Following a dramatic 4-3 extra time win in the League cup
and a draw at Norwich in the league a home fixture against Chelsea would
follow.
Calls for more protest continued, however despite the calls
for these it was getting even more difficult to appease the protesting section
of the supporter base, as everyone had an idea and it differed from the next person.
When lots of people can’t agree on a way forward it gets very disjointed and as
organisers you are pretty much,”Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Simon Littler and I were summoned to a meeting at Ewood Park
ahead of the Chelsea game for a meeting with the Police and Ground Manager John
Newsham. We were told under no certain terms that banners were now banned from
Ewood Park, as they were a fire risk. At
first I thought, “Surely you are not being serious?” The lines were now firmly
being drawn in the stand, as Paul Hunt wrote to us and stated, until we call a
halt on protest, he would not be willing to meet with us, or anyone else
involved in the protest movement.
Simon and I went home and spoke on Skype for a few hours;
Simon suggested we get a plane, with a “KEAN OUT” Banner Trailing behind it. It
seemed a good idea and we ran with it. Simon pretty much had this organised
within 24 hours, including setting up a PayPal fund for supporters to donate
towards the cost, which was around £1,500,00. Within minutes of the call for
funds, they started flowing in, from supporters worldwide, it took around an
hour and half for the target to be met, and Simon paid it on his credit card,
due to the plane company not being able to take PayPal.
Press releases were issued, and although there was quite an
objection from a number of non-protesting supporters, those who had been
protesting were in the main fully behind the idea.
Looking back, although it was not our finest hour, what this
showed, was supporters could rally together very quickly and we could fight
this on all fronts better than we actually gave ourselves credit for.
The day of the game came, and there bang on time the plane
circled the ground for a good 10 minutes, Kean famously said he never saw it,
but the media attention it captured, showed a defiance against what was looking
an unmovable regime at Ewood, which was now opening up far more questions than
answers as the conspiracy theories started to flow around the supporter base.
Rovers once again lost, and of course the protest movement was blamed.
I started getting random emails and calls from club employee’s,
who were genuinely worried about their jobs, and who felt defenceless to what
was evolving around them. There were more flies on the wall in Ewood now, than
ever before as we looked to stay one step ahead, by calculating what the club
would do to try and put stoppers on the movement. 99 times out of 100, Rovers
were very predictable, whatever they tried to silence us, we would intercept
and chuck them a red heron, to get them running around in circles. More and
more stewards were being brought in, whilst the Police operation was growing.
The club were desperate to get a reaction from Simon and I, so we would break
the law, lose our heads and lose any momentum which was growing.
Rovers would lose to Cardiff in the league cup, when Kean
pretty much came out and said he had thrown the game. This infuriated a number
of supporters who had travelled down and bought tickets.
Suddenly supporters were now coming to us asking us to put
their views to the club. Finally our opportunity would come as Paul Hunt agreed
to meet Simon and I.
Simon was quite frustrated when we went into the meeting
with Paul Hunt as he still had Kean’s words ringing in his ears. Simon’s
opening statement was to tell Paul Hunt “Go and get your cheque book out of
your draw and write a cheque for every supporter who went to Cardiff, as they
want refunding”. It was not quite the opening exchange I expected, but I
respected Simon’s stance of “Say it how it is”.
The meeting then moved on from that exchange as we agreed to call a halt
to organised protest for the next 3 home games providing the board agreed to
meet with a delegation of supporters. This was agreed in the room and backed up
by an email from Paul Hunt. Paul Hunt as a person was quite a nervous type of
guy and was quietly spoken. you could see the guy was clearly under pressure
and if truth be told, way out of his depth as the man supposed to be the head
of the board of Directors at Ewood.
As I left Hunt’s office, I shared a lift (The up and down type) with John Newsham.
I don’t know why and I don’t know how, but in that lift, time stood still for a
few minutes. Both John and I got very emotional about the whole situation, we
was both visually filling up as we spoke. That day was the day I really
connected with John and it taught me that there was some really top people at
Ewood suffering just like the supporters, they also needed help and whatever we
did, would also affect their lives. Although John always remained professional
and honorable to his employee’s, John was one who I could genuinely call an Allie.
We broke the news to supporters that a temporary truce had
been agreed, which got a mixed reaction. They’re very much a militant element
in some sections of the protest group, who wanted things to turn a little
nastier. There was accusations that we had sold out and been given a sweetener
to call a halt. Whilst those who had got to know us, knew damn well, we was not
for sale and supported the decision, despite them being sceptical that it was
the right move. I remembered the start of protest, which was requesting answers
from the board, so it seemed logical to agree to the truce, if it gave
supporters some answers to the growing concerns.
Sadly Paul Hunt did not keep his word, there was no meeting
and this didn’t only anger both Simon and I, but also the supporters who wanted
Kean and Venkys gone.
With the Bolton home fixture on the horizon, we went to town
on the club in the press as the supporter’s message was going global. More
supporters were coming forward to muck in regarding organising with Mark Fish
now becoming very much part of the organising committee, Rob Crabtree
continuing to sell T-shirts, which I must state; the proceeds did not come into
the protest committee, as Rob was doing this at cost. Andy Woods, who was
marketing the cause all around the town, Phil Thompson who was working in the
background trying to get prominent figures to chuck their hat in the ring to
support the protest movement, whilst he was also making in-roads in trying to
get meetings with the Premier League and Richard Scudamore. Paul Keogh who I
remember telling me “He was more of a foot soldier” was also giving invaluable
support. Simon’s uncle Graham Reid was also getting involved as a steering
committee started to evolve. Other prominent supporters who were there come
rain or shine, like Carl Hatch, Jimmy Lonsdale, Mike Counsell, Stuart
Wilkinson, Beth Perry and Dan Thompson, were also giving massive support from
the front, which lifted a little burden off Simon and I.
