Kean to hold Samba discussions

Ewood Park boss wants defender to focus on relegation fight

Last Updated: February 2, 2012 9:11am

Image text here

Christopher Samba: Wanted to leave Blackburn and QPR made two bids for the centre-back

Sky Bet

Blackburn manager Steve Kean is to hold talks with Christopher Samba in an attempt to focus the wantaway defender on the remainder the season at Ewood Park.

The club captain missed his third straight game in Wednesday night's 2-0 defeat by Newcastle following the rejection of his transfer request in the January window.

Kean insists it was his decision as manager that Samba did not play after Blackburn stuck to their guns in not allowing the centre-back to leave when turning down two bids from QPR.

The Blackburn boss said: "I didn't feel as though he was in the right frame of mind. He was fit and available, but that was my decision. It wasn't that Chris refused or anything, far from it.

"I felt the defence against Everton and Fulham did well enough that I wouldn't have changed it anyway.

"Obviously Chris had handed in a transfer request, wanted to leave the club, that was refused. We didn't have any (more) bids, which was good really, because we were only going to turn them down.

"I'll sit down with Chris and I'll say, 'let's move on. You're at the club, let's get back to what normally happens when the window closes', where his performance level is very high and I don't foresee any other problems."