WHEN Steve Kean was approached to join Luiz Felipe Scolari’s coaching team at Chelsea in 2008, the question on most Blues’ supporters lips would have been ‘who?’.

Their next query was ‘why?’ after the Scot turned down the Premier League giants’ overtures to stay at Championship Coventry as Chris Coleman’s assistant.

As he now starts planning for next season as Blackburn Rovers manager, no one would now question his bold decision to turn down a move to Stamford Bridge — even though many still exist who doubt his credentials on the big stage.

Kean himself has no doubt he is up to the job — winning some round by keeping Rovers in the Premier League last season — and a deeper look into his coaching background shows he has at least studiously served his apprenticeship.

His remarkable rise from jack of all trades at Reading to main man at Ewood Park has seen him at Fulham, Real Sociedad and Coventry, spells he insists have all contributed to where he is today.

But, when the chance to get to the top emerged so surprisingly some three years ago, why did he reject Chelsea when they came calling?

He said: “I had only just gone to Coventry and I felt the timing was just wrong.

“The chairman Ray Ranson had given Chris Coleman and me the opportunity and, at first Ray said I couldn’t go.

“Then Chris Coleman stepped in and said ‘If you want to go, go for it’.

“But the timing was not right for me, I felt I couldn’t leave so soon after joining.

“It would have been a great move and a great experience, of course it would. I don’t know how long it would have lasted though, Scolari didn’t last that long.

“There was also another dynamic in that Steve Clarke had signed again in the interim period before Scolari signed. If I was going to go as assistant manager, Steve had already signed a contract as assistant manager.

“There would have been two of us standing there and the new manager would probably have wanted me to have taken the sessions so it would not have been right.”

Now very much in the Premier League limelight, Kean has come a long way from the man who started out at Reading doing a multitude of tasks after an ankle injury ended his career.

From helping the groundsman, ferrying players around and acting as a translator by day, to coaching youngsters by night, single-minded Kean was eventually appointed head of youth for the Royals.

It wasn’t long before he was poached by Fulham in a similar role and, after Coleman replaced Jean Tigana as manager in 2003, he was appointed as his number two at just the age of 33.

Many have said Kean was the “football brain’’ of the duo as they forged a successful partnership and went on to do similar at Spanish outfit Real Sociedad, before joining up again at Coventry.

“My time of playing in Portugal linked in a little bit with what I learned at Fulham and working with the French staff,” said Kean.

“The technical repetition was big. I would go to the French academy at Clairefontaine at the end of every season, they would send me there, to spend a couple of weeks with the French academy coaches.

“We had a lot of fantastic players at Fulham. Edwin van der Sar, Lee Clark, Luis Boa Morte, Karl-Heinz Riedle and Bjarne Goldbaek. I still speak with lots of these lads.

“A lot of them have gone to become coaches in the game as well, like Lee Clark.

“We had lots of good people. I had a great time at Fulham, just over seven years. I had a great experience and a great owner.

“I believe I learnt things in every job I have had.

“I was even asked to take over at Real Sociedad after Chris Coleman went but I felt I should walk away with him.

“Now I am enjoying the chance at Blackburn and I feel I have learned a lot from last season. I am looking forward to the future.”