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 will be hoping to avoid any relegation danger in the Championship this season, but as ever, the actions of the club’s ownership will prove pivotal to their chances on the pitch.
It was a turbulent season for Rovers last term, with Jon Dahl Tomasson departing in February after failing to receive support from the Venkys in the transfer market, but John Eustace managed to lead the club to safety on the final day of the campaign.
Blackburn endured a slow start to the summer transfer window, but they have now brought in five new signings in Jack Barrett, Danny Batth, Makhtar Gueye, Yuki Ohashi and Andreas Weimann, and they have so far managed to keep hold of star man Sammie Szmodics, who scored 33 goals in 48 games last season.
However, Eustace is working against a backdrop of off-field issues, which began last summer when the club’s budget was cut by 20 per cent after owners the Venkys were advised by the Indian government to reduce overseas investment.
Rovers are anxiously awaiting the outcome of a court case in India on August 20 to determine whether the Venky will be allowed to put further money into the club, and the decision could have big implications for their season.
It is the latest chapter in what has been a strained relationship between the Indian poultry giants and Blackburn supporters since their £23 million takeover in November 2010, with the club going from an established Premier League club to a relegation-threatened Championship side during that time, and they have even spent a season in League One.
Blackburn Rovers fan pundit issues damning Venkys verdict
FLW’s Blackburn Rovers fan pundit Toby Wilding says the current situation at the club is not sustainable, and he admits the decline under the ownership of the Venkys has attracted anger from supporters at times.
When asked if he believes the Venkys are the right owners to take the club forward, Toby told Football League World: “No. I don’t think so to be honest.
“Obviously the financial struggles that the Venkys have had recently have been rather well-documented, and they had to go through the courts in India just to get approval to put money into the club.
“There’s another one of those coming up on the 20th August, and if that request to put the money in is rejected as I suppose the courts could quite easily do, it raises a lot of questions about just how the money needed to keep the club running is going to come in from the owners.
“That’s just simply not sustainable, and therefore in the long-term, I don’t see how they can continue to look to take the club forward in this situation.
“I think also if you look back over recent years, transfer business has certainly been done on a basis of just reinvesting money from potential sales if there is going to be any funds spent on players, and again there’s a question there of just how long are those players who are going to make money going to keep coming through the club?
“Then you get into the overall frustrations about the impact that the Venkys have had on the club.
“Obviously Blackburn were a well-established Premier League side when they took over, but they’ve been down to League One since then, and they were very lucky really not to drop back down to that level again last season.
“So, I think there’s been anger from the fans towards the owners at times, and certainly last season, about the situation the club has fallen to since they took over.
“That means that it is hard to see any full reconciliation happening, so when you add that in, I do think it’s going to be tough for Blackburn to progress to any sort of next level under the ownership of the Venkys, certainly while things continue as they are.”
However, Eustace is working against a backdrop of off-field issues, which began last summer when the club’s budget was cut by 20 per cent after owners the Venkys were advised by the Indian government to reduce overseas investment.
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