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Boss Delighted At Whittingham Capture

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Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray hasn’t hidden his pleasure at the capture of Peter Whittingham.

His first signing as Blackburn boss, ex-Aston Villa and England U21 international Whittingham signed a two year deal with Rovers after he was snapped up on a free transfer from Cardiff, having turned down the offer of a new deal at the Championship side.

Mowbray’s come up against Whittingham a number of times over the years and knows from those experiences what he offers.

An overjoyed Mowbray told the Official Website: ‘I`m delighted, obviously. He`s been a player that as my teams over the years have played against, you feel the quality of Peter Whittingham on the pitch against you – picking passes, hitting lovely balls, deadball situations, scoring free-kicks, whipping corners under the crossbar – and so when the opportunity came, I think it was something that we needed to explore and ultimately we sit here delighted that we`ve been able to sign him.’

He might have been a free transfer arrival but he’s a ‘high quality’ addition, the first of a few quality arrivals the boss wants to add to a number of players he’s already happy to have at Ewood Park.

Mowbray added: I`m looking forward to working with him first and foremost on the grass, and then integrating him into the team and I hope it`s seen as a sign of a player that is showing some intent for the football club. I appreciate that it`s a free transfer situation, but it`s a very high quality free transfer and the job for me now is to keep adding quality around the already existing quality players that are on the board in my office. If we can add some more quality footballers along the way, it should give us a confidence that we`re trying to build a team that is and does have an ambition to bounce straight back.’

The Blackburn boss went on to talk about his initial meeting with Whittingham, 32, which enabled Mowbray to put across his message to the midfielder, who did likewise and it soon became apparent they were on the same page – resulting in him signing his Rovers deal.

Working with ‘an artist’ such as Whittingham is something Mowbray’s looking forward to but he knows he also needs some ‘solders’ in his squad or, as he put it, ‘water carriers.’ Therefore the aim now is to get these deals over the line like Blackburn have the experienced midfielder.

He said: ‘We need different types. I`ve talked about artists and soldiers in the past and Peter`s an artist. We do need to sign some soldiers as well and some people who are, to coin a phrase, ‘water-carriers`. Football teams need balance, so we`ll need some workers and some people who are going to compete on the cold winter nights in an away game on a bobbly pitch. We need to have people who can put their foot in and tackle and win the ball back for us. That process has been going on right through the summer and we`re pleased to have got Peter over the line and hopefully for him we can add some more as we move forward.’

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