Kean accepts he's gambling after blocking Samba's Blackburn departure

Blackburn Rovers boss Steve Kean admits he's taken a risk blocking Christopher Samba's departure.

Kean will tell the centre-half, who was wanted by QPR, Tottenham and Newcastle, to knuckle down in a meeting on Wednesday morning and claims he had to stand firm for the sake of the club.

"It could be seen as being a risk or it could be seen as taking a stance," he said. "If we'd said, 'Yes, OK' we'd have been seen as being soft.

"I don't know if you'd say it's a gamble trying to keep your best players together.

"Would he sit and sulk? He might. You'd better ask Chris that. We put out the statement saying we wanted him to be here and we've stuck by that.

"The way Chris has performed after the last transfer windows have closed have always been of a very high standard so we hope that will continue.

"We want him to get his head round the fact that he's going to be here."