[Archived] Martin Goodman

[imy9]

Vennys the captain of our ship

Paul Hunt is doing the duties of a Chief Executive, so in effect he is running day to day running of the club.

As Vinny is here with power to make decisions, on behalf of the owners, can we assume the trips to Pune will now be stopped?

[chaddyrovers]

Yes Imy they are the two and now assisted by Bloch and Hunt.

Venny (Vaneeth) Rao's role will be clarified soon, club due to make a official statement. Nicko is absolutely right in his article, Venny is in effect running the club, he been delegated decision making power by the owners. Quite a nice bloke, very truthful (which is superb) and determined to get things right at Ewood.

The structure is now Venny incharge with Paul Hunt pretty much doing duties of a chief executive, assisted by Bloch et al. Ali Merchant also has a role on the recruitment side but not 100% sure what it is.

So really Venny Rao is kind of a chairman role for rovers. With Hunt doing the Chief Executive role and Job.

Kamy have you ever spoke to Venny Rao?

Also pleased to see that the owners have given VR and PH decision making power at Rovers.

[Tom]

It is difficult to imagine how they could have got things more wrong over the past eight months.

They could have been Ali Syed!

[imy9]

They could have been Ali Syed!

[RibbleValleyRover]

I must have missed the posts about Kentaro's influence ending, is this indeed now the case? Kamy do you know if Venky's have bought Gary Neville's house or not? (a Bolton paper claims they have) If true I assume Venny will be based there if he is now in charge of decisions.

I might have to crack open the bubbly if JA/Huber/Kentaro are gone, Kean surely can't be here for much longer if his key ally that got him the job has now gone and a court appearance rapidly approaching.

[philipl]

I must have missed the posts about Kentaro's influence ending, is this indeed now the case? Kamy do you know if Venky's have bought Gary Neville's house or not? (a Bolton paper claims they have) If true I assume Venny will be based there if he is now in charge of decisions.

I might have to open the bubbly if JA/Huber/Kentaro are gone, Kean surely can't be here for much longer if his key ally that got him the job has now gone and a court appearance rapidly approaching.

I believe Mrs D got very upset with Kentaro/SEM around about June 24. She finally fired them on July 7 and Pavone being thrown out of his hotel room was not unconnected with her having had enough of them.

Surely Kean and Jensen are very vulnerable. They have to decide which master to obey and whichever way they go is going to foreshorten their time at Rovers.

As I posted above, a major task for Venny/Paul/Andrew Bloch is now quickly to find out just how Kean got the job and as a consequence how soon they fire him.

That is the single most important step they need to take to re-unify the fans and to hope that the Venky's foul up of being completely suckered (by people they only needed to make a couple of reference phone calls about to realise they were being taken as complete fools) is forgiven if not forgotten.

[dave birch]

Anybody got any idea of who Tony Brown is or what experience of football he has?

Philip, are you saying you don't know?

If you don't know, why expect anyone else to know

[philipl]

Philip, are you saying you don't know?

If you don't know, why expect anyone else to know

I frequently post questions on the MB asking questions to which I do not know the answers.

[Kamy100]

I must have missed the posts about Kentaro's influence ending, is this indeed now the case? Kamy do you know if Venky's have bought Gary Neville's house or not? (a Bolton paper claims they have) If true I assume Venny will be based there if he is now in charge of decisions.

I might have to crack open the bubbly if JA/Huber/Kentaro are gone, Kean surely can't be here for much longer if his key ally that got him the job has now gone and a court appearance rapidly approaching.

Every indication is that Kentaro have now been shelved, seems that there was a huge falling out over transfer, looks like the owners expectations of what will be charged by Agents and what Kentaro were saying is what caused the problems.

The plan is to have Venny based here, I think that they are close to buying Neville's house, as of last week the purchase was not complete.

With Kentaro looking to have gone now, you can say that even though Venky's bought the club in October, they have only started running it themselves over the last three weeks.

[chaddyrovers]

I believe Mrs D got very upset with Kentaro/SEM around about June 24. She finally fired them on July 7 and Pavone being thrown out of his hotel room was not unconnected with her having had enough of them.

Surely Kean and Jensen are very vulnerable. They have to decide which master to obey and whichever way they go is going to foreshorten their time at Rovers.

As I posted above, a major task for Venny/Paul/Andrew Bloch is now quickly to find out just how Kean got the job and as a consequence how soon they fire him.

That is the single most important step they need to take to re-unify the fans and to hope that the Venky's foul up of being completely suckered (by people they only needed to make a couple of reference phone calls about to realise they were being taken as complete fools) is forgiven if not forgotten.

At least Mrs D had the courage to sacked Kentaro and JA from Rovers. Probably the best thing they have done since taking over. No doubt they have made mistakes since taking over the club but hopefully they have learnt from them and will do the right things in the future.

Philipl, are you saying that Kean and Jensen are close to be sack at rovers and if we have a bad start to the season they will be sack?

[Majiball]

What is this Venny Roa's business background?

[John]

Anybody got any idea of who Tony Brown is or what experience of football he has?

Don't know anything about him, neither does anyone else who I have asked.

I think Brown is a short term measure and unless things have changed there will be a replacement for Goodman.

