SAM Allardyce will be backed by the board in his hunt for Roque Santa Cruz’s replacement with a transfer kitty well in excess of £10million at his disposal.

The Blackburn Rovers boss will step up his search for fresh firepower when he returns to Ewood Park from holiday on Wednesday and will receive a substantial chunk of Roque Santa Cruz’s £18million transfer fee to bolster his bid.

Manchester City put the finishing touches to the striker’s switch last night, after he passed a stringent three hour medical, leaving Rovers short in the striking department with just two senior strikers.

It is believed Rovers will receive £15m for Santa Cruz up front before receiving in the region of an additional £3m in add-ons that are almost guaranteed.

Home-grown forward Matt Derbyshire flew to Greece yesterday to finalise his £3million move to Olympiakos as Rovers’ coffers were given a much needed boost by the double transfer.

Some of the funds will be needed to soften an expected loss of around £8m during the 2008/09 season, but that should still leave Allardyce around £13m to play with.

Wage demands will come into the search for new blood though as Rovers’ bid to drive down the current wage bill by about 10 per cent leaves Allardyce limited in his options.

Allardyce is believed to have room for two more signings in his current squad, with a forward and a right back the likely targets, before needing to sell before signing any more.

While money will be available in Allardyce’s search, the capture of free transfers would leave him more room to manoeuvre in terms of wages as he starts narrowing down his lengthy list of forward targets.

Portsmouth striker Peter Crouch is likely to attract Allardyce’s interest, with the impact of Pompey’s current takeover unknown, although wage demands and the England striker’s own ambitions could scupper any deal.

Kevin Davies is another who Allardyce is a keen admirer of but Bolton’s high fee expectations would make Rovers reluctant to spend big on an aging striker with little resale value.

Chelsea’s Argentinean youngster Franco Di Santo is still a loan target but his arrival could depend on Paul Gallagher’s expected summer departure.

Marc Janko, Nikola Zigic and Eidur Gudjonsen are other strikers who have been linked with moves to Ewood Park but the Lancashire Telegraph understand a move for any of the trio is unlikely.