Thursday marks 10 years since Venky’s bought the club and it is safe to say they have been controversial figures since, and that is putting it lightly, writes Tom Schofield.

We all know the story, the promises that weren’t kept, the failings with them at the helm but with this week’s column I want to take time to discuss the current state of play.

I know this column itself is bound to be a controversial one. People will disagree with me and I encourage that, I find the opinions of others on this topic incredibly interesting.

At the end of the day we are all fans and want Rovers to succeed.

In recent years the owners haven’t been in the public eye at all, they’ve spent time in the background funding the club and letting the likes of Steve Waggott take control.

Now Waggott certainly splits the opinion of the fanbase, but this is something they should have done from the off. Let qualified people run the club.

There are reasons why that didn’t happen, and I recommend Sporf’s podcast which goes into detail about the early years of Venky’s ownership.

That is looking backwards though, and I want to look ahead, to look ahead to the potential for Venky’s to come back to Ewood, whether that’s necessary, whether it is important and finally how it is viewed.

I understand there are those that don’t even want to entertain the thought of it, I can respect that as well. However, while the question of when Venky’s will return is one that is often asked on Rovers’ forums, it’s a question that is almost impossible to answer.

On the one hand, there are those that want owners that are involved. Owners that have a face. Owners that aren’t viewed to be hiding in the shadows.

That is understandable as well, a lot of time has passed since the years of hurt and while the ramifications of that period are still felt, work has been done in an attempt to fix the cracks that were made.

The rebuttal of course is why do they need to be involved? The club right now seems to be being run perfectly fine. Further involvement of Venky’s could put a halt to that. We have seen their track record, we know the mistakes they have made. Why would we want to risk that again?

I think I sit somewhere in the middle to be honest. I want owners that are involved and are looking to atone for their errors, but at what cost?

If the cost is another circus of calamitous errors, then count me out. If on the other hand, the result is a group of people looking to make up for their mistakes then I would be willing to listen.

The very prospect of them returning throws up even more questions as well, when and how do they return?

Without wanting to defend them, it is an almost impossible situation isn’t it? If they turn up after a success in the play-off final, they are accused of jumping on the bandwagon of Rovers success.

If they arrive and we suddenly go on a torrid run of form, their presence will be blamed for contributing to it.

I saw one suggestion on Twitter that I thought was superb, and would have been the perfect way to reintroduce them and it frustrates me that it wasn’t thought of by the higher-ups at Ewood.

During the 145th birthday celebrations, Rovers put out videos, including fans and former players, reading a poem. That would have been the perfect opportunity to include the owners.

It needed little fanfare, just include a small snippet of video of them reading part of the poem. For me that would show they care, it would be the start of a road back.