A DEFIANT Stephen Warnock insists Paul Ince’s Rovers regime will have the last laugh after slamming the critics for treating the club as an “easy target”.

The Blackburn Rovers left-back admits he has been shocked by a string of “untrue” stories claiming disharmony at Ewood before warning the culprits they won’t disrupt the Ince revolution.

Warnock believes some have used Ince’s relative manager-ial inexperience as an excuse to ‘pick on Rovers’ and has accused the knockers of being out of order.

He has rubbished the latest claims that Chilean sensation Carlos Villanueva is living an English nightmare – putting it down as just another example of unfair scare-mongering.

He said: “If you look at Carlos every day, he looks very happy and is getting to know the lads and is a good character to have around the place.

“That is the thing isn’t it? Where do these stories come from?

“I really don’t know why all this has happened. One problem was that people were already jumping on the manager because he didn’t have his coaching badges and things.

“The club became a bit of a target ,which was out of order on the club because I think the manager has agreed to do his badges and the press still jump on it. I think it is just one of those things. You can’t do anything about it. The national press pick what they want to write and will stick with it as long as they can – it doesn’t seem to matter if it is true.”

Ince was given a Premier League baptism of fire when his arrival at Ewood sparked reports of player unrest, disharmony and basic squad meltdown.

His squad quickly proved the doubters wrong with their performances on the field but Warnock admits he still does not understand where it all stemmed from.

He said: “When you have a couple of big name players leave, as in Brad and Bents then I think people will look to see if there is unrest.

“But they were decisions made purely on the money that was made for David and it was a stage in Brad’s career where he felt he needed a new challenge.

“He had a very good club come in for him and probably the money offered was perfect for him.

“I think perhaps people jumped on the bandwagon and think that players are for sale and players want to leave but that wasn’t the case and never has been.

“There is a great spirit in the club and I don’t know where any of the reports come from.”

Warnock himself was a victim earlier this season as he found himself denying reports he had handed in a transfer request at Ewood.

He said: “It was so far from the truth it was unreal. I just didn’t know where it had come from and it was a surprise to me, the chairman and the manager.

“People just try and sell newspapers and write what they can in them. I am sure the nationals need to sell so they will put anything they can in them.

“The lads will laugh it off and there is a great team spirit. That is what you need at the smaller clubs to see you through the league and we have already shown what has been written is rubbish.

“You need a good team spirit and when you are such a small squad everyone needs to get a long and to enjoy each other’s company. Luckily we do that here.”