Can Indian takeover bring back the glory days at Rovers?

Indian company Venky’s London Limited have bought 99.9 per cent of Premier League side Blackburn Rovers.

The company have paid £23million for the shares previously held by the Jack Walker Trust, who have been looking after the club since Uncle Jack past away ten years ago.

Takeover

The Indian company now look set to offer the 0.1 minority shareholders the chance to sell their shares.

That would mean the club would be solely owned by the company. I’m sure with foreign takeovers not working out for some clubs (Liverpool being a big example) Blackburn fans won’t be getting too excited just yet.

The club have had some financial difficulties in recent years and maybe this takeover will help the club to start building for the future.

Mediocre

Blackburn have struggled in the Premier League in recent years due to the lack of financial clout. Most recent seasons their only aim for their Premier League campaign is survival. That is a sad aim for most Premier League clubs, however financial problems have restricted their ambition to just survival.

Glory

In the mid-1990’s Blackburn Rovers became one of the biggest clubs in England. This rise from mediocrity was courtesy of heavy investment from chairman Jack Walker. The steel magnate invested tens of millions of pounds in his beloved club.

They were accused of buying success but big spending doesn’t always guarantee you success. In Blackburn’s case it did buy success and glory. For a short amount of time they were challenging the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal at the top of the Premier League.

In 1995 Jack Walker’s dream of helping Rovers become successful was complete as his club won the Premier League title. Those glory days must seem like such a long time ago for the Rovers fans and I’m sure they are hoping the new owners will invest some funds in their squad.

Boss

Sam Allardyce has always had an eye for a bargain in the transfer market and his skills have been tested to the hilt at Ewood Park in recent seasons. He has had to make the most of free transfers and cheap deals when he has been able to get them.

Allardyce however is being realistic about the takeover. He told Sky Sports: “You’ve got to keep to the reality,”

“People will go off mentioning we’re after Torres or Drogba, but in terms of investment, rather than huge sums of money, it will be relatively moderate.

“We will improve the squad, but we will have to be diligent in our research to get the right player and spend the money wisely.”

He continued: “We all know we have been short of a bit of investment in the last few years.

“Since the trust has tried to sell the club they haven’t been willing to fund the sort of transfers needed to keep the club improving.

“That’s put it in danger of maybe being in the throes of selling your best players and threatened with relegation.”

Relieved

It sounds like the former-Bolton boss is relieved that the takeover has now been completed. It also sounds like he will get some funds to improve his squad and maybe they can now progress. The club may never get back to the glories of winning the Premier League and playing Champions League football.

However if Blackburn could improve their squad maybe the Rovers fans will stop having to worry about the possibility of relegation to the Championship and I’m sure it won’t be a second too soon.