SHEBBY Singh insists Henning Berg’s appointment as Blackburn Rovers boss is solely a “footballing decision” after claiming his popularity among the Ewood Park faithful was not the key factor.

Rovers’ global advisor believes the club have found the right man to take them back into the Premier League at the first attempt after going through what he described as an “exhaustive criteria list”.

Berg became an Ewood darling during the 1990s after helping the club to lift the Premier League title, before returning to win promotion and lift the Worthington Cup.

But, while his past obviously helped, Singh insists Berg was selected on merit rather than any ‘cheap attempt’ to win the supporters around.

Singh said: “We went through quite an exhaustive criteria list. We deliberated on different groups of candidates and I think finally we have come to a conclusion where we have got the experience.

“Henning has seven years of experience and his stature as a player, not only with Blackburn Rovers, but with Manchester United, and when you work with the great managers there is a lot you take away from that. We arrived at a point where we said, we have found the right man.

“Henning’s appointment is not about healing any rift, his appointment is about what he can bring to the club as a manager, to the football team, to the players. The fact he has been successful here (as a player) obviously helps but no way is this anything but a football decision.

“We drew up a list of criteria that we were looking at and we tried to find the best individual who meets it.

“ Also lessons from the past are very important. We possibly rushed into a decision last time and we could not afford that.

“Credit to Eric Black, he steadied the ship and worked hard in difficult circumstances. It may have taken longer than usual but I don’t think it has been detrimental to the club.”

Singh confirmed Rovers did hold talks with Harry Redknapp’s representatives on Tuesday morning but admitted there were several names linked with the club that were just ‘media speculation’.

“We had a lot applicants and when it came down to the final shortlist we had five candidates on the list,” he said. “I must be honest and say a couple ruled themselves out. We stuck to the list.

“We didn’t think if one ruled themselves out we had to get another one.

“Maradona? Come on. He wouldn’t want to consider us even if we were interested, which we weren’t. Once again it was speculation.”