UNDER fire Blackburn Rovers boss Steve Kean has defended his activity in the transfer market after blaming the previous regime for the need to balance the books.

The Rovers boss spoke defiantly about his bid to build a squad for next season capable of earning an instant Premier League return and was adamant he can hold his head up high for his efforts last season.

Rovers’ relegation has been blamed in many quarters on the club’s loss of experienced stars and replacing them with Premier League novices, but Kean says the club were left with little choice.

Kean’s signings over the past 18 months have also been called into question, having spent circa £20million in the past 18 months, but he was quick to defend his activity.

He said: “I could go through the whole lot of them (his signings). But if you look at Petrovic it has taken him a long time to adapt but I think he will prove a very good player for us.

“And I could through most of the players and say the same. Some of the players have not worked out. Bruno Ribeiro hasn’t managed to get to the pace of the League at all and that is disappointing.

“We tried to get a squad that could stay in the leagues. I don’t want to comment about figures and what’s been decided on a financial plan, it was my job to manage the team and I can hold my head high and so can the players.”

When asked by the Lancashire Telegraph why the experienced players were allowed to leave this season, a lot of them for nothing, Kean replied the club was left with ‘little choice’.

He said the high wage bill in place from the Walker Trust’s days had turned the club into a ‘selling one’ and it was something they were left with sorting out.

“For the last 10 years it has always been around that mark,” he said. “What we’ve been as a club over the past 10 years is a club that has to sell.

“When your wages are so high as a percentage of turnover you have to be a selling club. And if you look back over the last 10 years we are the club that has sold the most. We have tried to balance the books by continually selling players.

“There wasn’t any percentage target put on myself to reduce it to and we wanted to still be in the Premier division. But we are not and we will now make changes and a plan to get us back up.

“With Keith Andrews we had no choice – Keith didn’t want to play for the club any more. Samba put a transfer request in. Emerton even if he had stayed I don’t think he would have played very much because his family had moved back to Australia.

“I know you’ve been negative Andy – but I would rather be positive. I’m positive. You’ve been negative all season.”

When it was said that large sections of Ewood Park were also concerned about the club’s future, Kean replied: “That’s your opinion.”