Former Blackburn Rovers keeper Brad Friedel believes that the club’s recent tactics of constantly changing the manager only ’causes chaos’, but he stopped short of suggesting a change of ownership.
Blackburn are one of the most inconsistent sides in the Championship, with finishes of 15th, 8th, 7th, 19th, 7th and 19th in recent seasons. They’ve not been a Premier League side for over 15 years now, dropping out of the top flight a couple of years after Friedel left.
Speaking exclusively to Football Lowdown, Friedel doesn’t believe a change of ownership is necessarily the be-all and end-all at Ewood Park. When we asked if that was required, he stopped short of calling for an all-out change.
“I don’t know. Saying the blanket, the change of ownership, I don’t know if I can go with that,” said Friedel.
“I think the budgeting is more about who you purchase, rather than how much you spend in EFL a lot of the time. So, for instance, look at Coventry Promoted, and I believe they have the 19th or 20th smallest budget.
“So I think if you recruit wisely, you can create good squads. I think it’s an easy way to say ownership needs to be changed, but I think the question you need to ask is why does it?”
Why indeed. Some of the troubles at Blackburn have been documented, and while Venky’s remain relatively unpopular owners, they do seem to divide opinion. Many feel the club have suffered from years of mismanagement, but there is no doubt they have also put their hand in their pockets to keep the club afloat.
“So I think we’ve heard the stories, but I think there needs to be more of a collective leadership at the top,” added Friedel. “If they can create that from within, then that would be fine, too.
“But recent history has suggested that they need to make a change of something. And unfortunately, what they continue to do is always change the manager.
“And you can change the manager as many times as you want, and that just creates more chaos. So for myself, if they are going to continue to own the club, I just hope they figure out a way to construct the recruitment process in a more suitable manner to make sure that they’re at least fighting to be a playoff contender.”
Friedel’s career took in several clubs, but Blackburn Rovers was the defining spell of his time in England. After early moves through Brøndby, Galatasaray, Columbus Crew and Liverpool, he joined Blackburn on a free transfer in November 2000 under Graeme Souness, having previously worked with him in Turkey. He made his debut in a 1-0 win over Wolves and helped Rovers win promotion back to the Premier League that season. From there, he became one of the club’s most important modern players, making 288 league appearances and 357 in all competitions during an eight-year stay.
His Blackburn peak included a man-of-the-match display in the 2002 League Cup final win over Tottenham Hotspur, 15 clean sheets in the 2002/03 season, the club’s Player of the Year award, and a place in the Premiership Team of the Year. Friedel also scored from open play against Charlton in 2004, becoming only the second goalkeeper to score a Premier League goal at that point.
He signed several new deals and described Blackburn as “home”, calling it his club and saying he had a special affinity with it. Although he later moved to Aston Villa and then Tottenham, where his Premier League consecutive appearances record continued, his Blackburn years remain central to his reputation, and he was later inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame.
Friedel was talking to us courtesy of William Hill, the place to find the best odds for Scotland next manager.
