Last Updated: Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:06
Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce says he did everything he could to sign Benjani and Aruna Dindane but ran out of time.
The Rovers boss tried to draft in a replacement for Benni McCarthy and was hoping to bring in Manchester City striker Benjani on a permanent deal only for the deal to collapse.
Allardyce quickly turned to Lens striker Dindane but ran out of time again even though the player was in the building ready to pen a deal.
"We tried to sign Benjani on a full-time basis, but the work permit was a big problem, getting it through on time," Allardyce revealed. "Then it could only become a loan scenario.
"He wasn't the only player we went for - we went for many players before that, but couldn't get it to a conclusion. Because Benni's transfer was so late, it was virtually impossible for us to secure one of the players that we had our eye on from abroad.
"So we finally ended up with Benjani, and he ended up going for Sunderland rather than us.
"We had to try and move quickly, because that decision was late on Monday, to try and get Aruna Dindane in and unfortunately, even though he was in the building right the way up to five o'clock, we couldn't get it through. We didn't have enough time to finish the paperwork."