BLACKBURN Rovers’ new owner is planning to speak to boss Sam Allardyce to tell him: “We don’t just want results but entertainment too.”
In an exclusive interview with the Lancashire Telegraph, Venky’s chairman Anuradha J Desai said that she will fight for the fans’ wishes for attacking and entertaining play.
Speaking from her home in Pune, India, she said she has become enthused with football after watching Rovers’ last two matches on television, including the 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Sunday.
And she said she is keen to speak to Allardyce in the coming days about her vision for the club.
Anuradha J Desai
Desai also said that Rovers are ‘no longer a selling club’ and said she is looking forward to a bright future that will see them moving up the Premier League and challenging for trophies.
Venky’s finally completed a £23million takeover of the club on Friday, bringing to an end the Jack Walker era.
She said: “I am going to speak to the manager soon and tell him that the fans’ opinions are very important.
“We should go up in the rankings but playing well is not just about winning. I am going to convey that to him. The way we play is vital.
“We are not interested in the past and we are only thinking of the future.”
Sam Allardyce
She said that she plans to visit Lancashire in January for a series of meetings with the club and with Allardyce himself. But ahead of that she said she is expecting to speak to him by telephone in the coming days.
Her brothers Balaji and Venkateshwara, who were introduced to the crowd before Sunday’s match, have already met with Allardyce and further meetings are planned, she said.
She said: “Blackburn is now my second home. When you are so much involved in the club and its well-being you feel a real connection to the place.
“We are now totally committed to the club and its success and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
“I am now really looking forward to coming over and watching some matches.
“My brothers will be coming more often.
Jack Walker and Alan Shearer
“We want to know what is happening and we will be there to watch one match in every five or six.
“I am now becoming a big football fan.
“I was a hardcore cricket fan but that is all changing. My view has changed overnight.”
She said that money will be made available for transfers in January.
Desai said: “We are not a selling club now. We are in the market for good players that can improve the team. We have a commitment to the fans and the club and we will be investing. New players will be arriving. I can’t go in to how much we will be spending but money will be available.
“When we get those players I think the club can start moving up the table.
“We are not going to make any hasty decisions about the management of the club.
“It has not been bad so far this season and we will see how things go for the rest of the season.”
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THE new owners of Blackburn Rovers have categorically denied that they plan to rename Ewood Park after their company Venky’s.
But Anuradha Desai said that she will press ahead to gain sponsorship for the stadium ‘if the right deal comes along’.
Mrs Desai, chairman of Indian Poultry giants Venky’s, said that the ground would not lose the Ewood Park name and any sponsorship would take the form of a prefix or suffix to the current title.
She said: “The important thing for the supporters to know is that no decision will ever be taken if the fans don’t want it to happen and I mean that.
“We are all people with a lot of tradition and we will not do anything to remove the name of Ewood Park.
“I am looking to improve the finances of the club.
“If we get a good sponsorship deal we will not lose the name. I want to be 100 per cent clear that the name will not be lost.
“Maybe a prefix or a suffix, in the same way that the league is known as the Barclays Premier League.
“What we will not do is name the ground after my company.
“That is not what we want to do. A sponsorship would only be if it was in the best financial interests of the club.
“We are very pleased and very proud to be in control of Blackburn Rovers, particularly to be associated with the fans.
“We now hope we can live up to expectations. This is just the beginning.”