UPFROnT
flight where some bloke does loads of
one-arm press-ups because he’s just
got out of prison. Loads of these odd
stories from the dark days.
Where’s the strangest place you’ve
met a player or manager?
I met Charlie Austin [below] backstage
at Reading and he was in his wellies, all
kitted out for a muddy festival. He was
bouncy, up for having a good time and
watching some rock ’n’ roll – QPR had
won the play-offs a few months earlier.
I was a bit nervous before walking out,
headlining Reading, and he was saying,
“That’s nothing, imagine going into the
play-offs and you’re on for a 30 grand
bonus!” I tried to mention it when we
were on Soccer AM, but Charlie started
running his hand across his throat as if
to say, ‘Shut up! Don’t talk about that.
You can’t say you saw me backstage at
Reading being jolly’. Then he was gone
in two months – he’d been transferred!
What’s the most important piece of
memorabilia that you own?
I still have my first ever QPR shirt, from
those days when I was going to Anfield
to see Liverpool but dreaming of being
at Loftus Road. My little Guinness QPR
shirt. It doesn’t fit now obviously. Also,
my dad’s supporters’ club membership
- this little bit of cardboard from 1964.
A family heirloom.
Niall Doherty
When you’re chasing a chicken around the pitch
on the night your team is being relegated, you
know it’s probably not going well.
That was the fate that befell poor Yakubu in the
penultimate game of 2011-12 when Blackburn lost
1-0 at home to Wigan, an hour after their Nigerian
striker had tired himself out attempting to catch
a feathered pitch invader.
As it turned out, the daft
bird’s appearance wasn’t
an attempt to feed the Yak –
instead, it was arguably the
most memorable fan protest
in Premier League history,
aimed at the club’s owners.
Eighteen months earlier,
Indian poultry firm Venky’s had
taken over a club challenging for the top half under
Sam Allardyce, before deciding that stability wasn’t
really for them. Out went Big Sam and in came the
little-known Steve Kean, with precisely no managerial
experience, as the new owners vowed to reach the
Champions League by splashing out a huge £5 million
on players every transfer window. How could it fail?
Blackburn quickly spiralled towards relegation, just
about survived on the last day, then gathered their
star players together for an advertising campaign –
asking Michel Salgado, Ryan Nelsen and David Dunn
to gorge on chicken drumsticks, as you do.
Salgado was swiftly frozen out of the actual team
(maybe a judgement on his acting skills) and Rovers’latest plummet towards the drop began. Kean –
who’d vowed, “We won’t get relegated, no chance”- soon got Blackburn relegated on the night of the
infamous chicken incident, when a fan released
a live fowl wearing the club crest.
The mayhem didn’t end there – despite recruiting
Nuno Gomes, Danny Murphy and David Bentley in
the second tier, Blackburn came
17th in a campaign when the
owners installed Malaysian TV
pundit Shebby Singh as the club’s
global advisor, then changed boss
five times. Club hero Henning Berg
was binned after 57 days, later
winning £2.25m compensation- almost £40,000 per day.
Successor Michael Appleton followed
him to the exit inside 67 days – during his last game,
another chicken was released against rivals Burnley,
as protests against the owners rumbled on. When
they faced each other again the next season, a third
chicken turned up.
Incredibly, despite all that, and Ewood Park crowds
halving in the space of six years, Venky’s still remain
Blackburn’s owners – the club dropped to League One
in 2017 after the unpopular hiring of ex-Burnley boss
Owen Coyle, but have since recovered and even been
in the Championship play-off mix this term.
Fan-owner relations have settled – but selling Chile
sensation Ben Brereton Diaz this summer could call
chicken four into action...
- almost £40,000 per day.
Behold, the Premier League’s weirdest pitch invasion – a decade on...
FOWL REF!
FourFourTwo June 2022 21