[Kamy100]

What is this Venny Roa's business background?

I am doing some background work on him for an article which hopefully we will release once Rovers make an official announcement, he has been incharge of running one of running what on the face of it the highly successful "venky's xpress' venture, as well as heading up the Indian marketing/PR side of things, again done it well as he has managed to secure endorsement with a number of high profile Bollywood actors and cricketers.

[philipl]

What is this Venny Roa's business background?

He is a trusted lieutenant, member of the family and apparently a genuinely nice and open-minded guy.

I think we could have been very confident if any of JW, TF or MG were still around to show him the ropes. As it is, I guess his learning curve is going to be pot luck because with the best will in the world, Paul Hunt, Andrew Bloch, Ali Merchant and whoever Tony Brown is have zero experience of having such senior positions in football clubs and more importantly, (apart from Bloch in a very junior capacity at Everton), they have zero Premier League background.

It is not just the gulf between League One (which is Paul Hunt's Leicester background) and PL moneys- a fourfold increase- but the massive difference in complexity and people involved.

[John]

Are we still after a director of football?

What is the vision now?

[Majiball]

I am doing some background work on him for an article which hopefully we will release once Rovers make an official announcement, he has been incharge of running one of running what on the face of it the highly successful "venky's xpress' venture, as well as heading up the Indian marketing/PR side of things, again done it well as he has managed to secure endorsement with a number of high profile Bollywood actors and cricketers.

He is a trusted lieutenant, member of the family and apparently a genuinely nice and open-minded guy.

I think we could have been very confident if any of JW, TF or MG were still around to show him the ropes. As it is, I guess his learning curve is going to be pot luck because with the best will in the world, Paul Hunt, Andrew Bloch, Ali Merchant and whoever Tony Brown is have zero experience of having such senior positions in football clubs and more importantly, (apart from Bloch in a very junior capacity at Everton), they have zero Premier League background.

It is not just the gulf between League One (which is Paul Hunt's Leicester background) and PL moneys- a fourfold increase- but the massive difference in complexity and people involved.

Thanks guys.

I think I'll refrain from saying what I think on this one and hope lady luck smiles on us.

[dave birch]

I frequently post questions on the MB asking questions to which I do not know the answers.

But you do post a lot of answers when, perhaps, there was no question.

Philip, I've given a lot of credence to your posts over the years, but of late, (the last twelve to fifteen months), you have been somewhat opinionated.

It's all very well to say something, but then not to back it up with fact, IMO, detracts from what you are trying to say; which in turn makes subsequent posts less believable.

[Kamy100]

Are we still after a director of football?

What is the vision now?

Not sure that there is a vision just now, think that they are just trying to get through the transfer window before sitting down and sorting out the direction/vision of the club. I would say that a director of football is distinct possibility over the next few months.

[John]

A lot of aspects of running a football club have come as a massive shock to Venkys, particularly the operating costs.

They really did not know what they were getting into however are slowly learning.

[dave birch]

A lot of aspects of running a football club have come as a massive shock to Venkys, particularly the operating costs.

They really did not know what they were getting into however are slowly learning.

John, I would say "some" aspects, but certainly not operating costs. Their advisers would have told them the sort of financial situation they were getting themselves into.

They'd have done cash flow analysis etc and only when they were given the go ahead would they have signed on the dotted line.

IMO they've been badly let down on the football advice side, and that is what they are coming to terms with now.

[thenodrog]

Might as well have his own topic.

No details yet, Nicko posted on twitter earlier this evening, Cryer is now asking if it's true he left on Friday.

Doubt Nicko would get this wrong, he did mention it may been seen as a bit political so may not make the Sundays. Why? everything else Rovers related (negative) does.

This had been coming for ages and was just just a matter of time.

[John]

John, I would say "some" aspects, but certainly not operating costs. Their advisers would have told them the sort of financial situation they were getting themselves into.

They'd have done cash flow analysis etc and only when they were given the go ahead would they have signed on the dotted line.

IMO they've been badly let down on the football advice side, and that is what they are coming to terms with now.

No, money has been a concern since the start of the year - whatever analysis took place was obviously not thorough as they were not aware how expensive running a football club is.

On the financial side, they have in a short term measure (Brown) to assist however as of a month ago they are looking for someone to do that function on a permanent basis.

[dave birch]

No, money has been a concern since the start of the year - whatever analysis took place was obviously not thorough as they were not aware how expensive running a football club is.

You know this for a fact?

Bumbling they may have been, but don't ever get in between a financial savvy Indian and a rupee.

They knew full well what they were getting into.

They didn't make their money, or continue to make it, by stuffing up.

I'll add; I don't particularly like the situation the Rovers are in, but as time goes by, I can see it settling down. We just need to stay in the premier league (and there's no guarantee of that under whoever owns us).

[John]

You know this for a fact?

I do actually

Had a couple of fascinating conversations recently which have enlightened me to a lot of the goings on at Ewood. To be fair a lot of the info has been covered on here already.

[dave birch]

I do actually

Had a couple of fascinating conversations recently which have enlightened me to a lot of the goings on at Ewood. To be fair a lot of the info has been covered on here already.

...but of course, you can't reveal who it was that gave this info....

Sorry for being a little skeptical, John.