"Non-existent at best" - Blackburn Rovers: The Venky's ownership at Ewood Park questioned | OneFootball

The Venky's have owned Blackburn Rovers since 2010, and have largely reigned over an unhappy Ewood Park due to their management of 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...

The VH Group - more commonly known as the Venky's - have owned Blackburn Rovers since 2010, and have drawn heavy criticism from Rovers supporters over their running of the club for the majority of those years.

Rovers spent the first half of the Venky's tenure largely on the decline, after suffering relegation from the Premier League in 2012, before dropping out of the Championship and into League One in 2017.

Thankfully for the club, they were able to make an immediate return to the second tier, but after multiple years of stabilising their place in the Championship and falling just short of a top six finish on a couple of occasions, narrowly avoiding relegation last season saw fan unrest spark once again.

Trust in their owners has been sparingly observed in the 14 years that the Venky's have reigned over Ewood Park, but how much of that is down their communication with supporters and their connection with the fanbase? Football League World investigates...

Blackburn fan pundit: "Non-existent at best"

For supporters of any football club, having that relationship and connection with the owners is vital, as without it, trust is hard to build and unrest can be quick to grow.

In the case of Blackburn Rovers' owners, the Venky's, they haven't attended a Rovers match in over a decade, and that doesn't appear set to change any time soon either.

FLW asked our Blackburn fan pundit, Toby Wilding, how he would rate the Venky's connection to the fanbase, and if they communicate well enough to Rovers' loyal supporters?

Wilding said: "There isn't really much of one is there? Let's be honest. Obviously, the divide that was generated in the first few years after the Venky's took over the club, and the problems there was at that time, it's just sort of largely shutdown since then.

"They very much seem to be absent owners, they haven't been at Ewood Park for several years now, and it doesn't look like that's going to change. There's very few statements that we see from the owners, or even their representatives who are on the ground in England, which has led to some uncertainty recently.

"When you look at the situation with regard to the court cases which have been needed for them to put money into the club, certainly the statements around those have been pretty brief. Many fans seem to feel as though they are lacking in clarity.

"So, as I say, it's very non-existent at best. The communication situation, I would say in that sense, it was a strong transfer window that I imagine was at least in part down to funding through the sales of the likes of Wharton, Szmodics and Gallagher this year.

"That allowed the club to bring players in, and then the strong start to the season thanks to the work of John Eustace and his squad, has probably eased a bit of the pressure on the owners.

"Certainly when you consider the frustrations that there were at the start of the summer, when there was very little movement in the market after such a disappointing season last time around, which ended in with a very close call to relegation."

Rovers fans will want to see the Venky's back Eustace

After years of consolidation upon their return to the Championship in 2018, eighth and seventh-placed finishes in 2021/22 and 2022/23 respectively set the bar for the expectations of Blackburn supporters.

They witnessed their club fall just short of a play-off place in consecutive seasons, but progress had been made on the pitch, and dreams of a return to Premier League football were as close to becoming reality since their relegation from the top-flight in 2012.

But after the sacking of Jon Dahl Tomasson in February and a 19th-placed finish last season, fears from supporters that the club had once again taken a step backwards under the Venky's, only served to rise once again.

Now under the stewardship of a manager in Eustace who has the full backing of the Ewood Park faithful, and indeed his players, Rovers fans are hoping and expecting their club to push on towards a bright future on the pitch.

With sizeable fees spent on the likes of Todd Cantwell, Balazs Toth, Makhtar Gueye and Yuki Ohashi, as well as numerous exciting Premier League loans in the form of Owen Beck and Amario Cozier-Duberry, it would appear that the Venky's are willing to back their boss in the transfer market.

That financial backing is vital to keeping fan unrest at manageable levels, as due to their shortcomings in communication, lack of perceived interest due to their decade-long absence from matches, and financial uncertainty at times, the mood on the Ewood Park terraces has been on a knife edge throughout the Venky's reign.