GRAEME Souness today explained his reasons for allowing Andy Cole to leave Blackburn Rovers and admitted his gamble in pairing him and Dwight Yorke together had been a costly mistake.

Cole finally sealed a free transfer move to Fulham at the weekend, less than three years after Rovers had forked out a club record £7.5 million fee to sign him from Manchester United.

But although the club have taken a hit financially to get the former England striker out of the door, Souness felt it was the only course of action after his relationship with the striker had become untenable.

"We obviously felt we could do without him," said the Rovers boss, whose rift with Dwight Yorke widened at the weekend after claims by the player that Souness almost broke his leg.

"It's no secret that Cole and I didn't see eye to eye in how I wanted football played and I think it was best for everyone that he went.

"At the end of the day, it's my job to make decisions for Blackburn Rovers football club. That's what I'm paid to do.

"Some of those decisions at times will upset players but at no football club is every player deliriously happy with the manager because when you've got a squad of players you can only pick eleven at a time.

"That wasn't necessarily Andy's complaint because he played in the vast majority of games in his time with us but I was always looking for more from him."

Cole initially proved a big hit at Rovers as his goals were instrumental in the club winning the Worthington Cup and avoiding relegation in his first season.

Then that summer Souness decided to re-unite the 32-year-old with Dwight Yorke, his former strike partner at Manchester United, in the hope that they could rediscover the kind of form that once made them fearsome in Europe.

However, Cole and Yorke struggled to hit it off in the colours of Rovers and both ended up becoming embroiled in a series of heated bust-ups with the manager, which led to the duo falling out of favour.

"The Yorke-Cole thing disappoints me because I am the man who went to my board and spent the supporters' hard-earned money," said Souness.

"From now on I only want to work with men. I am not interested in having babies around.

"I'm not interested in people who don't want to stand up and be counted at difficult times."

Cole has signed a two-year deal with Fulham but Yorkeremains on the pay-roll at Ewood for the time being after failing to find himself a new club over the summer.