"False promises" - The Venky's named as Blackburn Rovers "biggest issue" | OneFootball

FLW's Blackburn Rovers fan pundit believes that the owners are the biggest problem at the club.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Blackburn Rovers are competing for a play-off place in the Championship despite the ownership situation at the club.

The Venky's completed their takeover of Rovers in November 2010, and since suffering relegation from the top flight in 2012, the club has not finished higher than seventh in the Championship.

Venky's London Limited paid a reported total of £43 million to purchase a 99.9% stake in Blackburn from the Walker Trust, run by the family of the late former owner, Jack Walker. Almost half of that deal came as a result of taking on the £20 million worth of debt that the club was in at the time.

It has since been something of a turbulent period for the club under the Venkys' ownership. Back in 2023, Blackburn's owners were advised by the Indian government to reduce overseas investment, which ultimately led to Rovers cutting their budget last season by 20%.

Repeated budget cuts led to Jon Dahl Tomasson leaving the club in February last year, before John Eustace quit Blackburn to join relegation-threatened Derby County last month, despite the fact his side were in the midst of a promotion push, so it is clear that the owners are not inspiring their coaches.

With that being said, Blackburn still have plenty of hope that they can achieve a top six finish under new boss Valerien Ismael, but the supporters must feel as though they would have a far better chance of returning to the Premier League if they had more competent owners.

Blackburn's owners named as the biggest issue at the club

We asked our Blackburn fan pundit, Simon Middlehurst, what the biggest issue at the club is at this moment in time and why.

"The club's biggest issue at this very moment is the owners," said Simon.

"It is no secret, and it is obviously very, very public how bad the issues are with the owners at the club.

"At the minute, at Blackburn, the owners have not been seen in 10 years, and managers have left due to false promises made by the club and the owners.

"There is no real direction from the owners in the sense that, yes, they want to see Blackburn in the Premier League, but they are not actually willing to invest.

"There are also issues and rumours about things going on behind the scenes with regard to the training ground falling to pieces, and it has not been refurbished for a long time.

"So yeah, just generally the owners are the biggest issue at the minute."

Blackburn may rue lack of investment

Blackburn are in contention to achieve a top six finish this season, but they could live to regret their lack of investment if they miss out on promotion.

Rovers spent transfer fees to sign Makhtar Gueye, Balazs Toth and Todd Cantwell in the summer, while Augustus Kargbo was brought in during the January transfer window, but those deals were facilitated by the sales of Sammie Szmodics, Sam Gallagher and Leopold Wahlstedt rather than any significant investment from the owners.

If Blackburn do not get promoted this season, their fans will no doubt be frustrated that they do not have owners who were willing to invest on top of the money that was generated from player sales.