Serenity above chaos has been the more moderate aspiration since the VH Group, or Venky’s as they are better known, took over in 2010. To be fair, there was no ill feeling when we had success.
“Manchester United, Liverpool, Spurs and the rest of the big five had it all quite cosy then, so when someone came along and prodded them they had to take note. “The snowball gathered as it rolled down the hill,” says Coar, who remains a non-executive director at the club. Players who had previously rejected Rovers could not get to Ewood quick enough once Dalglish took charge and the 172 league games between 1991-95 which yielded promotion and Premier League success now define the modern Blackburn. The next thing is Jack was visiting Kenny Dalglish’s house and convincing him to join.” Don Mackay was the manager and had done a really good job, but Jack realised he needed a high-profile manager to take the club forward. There was a lot of that kind of background noise and stories around his ambitions. “It was just after Jack bought the club outright. They were poo-pooing the idea that a second-tier club like Blackburn could get the likes of Gary Lineker, who was the kind of player we hoped to sign,” says Coar. “I can remember driving along in that summer of 1991 and listening to Test Match Special. Coar first watched Rovers as a four-year-old in the 1950s, became a Rovers director in 1980 and later Walker’s chairman, negotiating the deals for Alan Shearer, Chris Sutton and Tim Sherwood.Ĭoar recalls how ridicule for Walker’s ambitions surrendered to respect.
“You would need to be a sovereign state to do what we did now,” says Robert Coar, who is as close as you will find to Mr Blackburn. Walker’s legacy is complicated endearingly romantic given the stellar names, memories and trophies he delivered, but symbolic of a lost football era when a boyhood fan’s personal injection of £133 million built a stadium, training ground and a Premier League-winning team.
KENNY GARRETT SONGBOOK YOUTUBE PROFESSIONAL
“A lot of young people think football started in 1992.”Īs the Lancashire club marks match day 5,000 away at Middlesbrough this weekend – only the seventh English professional club to reach the league milestone – the shadow of the team Jack built lingers. “It’s good to know people still remember a before,” chuckles club historian Mike Jackman. Across 4,999 league games, Blackburn Rovers’ history forms two distinct chapters: before and after Jack Walker.
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