Blackburn Rovers boss Sam Allardyce always knew Gael Givet had the talent to succeed at Premier League level.

"It is a critical signing," said Sam. "Gäel made a massive impact last season while on loan here and I think he can get even better.

"A player coming from abroad would usually need a fair amount of time to adjust to the different culture, the different climate and the different way of doing things.

"This lad took about two weeks to find his feet. Right from the start he wanted to go out and play, but I resisted. I started to play him in the cup games first and then let him get back to playing as he hadn't played for such a long time.

"But it isn't often that a player makes such a massive contribution from day one, particularly in January.

"There is more to come from Gäel. Nobody really knew who he was, but I did based on knowledge in Europe over the last eight years.

"I used to watch him playing for Monaco and thought here is a very good player who got blown out for one reason or another by Marseille. He came here and made a massive contribution, a major reason why we stayed up."