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Gents

Whilst it is correct that Jack Walker was a true fan of Blackburn (and a gentleman to boot according to my father who was a director of a Blackburn company for thirty odd years), and Whelan probably invested in Wigan Athletic for egotistical or business reasons, Walker’s legacy to Blackburn is not an ongoing fairytale.

Bear in mind that nobody envisaged the future meteoric rise of the English game back in the early nineties. The average player’s salary is now over £1 million, and Blackburn’s English record of £6 million (Sutton) for a player is small change these days. That can’t exactly be attributed to inflation.

Sorry for posting a link but..according to the Guardian link below, Walker spent £97 million of his own money on Rovers. Whelan has spent at least £60 million of his own money which isn’t bad for a non-fan.

You’ll also see in the article that Walker’s funding has now run out.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008 … blackburn1

Whelan, the man is a toad. Whelan the football club chairman however, is the reason the club is in the Premier League – no matter which way you look at it. Who else would have invested that amount of money in Wigan Athletic at the time?

It’s not a case of rose tinted glasses; it’s appreciation. Until I win the Euro Lottery rollover jackpot four times and have sufficient money to buy the club and bankroll it, I’ll be thankful of Whelan.

If he did sell up, and take as much money as he could with him, could you blame him? I bet his office has not exactly been inundated with letters of gratitude over recent years.

are shocking n no where to be seen.

Glad to see valencia scoring just pity against us.

out whelan out whelan out whelan out .

Ellington’s future was doomed when he got married and converted to Islam during the 2004 – 2005 season. I will state here that that isn’t intended as a racist comment, far from it in fact, as I am respectful towards anyone who has that much faith in a belief or cause (cue comments regarding Martinez and 4-5-1…).

For the past four years since 2005, Ramadan has fallen towards the latter part of the year, or more specifically, the start of the football season and during Ramadan, Muslims are not permitted to eat during daylight hours. In Islam, exceptions can be made for professional sportsmen (it is a religion that has lots of ‘No, no, never, oh, go on then’), but with Ellington as a new convert, he, without a shadow of doubt, would have observed Ramadan.

With that in mind, is it any wonder that on moving to each new club he has played for since leaving Wigan, it has been commented on that he seemed lazy and lacking in any energy or determination? The lad has started every season running on empty. There are Muslim footballers who can perform well during Ramadan, but Ellington had not grown up with a yearly Ramadan, and his body is not as acclimatised to it. Saying that, I used to work with a Muslim lad who fasted every year, and who played a good standard of Hockey. His team got battered during Ramadan every year because three quarters of them hadn’t eaten during the day, and he freely admitted that it was a practice that was definitely not suited to professional sport.

So, that’s my take on what happened to Ellington, and although the breakup of the partnership with Roberts was part of it, I’m sure the timing of his new found faith and dip in form wasn’t mere coincidence.