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Blame Venky’s, not the fans

An odd consensus emerged on Monday night after Blackburn were relegated to the Championship. On phone-ins and chat rooms, in newspaper columns and social media one opinion was raised above the others: it was all the fans' fault. Not getting behind the team at a crucial time of the season, bickering about incidentals when the important things required their full attention, having ideas above their station: these were some of the charges on the sheet. As they expressed their anger about the club's ownership and management, the Ewood faithful were widely accused of faithlessness. And thus got their due deserts when relegation was confirmed by Wigan's late winner.

You wonder whether those so quick to attack the disputatious supporters were paying attention when a leaked letter from Paul Hunt, the club's deputy CEO, appeared on the Sporting Intelligence website yesterday. Written back in December, the letter — addressed to the club owners, the Venky's chicken empire - was stunning in its prescience. Citing poor leadership, inadequate decision making, woeful under-investment and weak team management, it predicted not only relegation, but a rapid slide into the financial mire. And nowhere did it blame the fans. Indeed, in its analysis of what was going wrong at the club it absolutely mirrored the worries of the protestors.

The club's response, reported this morning by Sporting Intelligence, was to sack Hunt.

In the way it operates, football has little in common with wider business. But rarely even in a game as widely mismanaged as this can there have been set out such a damning indictment of an organisation's ownership. Lack of leadership is one thing, but this spoke of a complacency and lethargy that was astonishing. Not since the captain ordered the band to keep playing even as the Titanic was holed below the water line can there have been such astonishing inability to understand the gravity of a situation.

When I heard the rumours that Venky's bought Blackburn without appreciating that there was such a thing as relegation from the Premier League, I assumed it was a tale too far: nobody could be that negligent. Now it appears that is the least of it. Sponsors and corporate backers are deserting the club in their droves; one long-term box holder has not taken up the offer to renew his relationship with the club next season, despite being offered a price less than a fifth of what he has been paying. Worse, the owners appear entirely cavalier to existing partners: Hunt warns that shirt sponsors Umbro, whose contract is worth £800,000 annually, were taking rapid umbrage at Venky's allowing cheap rip off casual wear to be manufactured in the club colours in India.

But the biggest problem of all, the one from which all the rest stemmed, was Premier League survival. For Blackburn, the overwhelming majority of their income comes from membership of the top table. To lose the right to £40 million a year in television income is to jeopardise the future existence of the operation. While other clubs — Wolves and Wigan among them — make wise provision for the possibility of demotion, Blackburn had been neglectful in contract discussions. Many of the first team squad did not have relegation clauses, meaning they will still be paid Premier League wages in the Championship. That is not management. It is gross negligence. And nothing to do with the fans.

Hunt warned that such was the inertia within the club as it drifted downwards, administration was a real possibility. Never mind making their way to the top four as Venky's promised when they took over, Blackburn could soon be finding themselves docked 10 points. The bank, in the new climate of zero tolerance of bad debts, is pressurising the club to repay its borrowings; foreclosure remains a real possibility.

Hunt was not shy either of pointing to the inadequacies of the team management. His letter, written in December, suggested Steve Kean was simply not good enough to run the club. He was right there. Sure Kean has been hugely dignified as the vitriol has poured in his direction from the stands. But dignity does not equate to competence. And as Roberto Martinez has demonstrated a few miles down the road, as the season reaches its critical edge, the skill of the team management is all that stands between continuity and catastrophe. Kean's failure has condemned his club to the most uncertain of futures.

It is now too late for the owners to progress Hunt's eminently sensible plan for survival. Now Venky's need to wake up to the reality of horribly straightened circumstances. Income will now plummet, the best players will depart, yet plans need to be quickly made to ensure a speedy return to the sunlit financial uplands of the Premier League. Sources suggest they are doing that by frantically trying to sell the club for £10 million more than they paid for it. The belief that the abject failure of their tenure requires such reward is yet further evidence of quite what a deluded operation they have been. The truth is, they have not been owners. They have been vandals.

Blame the fans? At Ewood Park, as the storm clouds bank up over the moors, there is only one certainty around Blackburn: the fans were right all along.