soon … I fear there is a whole lot more to come though. All I ask other fans to do is read this and make your own mind up, are we the fans the cancer?
Fans who have been attending for 40,50,60 years through the real grim times have felt the need to turn their backs on the club now to try and starve the disease that is Kean/Venkys. I hope and pray soon the young and old will be back together, shoulder to shoulder cheering on the lads out of the media spotlight as one. C’mon you blues!!!
Great piece, well played.
Brilliant piece superbly written thank you from a long suffering rover
Thank you very much, after all the inane dross from the media and lovey lovey pundits it is refreshing to see somebody actually has a grasp of the tragedy at Ewood. The so called professionall pundits and jounos should hang there heads in shame after reading this, trouble is they never take their snouts from the gravy trough long enough to see what is really happening.
I read this at work and had to hold back a tear 😀 great piece and thanks for the support we so desperately lack!
THankyou for this piece! Greatly researched and written! Hopefully more people will begin to see it from our point of view! We just want out Rovers back!
Oustanding Jack. This should be sent to every journalist who has ever dared to think Kean was the innocent one here.
A well written article! I am still going. It’s hard to stop afte 58 years! I used to sit with my sons until this year. One is boycotting and the other is picking his games. That is another impact of the disgraceful behaviour of Kean & Venky’s – spoiling family afternoons at the game. Listen also to the views of venerable ex players; Mike Ferguson, Simon Garner, Hignett, Salgado etc? They know what the term “club” means but the chancers in charge don’t.
I seriously mean this; If this were happening to Burnley or North End, I would be up in arms! Stafford
What a refreshing and eloquently written article. Thank you for taking the time to share a thought for our club.
Cracking article Jack. Thank you.
Brilliant piece of writing! Very true, glad other people are seeing it 😉
Many many thanks for this Mr Heaney. At Blackburn we are suffering so much because of this incompetent regime and their so-called ‘manager’.
Excellent piece of writing and so true.
We just want our club back!
Great article…I think you must be the first person outside the brfc fan base to realise what’s really going on at ewood. Maybe more fans of football not just in the uk but all over will finally start to see how the club has been “and I don’t use this next word likely” raped from the inside,out! And could go a lot further into the impact of Venkys at rovers it’s not just about the football but also about the impact it’s having on the whole town and small business around ewood, pubs,shops etc. I hope Venkys rot in hell for what they have done to this once proud historic community club!
KEAN IN!
SAVE STEVE KEAN!!
KEANO! KEANO!
Absolutely brilliant article. If the tabloids printed articles like this Kean kmight already be out the door!
Thanks guys for your kind comments. No need to thank me for writing it, ’twas an honour.
Fantastic approach to this article you have done your research sir.. At sad times like this is when we need journalists like you to help the blind see that both Kean And Venkys need to go.. RTID.
Thanks for this. What a refreshing antidote to the depressing SSN/Talksport drivel.
Beautifully written
You gent thank you! We have had a horrid 2 years and has felt the world has turned on the rovers fans.no support from anywhere and when you compare with the man utd fans at the glazier takeover it felt like a double standard we are loyal fans who love our club just like everyone else
What a fantastic piece. Superb. Blackburn fans have been made to look like animals over the last year. Finally someone who understands. Well done Jack.
Superb article. Don’t know what else to say. For one brief moment, reading this article, some of the anger subsided and a tear was shed. Thanks you.