John Williams: My 10 years at Rovers: Pt1

Football has changed massively since you first became chief executive of Blackburn Rovers in 1997, John. What has been the biggest change over the last 10 years?

The biggest change for me has been the rate at which the top four have pulled away from the rest of the league.

They've created for themselves a virtuous circle of wealth. They're on television more than anyone else so they get more money. They finish higher in the league; they get more money. They get into the Champions League; they get more money.

Then they use that money to get the best players, so they win more games, and so it goes on, and I really don't see an end to that in the foreseeable future.

People have talked about wage capping as a possible solution, but I don't think that's realistic, given that we all want English clubs to do well in Europe.

As the rich get richer, I suppose that impacts on the wages they can offer players, too?

Yes. One of the fall-outs of that breakaway is the acceleration in players' wages.

The wages being paid by the top clubs are quite staggering. It's worth reflecting that eight years ago, when I was privileged to be working with Jack Walker, one of our top players at the time was in for a new contract and he wanted what was then the magic million pounds a year, or £20,000 a week.

But Jack was having none of it and he bet me that no Premier League player would ever earn a million pounds a year, and that was literally just eight years ago! Needless to say, that player did get very close to his £20,000 a week...

There have been plenty of highs and lows at Blackburn over the last decade. What for you was the lowest moment?

The worst moment for me was unquestionably Jack Walker's death. Firstly, I'd lost a close colleague and a friend. And secondly I was also extremely worried we wouldn't recover as a club from that position.

I was always confident the trustees would be there for us financially and, indeed, particularly in those early years, when we needed to consolidate, they were.

But this was a man who was Mr Blackburn Rovers'. Jack would be the first to say that no one individual is bigger than the club, but in Jack's case, he was very, very close to being the exception to that rule. He was the pulse of the club, he had huge gravitas, and there was a huge out-pouring of grief when he passed away.

On top of that, we were also in the wrong' division when he died, so I was hugely worried about the future. But, fortunately, we had the right man at the helm in Graeme Souness, and we knuckled down to it as a club and pulled it around.

And the best moment?

Gaining promotion back to the Premiership at the end of that season. In my private moments, when I close my eyes, the thing I can recall the most vividly is Matt Jansen's header at Deepdale. That was the goal that effectively secured promotion and laid the platform for what has been a very decent run of results since we've been back in the Premier League. We are a town club and we have an enviable record, which the likes of Tottenham, Newcastle, Manchester City, Aston Villa and Everton would no doubt admire.

If success on the pitch has been one of your proudest achievements, is the decline in attendances the thing that has disappointed you the most?

Without question, the biggest frustration for me has been the decline in attendances, and I have to take that very firmly on the chin because it's during my time at the club that our average attendance has fallen from 25,000 to 20,000.

I didn't foresee that happening, but Jack was very perceptive and he did tell me when I first came to the club that he felt it was an issue.

I came here with the full intention of building on the crowd that we had by moving into new markets and looking for non-aligned fans, perhaps in the northern part of the region, because we were the only Premiership club in east and west Lancashire.

But now, there are seven of us in the county and it's very difficult to get the numbers in. It's become a different type of challenge - one of retention. I think we've reached that point now, without being complacent, and it's going to be a big challenge going forward.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced?

The huge challenge for me has been the one that Jack placed upon us before he died. He had two demands.

The first was to be competitive on the pitch, and by that he meant qualifying for Europe and the top six. The second was we had to wash our face financially. He wanted the club to be self-sustaining.

We've not failed on the first one - I think our record on the field stands examination, as I've said already. But I think we have on the second count.

Now, for the first time, we do have a chance of achieving that because of the money from the new TV deal. Going forward, we've been able to return some of the money to our fans through reduced ticket prices, and we still believe we can remain competitive on the pitch. It will depend on what the other 19 clubs in the league do, but as a result we'll be able to have a stable, self-sustaining business and, in that sense, we'll have met that challenge.

Who has been the best signing of the last 10 years?

Brad Friedel. He's been absolutely superb. I can hardly remember him making a mistake. Everyone says if you're planning on being successful then you need a great goalkeeper and a great striker, and Brad's a great keeper. The fact he came on a free as well makes it even better business. He's had the biggest impact of any player in my time at the club.

And which signing was the biggest let-down?

Obviously, some signings have been less successful than others and it's not really fair to single out individuals. But in terms of expectations, the one that never quite worked out for us was Barry Ferguson. Graeme Souness thought the world of him as a player but I never quite got the feeling Barry fully settled here, and, of course, he also suffered an horrendous injury, so as a result, we never saw the best of him.

What about the one that got away?' Is there anyone who slipped through the net that you really wish had signed?

There haven't been many of those because we've tended to research our targets well and then got them. There was a general feeling amongst our fan base that we made a bid for Eidur Gudjohnsen last summer but although there was interest, we never made an offer. I think the one that got away was the one that we had - Craig Bellamy!

Is that one of the biggest frustrations of your job - losing star players to bigger clubs?

Yes it is. The more successful we are, the more difficult it becomes, not just to improve the squad, but to hold onto the players we already have.

Suddenly, we're doing well and we fall prey to people who want to buy our players. A huge amount of last summer was spent fending off people who wanted Morten Pedersen, Ryan Nelsen and Steven Reid. It's a compliment of sorts, but it's also hugely frustrating.

It's not a new thing. Jack Walker and Robert Coar couldn't hold onto Alan Shearer, despite their best efforts, and we all know how persuasive Jack could be. If a player ultimately wants to leave, there isn't a lot you can do about it. I'm sure we'll have to fight to keep some of our prized assets once again this summer, but you can rest assured we'll be doing our best to fend off that interest.

What's the hardest decision you've ever had to make?

The golden rule in this game is the relationship between the chairman and the manager has to be right. The problem comes when the manager wants to do something that the board feels is not quite right, and that is a tough decision. I can think of a couple of occasions when that has been the case, but almost without exception you back your manager.

What aspect of your job have you most enjoyed?

I enjoy the challenge of heart versus head. You cannot do the job without being a supporter and, really, our whole raison d'etre is to win football matches.

You can go with your heart too much in the boardroom, and sometimes you can also go too much with your head. What I've tried to do is find the middle balance and I think we have.

I think we've been able to support our managers on the one hand, and keep the club reasonably secure on the other. The trustees continue to support us, but we have also seen a steady growth in the borrowings, which shows you how difficult it is to balance things out.

I enjoy that tussle of heart versus head, though, and I think it's my role in life to be the what if' man. But hopefully if you were to ask Mark Hughes or Graeme Souness, they'd say I was still squarely behind them, wanting to win football matches.

And what do you least enjoy about it?

Losing matches. Definitely.