Kean sees Rovers long-term future despite drop

09 May 2012 19:46

Beleaguered Blackburn manager Steve Kean said Wednesday he was confident he would remain with the relegated club next season despite reports of fresh turmoil in the Ewood Park board-room.

Two days after Kean was ushered off the pitch by a bodyguard following Rovers defeat to Wigan which sealed their exit from the Premier League, the Scot insisted he and the club's Indian owners Venky's were not going anywhere.

"It is very simple. The owners are here for the long term, I am here for the long term," Kean said. "We are now taking one step backwards to push forward. I am confident we can get there.

"We have the basis of a good young side, we just have to add more experience.

"I said a number of weeks ago, it is a changing time for the club.

"We have got new owners and I still think I am new into the job.

"Moving forward, I think it is going to be an exciting time for the club.

"We have taken a massive step back but we have to make sure we get back at the first time of asking.

"The owners are not going anywhere, I'm not going anywhere."

Kean's words of defiance came amid reports that deputy chief executive Paul Hunt had been sacked by the club.

It followed the emergence late Tuesday of a letter written by Hunt in December last year which urged the club's owners to sack Kean.

The letter also warned of the grave financial consequences for the club if they dropped out of the world's most lucrative league.

However neither Kean nor anyone associated with Rovers was able to confirm Hunt's departure on Wednesday. "I am aware of the speculation but I can't, at this moment, confirm it," he said.

Meanwhile former Rovers icon Alan Shearer, the star of their title-winning campaign in 1995, expressed sympathy for Kean over the club's plight while criticising Venky's stewardship.

"I have to say, I feel sympathy for Steve Kean because he was thrown into the lions' den really - you get on with it, you are the face, you are speaking about everything, whatever is right or wrong," Shearer told Talksport radio.

"There is only the owners you can blame really - they are the only guys you can look at. What disappoints me is that nobody really hears from them."

Source: AFP