Tony Mowbray reveals Venky's transfer plea he’s had to make at Blackburn Rovers | OneFootball

Blackburn Rovers boss Tony Mowbray has met with the Venky's ownership to see if they can increase the transfer budget

Blackburn Rovers head coach Tony Mowbray has revealed that he's met with the Venky's in Switzerland to discuss improving the transfer budget this summer.

Blackburn are heading into their ninth successive campaign in the Championship following their one-year stint in League One, with hopes of improving on their 20th-placed finish from last year.

Rovers have flip-flopped between seventh-placed finishes and relegation battles in the second tier over the past four seasons. If they return to the top seven this year, they'll find themselves in the revamped play-offs.

However, the Championship is set to be an incredibly difficult league to crack this year, with the quality coming down from the Premier League, plus the expanded postseason giving perennial mid-table sides more impetus to invest and improve.

Tony Mowbray reveals discussions with Venky's over improving the transfer budget this summer

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It's been a quiet summer transfer window thus far at Ewood Park. Jayden Fevrier became Blackburn's first signing of the window just last week, signing from Stockport County in a deal worth around £500,000.

In a window where even the newly promoted sides are spending millions on one player, it can be quite concerning that Blackburn are seemingly being left behind in the transfer market.

Speaking to TalkSPORT, Mowbray revealed that he flew to Zurich to speak to the Rovers owners in a bid to try and get them to put more money into improving the club on the field this summer.

"Just this morning, I was up at 4am in Zurich, meeting the owners yesterday and trying to appeal about needing a bit of financial help to put Blackburn back where we need it to be in the Championship and give ourselves a chance," he said.

"The play-offs go down to eighth this year, so can we sneak in? You look at what Hull City did last year, from a 21st-placed finish two years ago to now being in the Premier League, so it can be done.

"If you recruit well, coach well and have a team who can run through brick walls for you, you can achieve in the Championship, even though it looks like a really tough league this season."

Hull's run to the play-offs last year and then winning them was a nigh-on miracle and done without any real investment, given the Tigers' embargo that year. Currently, Blackburn are operating on little investment, too, but that will need to change if they're to mount an unlikely play-off surge this year.

How Blackburn Rovers fans have reacted to Tony Mowbray's interview

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The relationship between Blackburn fans and the Venky's hasn't exactly been the most amicable. Their relegation from the Premier League in 2012 took place in their first full season at the helm, and they've had more League One campaigns than top-flight ones since.

The fact that it's now taken their returning head coach to actually go and ask for more money to be made available in the window, rather than it being an understanding that it's needed to better last season's relegation scare, is quite concerning for them.

"Shouldn't have to ask. Owners should know we need it," one Blackburn fan said online in reaction to the TalkSPORT clip. "Frightening that the owners don’t realise the state we're in," another added.

"Is it the latest case of a manager being lied to about the transfer budget? They usually don’t cotton on until January…" a fan said, half-jokingly, inferring that managers being frustrated about a lack of budget at Ewood Park isn't something new.

John Dahl Tomasson was frustrated about a lack of investment that he offered to leave back in 2023, and the fact that John Eustace saw a relegation battle with Derby County as a more promising managerial option than a play-off-bound Blackburn in 2025 said a lot, too.

Others vented their frustration at the recruitment team and current head of football operations Rudy Gestede, with one saying, "We have a CEO, Pasha and Rudy and still the Manager has to ask."

Tony Mowbray's investment plea casts a worrying shadow on the eve of the new season

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The one positive about how quiet things have been on the transfer front at Blackburn this summer is that there haven't been many major departures to go alongside their one arrival.

Sondre Tronstad and Ryan Hedges were the most high-profile players to leave, but both spent lengthy periods on the sidelines last season, so the core of the squad from their impressive end to last year under Michael O'Neill is still here.

That squad showed that they could be a top-half team, picking up the 11th-most points in the 15 games that the Northern Ireland boss oversaw last year to ultimately finish five points above the drop.

But, as Mowbray mentioned, the standard of the Championship is higher this year, and just staying still could see Blackburn edge even closer to the trapdoor this year.

With the veteran head coach back in the dugout, there'll always be some hope that Rovers can do something this year, but without the tools to help him, it casts a worrying shadow ahead of their season opener on Saturday at Burton Albion in the EFL Cup.