However the more people got involved on the front end, the
more disagreements and clash of personalities began to occur. Every day someone
had something to say about someone. You have to remember, this was just a bunch
of supporters. With football, comes a few; pints and with a few pints, some get
a little excited.
Group Skype meetings on a Sunday night, were comedy gold,
with lines going dead, if someone didn’t agree, as one or two would have a
skinful of pints and either pass out during the meeting or forget to attend.
Mark and I would usually be the last men standing in these meetings and it was
not unusual for us two to still be on Skype as the sun came up at 6a.m
Mark and I were really starting to connect, we carried the
same passion and same values and he is a very intelligent guy. His memory is
photographic and will remember dates, incidents like they happened 2 minutes
ago. Many of our conversations on the phone or Skype were spent having to deal
with the constant falling out from members of the steering committee. It was
not unusual for most to be at each other’s throats, which was making things
difficult as I always felt like piggy in the middle, and I did not want to get
involved in the politics.
Still living in Wigan, made it hard, as I was being
used as a pawn for people jockeying for position, Often I found myself facing
questions about my intentions, whilst some just thought I had all the answers
and I was going to expose what was going on in the club. The truth was at this
stage, I had been told things, from employee’s, done some research on the
internet, and taken calls from other supporters who had information but not
documented evidence to back it up. It was like building a house, but putting
the roof on before the foundations were in, as it was snippets and pieces of a
bigger jigsaw. I certainly did not know the full picture at this stage, so
could offer no real comfort that the end was near and the club would go back to
normal.
Four hours before the Bolton Fixture, I called Paul Hunt and
again asked him when is Kean being removed? This time the conversation was very
different as Hunt stated that the wheels were now in motion, he indicated
regardless of the result against Bolton, Kean was set to be removed, Hunt had
spoken to Mark Hughes advisors and he was likely to be his replacement. This
was the first bit of good news I had heard, I skipped up to the Brown Cow and
told a few of the steering committee, that Kean was going whatever the result
against Bolton.
That match saw a massive
turning point, in the protest movement. The whole ground went wild as all four
sides of the ground called for Kean’s head. We of course lost again, however
the press turned on the supporters as many Managers spoke out in Kean’s
defence, including David Moyes and Owen Coyle who was an SEM Kentaro client. Rover’s
supporters were branded as a mob as it was stated they had never witnessed so
much vitriol against a Manager. Kean was spoken about in the press like he was
some sort of messiah. Now we had a real
fight on our hands, as the press had been our avenue of communicating the message
worldwide, The Rao family were still missing in action and the rot showed no signs
of coming to an end.
Other protest were organised including a 24 hour protest at
Ewood where a number of supporters battled sub-zero temperatures for the whole
24 hours, This was one of the protest I could not do for much more than a
couple of hours. I felt guilty at the time and still do, as some of the best
people I have ever met, stood shoulder to shoulder that night outside an empty
Ewood, as the group galvanised itself for the next round of trying to get Kean
and Venkys out of our club.
The SEM Kentaro bandwagon was now firmly on the move, as
articles were appearing all over the press from Jerome Anderson as the sympathy
for Kean continued to pour in from other Managers and the media. This is when
they played the card “Kean feared for his safety and the safety of his family”.
You have to remember, none of the protesters had ever been arrested and no laws
had ever been broke, but the man who must feed his gold fish “Dog food” was
playing the victim card, as he appointed Philip Moulton as his round the clock
body guard.
Next up was the training ground protest, which was done just
before the Xmas period. I have many memories of this, including John Riley (RIP
Big man) laying a Venkys out egg live on SKY TV. Only around 40 people attended
the training ground protest, and it was the same faces who we all knew by name.
We waited all day and saw our future star fullback Myles Anderson, training
hard as his mission for the day, was to load into the back of every players
car, a Xmas Harrods hamper. He was at that for hours as the rest of the squad
trained. There were a couple of guards on the gates at Brockhole, who were courteous
and polite for the 10 hours or so we stayed up there.
Fraser Dainton from SKY Sports came to see us mid afternoon
he had attended the press conference with Kean. Fraser was very confused and showed us the
recording of Kean, who claimed he got hundreds of letters per week from in and around
the village, telling him what a great job he was doing. Kean was obviously in
denial and the press room was in shock with the tripe coming out of that guy’s
mouth.
We waited until about 6.30pm for Kean to come out, but he
refused. Instead he sent out Matt Hocking (More on him in later blogs) who was
the player liaison officer. Matt told us Kean would come out until we left.
Eventually we decided to have a pint in the pub as we had made our point. Kean
was driven out of the training ground very quickly, sat in the back of a
jaguar.
Going into the Christmas period I read an article, which was
an interview with Jerome Anderson, (Steve Kean’s agent) and Chief orchestrator
of all things Rovers from his SEM Kentaro empire, He spoke about the protest,
how well organised they were, how it was too good to not have some underlying
factor which points to dark forces at work?
I didn’t quite know how to take that, was that a compliment aimed my
way? That a football supporter, who had learned his art of tactics in the
welding fabrication industry, was suddenly a match for these multi
millionaires? My other thought was the buggar had stumbled upon my Star Wars
Collection and was claiming to Luke Skywalker, which must mean I was Darth Vader?
I found it all very strange, as the dark forces I was witnessing were definitely
coming from the club and those who were pulling the strings!!
In my next blog, I’m going to cover Kean’s finest day and
his world-wide Media lap of honour, there will be a lot more on Jerome Anderson
and that crew around him, a visit to Chorley FC and The BRFC Action Group
forming a democratic committee to move into the realms of being a supporters
group
No comments:
Post a Comment