THE silence has been deafening from Blackburn Rovers owners Venky’s since the club’s shocking 7-1 loss at Arsenal on Saturday.

Rovers fans want answers after a defeat that leaves them second bottom of the Premier League.

Not only that, but a transfer window in which Venky’s had the opportunity to spend money on key additions and increase Rovers’ chances of survival in the top flight has now passed.

It passed with only three signings – a loan move for Anthony Modeste, the free transfer arrival of Marcus Olsson and the purchase of QPR right back Bradley Orr for an undisclosed but minimal fee.

With senior professionals such as Ryan Nelsen, Jason Roberts and Keith Andrews leaving, Michel Salgado expected to follow shortly and continuing farce over the future of Chris Samba, optimism is not high among Rovers fans that the club is now capable of staying up.

These are dark days for Rovers and it desperately requires leader-ship and communication from the top.

Instead, the club’s owners are still saying nothing, despite numerous attempts by the Lancashire Telegraph to contact them directly – attempts that continued yesterday.

Venky’s have made no public comment about events at Rovers since November, when Venkatesh Rao insisted that the Indian poultry firm had no intention of selling the club amid interest from Qatar Petroleum.

But it is not clear what Venky’s have done since then, or will do in the coming months, to help to give the club a reasonable chance of avoiding relegation – let alone realise their ambition of bringing European football to Ewood Park in the next few seasons.

The Rao brothers have not even been present at a match since the 3-3 draw at Wigan three months ago, admittedly after being shaken by criticism from angry fans outside the ground ahead of kick-off.

Venky’s chairman Anuradha Desai has only visited Ewood once – for a defeat against Tottenham last February.

But it is important that they see at first hand Rovers’ current predicament. Since Desai’s visit, they have taken only 30 points from 37 games.

A 7-1 loss at Manchester United in November 2010 ultimately did Sam Allardyce no favours as he lost his job as manager only two weeks later, despite Rovers being a comfortable 13th in the table at the time.

Now they are six places lower but still manager Steve Kean remains in place despite poor results during his 14 months in charge, unpopularity with the majority of fans and this newspaper’s call for him to go.

The club’s average attendance is down 11 per cent so far this season – from 24,999 to 22,332 – and with disillusionment among supporters increasing it is hard to see that trend being reversed, particularly if Rovers are playing the Championship next season.

The club are now beset by problems that will take some time to be overcome.

One thing that will not take time, however, is for Venky’s to start communicating again with the fans.

It is the first thing they can do and it is something that must happen soon.

At least then, they can reassure supporters that they do care and possibly shed some light on what they plan to do to help the club out of its current mess.

Because as things stand at the moment, Rovers fans have every right to feel very concerned about the direction the club is moving in.

Venky’s must act now before it is too late.