After arrving back from India following meetings with Venky’s, Blackburn Rovers operations director Paul Agnew spoke exclusively to CHRIS FLANAGAN about the talks and recent events at the club.

Q: What happened when Gary Bowyer, Derek Shaw and yourself travelled to India to meet with the owners earlier this week?

We had two meetings. Gary had the opportunity to meet them properly for the first time with us. Balaji (Rao) was there with Mrs Desai and Mrs Desai’s husband.

We talked about the state of play, which is one we are all horrified about.

Was there any talk about extending Gary Bowyer’s deal beyond the end of the season?

I think a lot of things depend on circumstances, I don’t think it was the time to talk about the long term.

The short term is so massively important. Were any other subjects covered? Yes they were. We talked about all sorts of things, some that are commercially sensitive, some that are confidential, some that will only be apparent as and when we know our status and where we’re going to be.

Have you and Derek Shaw had 100 per cent reassurances about your own positions at the club by the owners?

Personally I’ve never had any reason to suspect anything else. I know there are people out there, I’ve been one myself, I’ve shouted and bawled at boards of directors and managers from the terraces, because that’s what you do.

If the team’s losing, they cop it. I think at the moment the fortunes at the club depend on the fortunes of the team, and we’ve got to get the team right.

Has there ever been a point where you have questioned whether you still wanted to be part of the club, or whether you wanted to go and do something else instead?

I think it’s uncomfortable because a lot of what is said about you, if it’s justified you take it on the chin and think fair enough, I could have done that better or whatever. But there is a lot out there at the moment that galls me when it’s not true.

I’ve always been the first person to say that if I’ve got something wrong I’ll hold my hands up. If I haven’t, I’ll defend myself to the hilt and anybody that works here.

A lot of what we do is very good, unfortunately over the last couple of the years the results haven’t been and everybody suffers.

What is the mood of the owners at the moment?

I’ve found them very level and very consistent, and I think it’s important that people know that.

I’m one of the few people who in their time has been involved in one capacity or another over two-and-a-half years. The messages are constant, I don’t get the impression of anything other than they want to make this a success.

How concerned are they about the current league position?

Everybody is concerned about the league position, it’s a major worry and we’ve got three weeks to get more points than some of the other teams around us.

Do you think the owners take responsibility about the situation the club are in now, compared to when they took over?

Nobody wants to start pointing fingers and apportioning blame. Over a period of time there was always going to be need for changes.

Have they mentioned any possibility of being interested in selling the club?

I think the purpose of wanting to call the meeting was saying we need to make sure everybody knows we accept we’re in an absolute fight here and that Gary Bowyer and anyone who is working with him, and the people he’s going to ask to play on Saturday and in future games, know they’ve got their support.

Some fans have talked about whether Venky’s may pull funding, and that the club may end up in administration. Can you say that is definitely not going to happen?

At the moment our only focus is on the three weeks. But that isn’t to start any rabbits running, I’ve got no reason to think they’re anything other than what they were when they first came in, which is committed to making this successful.

After a story about agent fees and wages paid to a number of signings this season, Shebby Singh issued a statement to say he has never been involved in contract negotiations. Is that your understanding of the situation?

I’m confident the club has a record of everything, that the owners can call upon at any moment to see how those things were done.

In terms of agent fees, who would sign off those sorts of things?

We have an owner and they are aware of who does what and when.

Singh released a statement suggesting investigations into matters behind the scenes had revealed ‘several irregularities’. Have you got any concerns about any irregularities within the club?

I’ve got no concerns about irregularities as far as I’m aware. We come in to do an honest day’s work and that’s what it’s all about.

Whether in relation to Henning Berg’s contract for instance, there was talk that the club were being taken to the High Court because we were refusing to pay and we’ve made it clear that we’ve paid £500,000.

Irregularities is a word that suggests wrongdoing and I think that’s at best unfortunate. Has there been a misunderstanding or an error? Maybe. We’d have to look at that, and that’s currently with the solicitor to have a look at.

There’s nothing untoward, it’s just a case of going through a process and there will be an outcome.

Could the club cope financially if it went into League One?

We just need to concentrate on the six games, that’s hypothetical.

Will the owners be here for a game before the end of the season?

I don’t know, but they see every game and they are passionately interested in Blackburn Rovers, I don’t have any doubts about that.

Why do you think has the club taken the direction it has in the last couple of years?

Like everybody else who has been involved in a club, I’ve seen it a number of times, when on the face of it things are very good, a really bad decision has been made but things have been strong enough to get away with it.

If everybody looked back over the last two years and said if you had the chance to do that differently, would you? Yes. I can only speak for my part of that. Nobody goes through life and doesn’t make a mistake. It’s how you react that counts.

Are there particular instances where you think you or other people at the club have made mistakes?

I don’t believe anybody is unlucky full stop. Everybody is a contributor to their own situation in some way, so I’m not going to say everything we’ve done has been absolutely fantastic and we’ve just been unlucky.

But what I would say is everything we do, on our side is done as honestly as we possibly can with the best Blackburn Rovers interests at heart.

And when I say Blackburn Rovers I’m talking about the family of Blackburn Rovers.

You might get 15,000 people at the game but there will be 55,000 people who will know at 4.50pm how we’ve got on because they’re genuinely concerned about what’s going on, but for whatever reason they can’t get to matches.

They may have fallen out with us, they may not be able to.

There’s nothing else in the town that gets anywhere close to the interest in the football club and we can’t abuse that.

People spend money and come to see something they care passionately about and we’ve got a massive obligation to them to do a damn sight better than we’re doing at the moment.

Do you have faith that Gary Bowyer will keep the club in the Championship?

The Tony Parkes factor springs to mind, a steady pair of hands in a caretaker capacity, someone who knows the players. Gary’s a good honest football man, and he needs 110 per cent support.