Kean defends foreign transfer policy

Steve Kean has defended the signing pattern of Rovers in the summer transfer market with questions raised about the lack of proven Premier League players being signed.

Rovers have finally been active in the market in the last few weeks after a month or so of general faffing about with five (soon to be six) signings being made.

But attention has been drawn to the fact that none of them have any EPL experience with Kean and Venky’s favouring the better value foreign market instead of the overpaying English transfer bin.

Kean however, acknowledges the risks of buying without English experience but has the right set up to accommodate new signings.

Kean told the Lancashire Telegraph – “It will take a bit of time to bed them in. The way we train though fits them in quickly, you saw that with Petrovic on Wednesday night.

“I think we can bed them in pretty quickly. You can gel them pretty quick. We are very big on team spirit and very big on where the lads live.

“We have got a full time liaison officer that gets them into the proper areas, gets their families settled and gets them speaking the language as quickly as possible. That is vital. We have a good dressing room and the senior lads will hope these come in.

“You work on your recruitment and you are trying to get players in the club who are going to be a success. You are never going to sign someone you think will be a failure.

“Anyone you bring in to the club, like John, like Vukcevic, like Petrovic, like Goodwillie, you think they will be really good players for the club “The ones we have bought and paid sizeable salaries for I think will be exceptional players for the club. It doesn`t matter where they come from.”

Kean has also confirmed that he IS in talks with Vedad Ibisevic and Ajax’s Mounir El Hamdaoui but he will only be signing one of the two.

Commenting on Ibisevic, Kean said – ‘We’ve got permission to talk to him, we’re trying to get personal terms agreed and then accelerate it to a medical.

‘He had a very good record until his first knee injury. Then since then he’s had another little injury. He’s not played as much recently. But before all that he’d had a very good goal-scoring record.

‘If it doesn’t get done today then we’ll probably move on to the other one. I had a good meeting with the other player and he’s a player that will move on if not to us then to another big club in Europe. It was a good meeting.

“It won`t be both though. We are looking at one of the two.

‘We need someone with a track record of scoring goals. You look for someone with a goal every two games then you look at all the different markets for that.

If they have years of experience of that in the Premier League then obviously they are very expensive. We have looked at different markets, we want someone who can hit the ground running and score goals for us.

“I think goal scorers are goal scorers wherever they play. It is a habit in any league. If you can get the right one with a nose for goal that’s a good habit these players in but they will obviously cost a few quid.”