Santa Cruz signs new four-year Rovers contract
The Paraguay international had been the subject of a bid from Manchester City earlier this summer as well as reported interest from several other clubs.
However, the 27-year-old has opted to pen a contract extension to tie him to Ewood Park until 2012.
After David Bentley left Rovers to join Tottenham earlier this summer Santa Cruz was also tipped to move on.
He was hugely impressive in his debut Premier League campaign after moving to Lancashire from Bayern Munich last summer with 23 goals in all competitions.
That feat led former Rovers boss Mark Hughes to attempt to take him to Manchester City recently while the likes of Manchester United and Tottenham were also thought to be interested. A statement on the club’s website, rovers.co.uk, read: “Blackburn Rovers are delighted to announce that Roque Santa Cruz has signed a new four-year contract with the club, running through until 2012.”
Santa Cruz’s decision to stay at Ewood Park is a major boost for Rovers and new boss Paul Ince with vice-captain David Dunn admitting just yesterday that it would be “a tragedy” if Santa Cruz and fellow striker Benni McCarthy were to leave the club.
“As a Blackburn fan it would be a tragedy if they left so I’m sure the club wouldn’t allow that.
“You could bid £30million (€37m) for Roque and I’m sure they wouldn’t let him go, in my opinion.
“Roque is a tremendous player, as is Benni. We are a club that is trying to achieve things ourselves and you couldn’t let Brad Friedel, David Bentley and Roque Santa Cruz go in the same season. There’s no way the club will let that happen.”
Meanwhile Ince was in frustrated mood yesterday after discovering Giovanni Trapattoni gave Steven Reid a full 90 minutes for the Republic of Ireland in the midweek friendly against Norway.
“You can see why sometimes Premier League managers don’t let their players go if they are going to start playing them for 90 minutes,” blasted Ince.
“It’s always a worry. You wonder if you’ll come back with a half a team. I’m disappointed with some of the managers because they played some of my players for 90 minutes, as in (Andre) Ooijer, (Roque) Santa Cruz and (Steven) Reid.”
Reid has struggled with injury in his last two years at Ewood Park but Trapattoni kept him on the pitch for the entire game in Oslo on Wednesday.
“I was very disappointed,” added Ince. “I spoke to Reidy and he feels fine but that’s not the point. He’s had problems with his knees over the years.
“Morten (Gamst Pedersen) played 45 minutes (for Norway) and I haven’t got a problem with that but when you start playing them for 90 minutes in a friendly I think is absolutely ridiculous.
“I can understand it if it’s a World Cup qualifier but not a meaningless friendly. When it’s a friendly I think you’ve got to show a bit of appreciation.
“The league has just started, they have had a hard pre-season and now I’ve got six players who have played three games in a week, which is unfair.”
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