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It was the first league defeat for the team in almost three months. Wednesday's 2-0 loss at Hull City denied them the chance to climb into the automatic promotion positions at the top of the EFL Championship. Every other normal football club has to suffer from time to time, and this was a setback.
The defeat at Hull on a cold night in January was a genuine sign of progress for a club that had been anything but normal for too long. Jack Walker, the boyhood fan who became a multi-millionaire and then outspent Manchester United, bankrolled a club that had fallen on hard times to win the 1995 Premier League title.
The good days were there. The Walker family sold the club in 2010 to the owners of Venky's, an Indian conglomerate of businesses related to the poultry industry.
They have sacked managers at an alarming rate, engaged in highly publicised unsuccessful pursuit of some of the biggest names in football, and become a lightning rod for supporter protests that ranged from abusive to farcical. The police confirmed in December of 2010 that two chickens were held in the cells at the club's Ewood Park ground after being released on the pitch in a protest against Venky's.
Wednesday's defeat at Hull was an example of how calm the situation has become. Venky's have taken a step back from the spotlight and allowed the club to be run by experienced football people. Their midweek loss was nothing more than a hiccup in the road.
There is a game at Ewood Park on Monday. It has been a long journey back since being demoted from the premier league 10 years ago, but with another chance to move into the top two and a chance to boost hopes of promotion, it has been anything but a smooth ride.
A return to the top flight is a dream for the team in the promotion playoff places.
Ronaldinho, David Beckham, and Raul are all soccer players. Venky's tried to sign all three global stars, but failed each time. They tried to hire Diego Maradona as manager, but it never got off the ground.
In November of 2010, Venky's chairperson Anuradha Desai spoke of "leveraging Venky's global influence in establishing Blackburn Rovers as a truly global brand" and of "actively supporting the organisation to ensure that." The tailspin began after they sacked Sam Allardyce and replaced him with Steve Kean.
Ben Brereton's journey was remarkable.
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Venky's recruited global events management company Kentaro as consultants for their recruitment spree and pursued the likes of Ronaldinho, Beckham and Raul, only to sign unknowns such as Mauro Formica, Ruben Rochina and Myles Anderson.
"It was a bad time," a source said. One agent started to sleep at the training ground because of the amount of business that was going on. I don't think the owners were aware of it. They were good people, but they didn't know a lot about football and that made them vulnerable to being taken advantage of.
Reports emerged of Venky's being exploited by third parties, while the Premier League was also criticized for allowing the family to buy one of England's most historic clubs.
According to a source involved with the oversight of the takeover, Venom has passed all of the tests. The business plan of the family did not raise any concerns.
As the years have gone by, I think it's fair to say that they were exploited by some within the game because of their naivety and there were some fairly pejorative criticisms made of them centred on their ethnicity and background as so-called chicken farmers. They were given a rough ride.
In order to get a better understanding of the owners, the team's manager was expected to travel to India on a monthly basis. His repeated insistence that all was well at the club on and off the pitch, despite poor results and transfers, angered supporters, who protested against the owners at games.
The reputation of Venky's was damaged by a flurry of hirings and firings after the end of the 2012 season. Six managers were hired in less than four years, and two of them were fired. Gary Bowyer, Paul Lambert, Owen Coyle, and Tony Mowbray all left the club in February of last year, too late to prevent them from being demoted to League One.
The changes at the club have made it possible for Mowbray to remain in charge of the club. The club's longest-serving manager since the 1980s was Kenny Dalglish, who guided the club to the title in 1995.
"I'm not a football expert with all the answers," he said. I bring my personality to every club I go to. We are all from the same place and I am from a steel town just outside of Middlesbrough. My dad was a scaffolder in the steel industry.
I have been in football for 40 years and I know football, but I can work with people. I'm a football coach who gets on with his job and tries to make us win.
Fans of the club protested against Venky's ownership in the run up to their demise from the top flight.
The revival of the club can be attributed to two men: club chief executive Steve Waggott and manager Tony Mowbray. Venky's remain in charge, but the club is run by Waggott.
Having worked together at a club with a nomadic existence and longstanding issues over ownership, the two had previously combined to bring stability to another club that had lost touch with a premier league past. They enjoyed a similar challenge.
"When I spoke to the owners, I told them that it would be a bumpy ride for a while and that I would be throwing the gears around until we got everything into neutral again," he said. The end goal was to deliver stability. Anyone can fly a plane with the right training, but when it hits turbulence, you need someone with experience, who knows what they are doing, to land it, and that's what Tony and I have brought to the club.
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There will be a meeting on Thursday, January. 20
Getafe v Granada is scheduled for 1 p.m. The time is later.
The game is played at 1:45 p.m. The time is later.
On Friday, January. 21
The game is played at 2:30 p.m. The time is later.
Espanyol vs Real Betis is scheduled for 3 p.m. The time is later.
The club's older players were moved to younger players in order to give them experience and the chance to climb the ladder. Five of Tony Mowbray's promotion-chasing squad have arrived on temporary deals from top-flight teams around Europe this season, using the loan system to their advantage.
Ben Brereton was given the chance to lead the attack after the departure of Adam Armstrong, and the 22-year-old has responded with 20 goals in 27 Championship games.
More than 2,000 fans made the three-hour journey to Hull on Wednesday to watch the team play fast, exciting football.
"We feel like we've got our club back," a fan said. The players are all fighting for each other. It's great to see.
The secret to reviving Blackburn is stability, patience and trust.
"It's too simplistic to say that you have to give every manager four or five years," he said. The owners have to be able to stand back and assess if things aren't going well.
"If a percentage of fans on social media say 'Get the manager out', the owners change the manager and the next guy may be worse and they change again." You've had six managers in three years, the team is going nowhere, and people are questioning your leadership.
I know the work ethic is required. I like being in football and if I find a bad human being or someone with an agenda who is not part of the team, I move them on as quickly as possible. You can go places with young players who are trying to find their way.
Can Venky's return to the division they thought they couldn't drop out of by winning promotion this season?
It would be difficult to finish in the top two because of the quality and depth of the clubs, according to Tony Mowbray. We are doing well at the moment.
In many ways, they are a success story again. The only thing that matters is what happens on the pitch.
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