Steve Waggott says while owners Venky’s have built up a trust in himself and manager Tony Mowbray to take care of matters on and off the pitch at Rovers, the club’s owners know they will need to return to Ewood Park in the near future.

But, as they approach the eighth anniversary of taking over, Waggott said that will be when they feel ‘the time is right’.

Waggott and Mowbray will make their third visit to Pune to meet with them during the November international break. And the club’s chief executive revealed he will broach the subject of a visit once again with the owners who haven’t had any representation at a match in three years.

“Every time I see them I say that the main question I get asked at all of the fans’ forum, and from the press and the media, is ‘when are you going to come back?’” Waggott said.

“They say they will come back when it’s the right time to come back.

“While they trust me and Tony to get on with the non-football and football side of the club, with constant dialogue, they know they need to show up at some stage.”

Waggott, appointed to his post in December, is involved in the day-to-day running at Ewood Park and regularly in contact with the owners in India. He travelled with Mowbray to India during the summer, having also done so before he was appointed, to speak about a number of subjects, including the transfer budget.

On the working relationship, Waggott added: “It is very healthy. The trust level is increasing. Tony has done a fantastic job and he has implicit trust from the owners on the footballing side.

“I’m building a trust and on the way I’m building up the company on a very stable level.

“Hopefully that was shown by the healthy transfer budget that we got in the last window.

“We have to keep building on that and every decision we make is for the betterment of the club. It’s not about individuals, it’s about Blackburn Rovers Football Club.”

Among the topics at next month’s meeting will be a new contract for Mowbray and the January transfer window.

There will also be discussions about the commercial aspects of the club, boosted by a return to the Championship.

“That’s what we are looking to do,” Waggott said of travelling to India. “That will give Tony a better chance to be relaxed away from the heavy games schedule.

“It will be a mid-term report on how we’ve done so far, how the team has done, the transfer market and the commercial side of things, then how are we going to develop the club going forward. And the January transfer window, that will be here in the blink of an eye.”

While the owners haven’t travelled to East Lancashire in more than three years, Waggott says their interest in the club remains as strong as ever.

He added: “I think they track everything that goes on and get a barometer and feel of the club.

“It hit the lowest point when certain things happened, results go the wrong way and where does it stop? The owners get it, there’s an understanding of it.

“Now there’s a swing to a more positive element they can feel it, they watch and read everything, albeit from a distance, and when it’s right I hope they will come back.”

While things are progressing on the pitch, Rovers’ off field improvements have seen refurbishments take place at the Blues Bar, a new ticketing system installed and next month contactless machines in the concourses will be put in.

Attendances are down on what the club hoped for but a return to the Championship has boosted commercial revenue, including sponsorship deals with gambling firm 10BetSports and vaping company Totally Wicked.

“The media rights are so much greater in terms of television coverage and everything else, so it’s more attractive for sponsorship,” Waggott said of the second tier.

“Sponsorship and advertising have done really well, way above the target. Corporate we’re doing okay. We put the price up slightly and the volume has gone up a little bit but again we need to push hard on that side of things.

“Sponsorship and advertising have done really well and selling as much as we possibly can.”

The rise in gambling firms being the principal sponsors of clubs has been highlighted as a possible concern in recent weeks.

Waggott added: “It’s not just our club, it’s right across football. In Italy they have made a play to try and ban betting companies on shirts.

“In England it brings in millions and millions of pounds in terms of sponsorship money and provided it’s done in the right way, and sensibly, we want people to come in and pay on the gate and watch the game of football and lead healthy lives but it’s part of society and it always has been.

“We have to monitor it carefully and make sure we don’t breach any of the guidelines. But they are the industries with the deep pockets.

“If they were to disappear there’d be a real scramble for who would be next in line to get the figures we need in terms of revenue to balance the books.”