"Gut feeling" - Prediction made on potential Venky's sale at Blackburn Rovers | OneFootball

The Venky's remain controversial in East Lancashire

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...

Ever since taking control of Blackburn Rovers, The Venky's have become the subject of mass frustration in this part of East Lancashire.

The poultry company acquired the club for a reported £23m back in November 2010, becoming the first Indian company to own a side in the Premier League in the process, with Rovers in the midst of a stable spell in the top-flight at the time control was handed over from the family of Jack Walker.

However, the club and supporters have endured a tumultuous time since then, as they were relegated back to the Championship in 2012 before falling even lower, suffering a drop into League One back in 2017.

Aside from a final-day relegation escape in 2024, Blackburn have, for the most part, been an established mid-table side in the second-tier, showing the occasional sign of breaking into the play-offs, as shown this season with a seventh-placed finish.

However, with The Venky's and those associated with the South Asian company still failing to endear themselves to the vast majority of supporters at Ewood Park, FLW asked our resident Rovers fan pundit, Simon Middlehurst, whether he sees a change in ownership occurring by the year 2030.

Despite competing for a first play-off berth in the Championship since falling out of the Premier League 13 years ago, this season hasn't been smooth sailing for Rovers fans, as they saw John Eustace depart for relegation-threatened Derby County in February, before being replaced by Valerien Ismael.

In late March, a fan group urged CEO Steve Waggott, former striker-turned head of football operations Rudy Gestede and COO, Suhail Pasha, who is also a representative for the Venky's to stay away from home matches for the foreseeable future - a request which was swiftly snubbed.

This led to a crowd of just 15,368 for a 2-0 home defeat to Middlesbrough on April 4th, at a point where Ismael was still winless during his tenure, before winning four of the final six games, although it wouldn't be enough to break into the play-offs.

Prior to the encounter, Pasha outlined the fact the Venky's do not plan to sell the club and that no offers of a takeover had come to the fore in his seven-and-a-half years in East Lancashire.

Unsurprisingly, such circumstances mean that Middlehurst can see the ownership group still overseeing matters in the years to come.

"Gut feeling, Venky's are going to be around for a long, long time," he told FLW. "Blackburn isn't an attractive club for potential buyers or investors.

"I think as well, for Venky's, it's probably going to come across as a 'pride' thing. If they do sell then it's probably going to be seen as a failure to them, and they aren't going to want to see that," our fan pundit added.

"Venky's have also stated the amount of money they've put into the club, they want to get back. Ultimately, nobody's going to buy the club for £300m or however much they've put in.

"My gut feeling is they're going to push for Blackburn to get promoted and, as soon as we become a Premier League side again, if that happens, they could potentially sell to someone who'd see Blackburn, as a Premier League club, as a proper investment," Middlehurst continued.

"But for me, personally, I think Venky's aren't going anywhere anytime soon, and they're going to be around for a long, long time."

Blackburn Rovers supporters continue to hope for long-term stability

Unsurprisingly, the plight of the 1994/95 Premier League champions has led to a major downturn in attendance figures at Ewood Park, and that remained this season as the sixth-lowest in the second-tier at just 16,161.

Whilst the likes of Adam Wharton and Sammie Szmodics gave the club plenty of incoming cash in the past year, Rovers haven't been able to invest anywhere near as much of those sums as they would have liked, and that looks set to continue this summer as the Venky's ongoing court case against the Indian Ministry of Finance was delayed once more until August 5th.

Therefore, it remains to be seen just how much backing Ismael will receive in his first transfer window and pre-season at the club, and it could make yet another play-off bid all the more challenging, with the likes of Birmingham City and Wrexham expected to invest heavily after their recent promotions.