STEVE Kean is relishing ‘a fresh approach’ brought to Blackburn Rovers by the new Venky’s regime – but insists an exciting future has been helped made possible by John Williams’ 14 year reign.

Rovers’ supporters were stunned yesterday when it was revealed chairman Williams had no part to play in the future, after standing down with immediate effect, but Kean was adamant his contribution would never be forgotten.

Now, starting with this afternoon’s North West derby at Wigan, Kean is only looking forward but knows a sale was only made possible by Williams’ sound running of the club.

Kean said: “He has done a great job. There have certainly been some financially difficult spells at the club and he has pulled the club through.

“He has decided it is time to step down. I have not really had a lot of contact with him in the last few months – I had more when I was first-team coach when he used to come down and talk football on a Friday afternoon and have lunch with us.

"But I have not seen a lot of him in the last few months.

“He made this more than a ‘decent club’. The family were buying a club in a fantastic financial position and the way they club has been run in the last 14 or 15 years has been fantastic. He has done a great job.”

Over the past decade, former owners the Walker Trust gave Williams almost full control over the day-to-day running of Rovers, something that has very much changed since the Rao Family took charge at Ewood.

With Venky’s wanting a say in every decision, Williams’ role changed dramatically, but Kean insists he is enjoying the closeness with his bosses.

“The new owners want to be more active while the Trust wanted to be less active and John would control things more,” said Kean.

“But the new owners want to be involved.”

“They want to know the players I am after so I would tell them a little bit about each player.

"And then they would decide to move the transfer forward or say, no, that is too expensive or they are not available or that is too expensive.

“I would speak directly to the owners and put together a paper of players we would like to come to the club and what we felt was the financial package.

"If that was passed we would have communication with Ewood and that worked fine.

“But the initial part of deciding was discussed directly between me and the owners.

"I would then speak to the chairman and say what was happening.

"It is the only way I have known. It is not a case where it is uncomfortable for me. It is fine.

"I don't know if owners at other clubs are as actively involved as ours are but it works perfectly for me.”

Venky’s chairman Anuradha Desai made her visit to Ewood Park, with the rest of her family, for Wednesday’s harsh defeat to Spurs.

They also enjoyed a tour around the Brockhall training ground and were given the opportunity to meet the players for the first time.

He said: “This week they have been over, been excited and been involved.

"I quite like that because it means that the owners have control.

"They have their fingers on the pulse of every single movement at the club and that works fine by me.

“There is a different approach. A freshness. I told them a little bit about the players I tried to bring to the club. They knew every part of every transfer.

“People come and people go. That is football. I don't know whether any other manager has got that relationship directly with their owner - perhaps at Liverpool, Kenny has got good contact with his owner.”