Miller11

haven’t managed to find a document that outlines all the requirements for a Cat 1 academy, but there are some definite areas for concern. The table below shows the minimum amount of coaching hours expected. With the proposed downsizing I can’t see this being possible. Even if they did manage to squeeze it in, I can’t imagine we’d retain the status too long with multiple age groups on half pitches as the quality of coaching would suffer. Based purely on pitch space, you only need to look what other teams have. We will be miles off. No doubt the club will eventually spin us the line that it’s becoming ever more difficult to maintain Category 1 status, so we just shouldn’t bother as we are little old Blackburn Rovers. As I touched on yesterday complete lack of any provision of educational areas says it all. It’s one of the key components they look for, and without it we will be lucky to get beyond a category 3 status. Couple of interesting links. Palace outlining how they got to Cat 1, and Watford abandoning their plans to https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/9877884.what-is-the-difference-between-a-category-1-and-3-academy-as-part-of-eppp-changes/ https://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/2020/july/crystal-palace-fc-secures-category-1-status-for-its-academy/

All things considered, this part of the official club statement that came out on Saturday stands out... The club is therefore looking at a plan to develop a new coaching structure – to support and accelerate player pathway through the system That just reads as “We are scrapping the academy model”

Ah, ok... very odd. And he got the managers job when his pal walked. More going on with Venus than meets the eye... by all accounts his remit goes well beyond that of an assistant manager here.

So Venus was a director of Otium Entertainment (basically Coventry City) while also serving as manager/assistant manager! Thats... unusual.

The way they’ve been performing lately I’d welcome it!

The fact you can flog your ground or training facilities to bring you in line with “Profit and SUSTAINABILITY rules” just shows what a farce the whole thing is.

The Rovers Trust have taken the first steps with the questions they posed to the club last night. I’m positive there will be more to come from them, and they are best placed to mount or any legal challenge or work with Brockhall residents. I think it’s absolutely certain that sections of our fanbase will oppose this in a number of ways. Whenever we’ve had crises before people have stepped up... however, I am worried that this time round there will be even more opposition to the protestors from the fanbase at large. This ones going to run on for a while I think.

I’ve just been comparing what we currently have to what the proposals are. Most of it is a copy and paste job, we have a pool, we will be getting a pool... now, if the intention was to be all state of the art why are we replacing like for like? Surely a hydrotherapy suite would be the upgrade? There are NO signs of any proposed upgrades, there are however a number of things that appear to be omitted. We will lose carparking, bedrooms and for me, very significantly, CLASSROOMS. Something that will be essential for a Cat 1 (and probably cat 2) academy. The groundsman’s workshop seems to be an afterthought, and it appears we would also be losing an outdoor Floodlit synthetic pitch. Then of course, there’s the fact that it’s a scaling down so all the facilities reduce in size and capacity. Pitches being the main one. The link Chaddy shared earlier to Leicester’s facilities at their new training complex is must see stuff. It’s incredibly impressive, one thing that stood out was 21 playing surfaces including 14 full size pitches. To think their owners took over just 2 months before Venky’s darkened our door.

😂😂😂😂😂

No... I did grow up in Mellor, but wasn’t born til 82

Great post!! I’ve just been revisiting these... a big part of my formative years these books

I’d see it as a pretty pointless exercise. A Riverside rebuild might be nice, but it’s as far from necessary as it’s possible to be. And I am not in favour of downgrading or reducing our training facilities. Also, I must admit I personally like the Riverside as it is.

In all honesty, probably. It’s not an impossible task by any means, but I don’t see Venky’s as being capable, or having the desire to “put things right”.

Fair question Joe... my opinion, for what it’s worth... For me Jack’s legacy goes beyond the fixtures and fittings. Yes, the stadium and training ground are part of it, but the intangibles are overlooked. People talk about how we have now “found our level” due to where we were league position wise in the 70s and 80s. I disagree. Jack coming in, modernising the ground, creating Brockhall, and putting us amongst the big boys later a foundation that allowed us to remain a competitive Premier league outfit after he passed away. We were so well run that we were highlighted in parliament as being the ideal model in terms of how a club should be run; Manageable debt levels, when we made a loss it could be offset with a player sale, and modest investment from the trust occasionally. We were one TV deal away from realising Jack’s vision of being self sufficient. This is a massive part of his legacy that has been wrecked by Venky’s. And it’s not a case of natural order being restored, or us finding our level. I like the analogy of a lottery win - Jack coming along was like your numbers coming up. It gave us a platform for the future. It took Venky’s mere months to piss it all away.

Nope. I presume it was farmland and the hospital still at that time. I think the training facilities opened there, if memory serves me correctly around 1994. In some of the autobiographies I’ve read from players with us at that time they talk about how big a change it was. I don’t know exactly what it looked like then, but I presume there have been regular upgrades between its opening and now. Edit - see Perth Blue’s post above

I am so, so sick of this lazy argument. Stop running down your own club. The only way these clubs are comparable to us is they are based in what was Lancashire. We are Blackburn Rovers, not Bury! We have a glorious history, we are more successful, we have a bigger fanbase... We could be the next Leicester, if we had remotely competent owners.

It was in the press release the club put out yesterday morning.

@JoeH Please don’t take this as a dig, but the “Brockhall is 30 years old” comment that the club have been peddling and you used before is wrong, as has been previously pointed out. 30 years ago we were managed by Don Mackay, an extremely nice bloke who did good work but couldn’t quite take us to the level we aspired to be at... but that’s a whole other story. We trained amongst the dog shit and hearses on Pleasington. Flippant, dismissive and erroneous comments about the top notch training facilities and academy that Jack gave us really rankle. It’s symptomatic of the general disregard for Jack’s legacy from those currently within the club.

My view is that the training complex is very much an afterthought. The club trying to spin this as progressive seems on the surface a complete untruth. There’s nothing revolutionary in those plans. We seem to be getting less football pitches and indoor facilities that are, at best, the same as we already have. Certainly no better. This is all about houses, and therefore money.

Drawn up by these people for the club...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hv0uYmmRjzWeYAq86QASRwnQVDLKRVIb/view?fbclid=IwAR0VP3sidwAB4tk-zy4J3iKnQf7XkTUefUW4h4plqhMYgxvEuQszRbv4k6w There’s the plans... a lot more about houses than training facilities.

Couldn’t agree more with this. I loved Robbie Savage, but Travis is becoming a budget version of him.

That’s a quote straight from Mowbray. Funny thing is, it might be more private now, but another 170 houses on the doorstep makes that argument a bit redundant.

It was opposed by the club and subsequently rejected. Had they not opposed it I reckon it would’ve snook through, although in all honesty it would be a bit of a stretch for Brockhall to be considered for an ACV. Cheston was quizzed about why the club opposed it at one of the consultation meetings. I might have some notes somewhere, I’ll see if I can dig them out.

If Mowbray was potted tomorrow, I’d place big money on it being Pulis. He’s out of work currently and not only have Venky’s previously baulked at paying compensation, HSH would obviously rather fix up one of their men than just move one from one role to another. Other names are: Steve Cooper - we aren’t going to tempt him away from Swansea. Mark Robins - his stock is currently rising. Despite the argument I’ve had on Facebook last night we’d be a big step up from Cov. The rest are pretty uninspiring... Dean Keats, Gary Holt, Craig Bellamy, Sami Hyypia are all in various coaching or director of football roles. Oh, and there’s Paul Jewell too.