Last Updated: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:32
Roque Santa Cruz says he was always 'professional' for Blackburn and did not make trouble in order to secure a move away from the club.
The Paraguay international striker was finally granted his wish to be reunited with former Rovers boss Mark Hughes at Manchester City in an £18million switch last week following a 12-month saga. And, amid claims by the South American press in particular that continued to quote him saying he was unhappy at Ewood Park, Santa Cruz insists that was not the case and he always did his best for Rovers.
"I never went to anyone in the press in England or Paraguay, there were things I couldn't control," Santa Cruz told the Lancashire Telegraph.
"There were always things in the press that I never said. It was quite hard to get through that because in Paraguay there were stories all the time about my ambitions and things saying I wanted to leave.
"Blackburn were having a hard time, working hard to get out of the relegation zone so everything came at a bad time.
"But I was quite clear with Sam Allardyce and let him know that I never tried to unsettle the team or the club and I think that he might know that for sure.
"I don't think we had a bad relationship. In fact, I have always been very open with him.
"Of course it wasn't nice for him that I was interested in leaving the club to join City before he became manager.
"They could have let me go or stay but I made clear that if I stayed I would keep working hard as I did before, it's just that if I had the chance I'd like to have taken it.
"I was always professional. When the interest is there in you you want to play even better to really show that you can do a job.
"I think in many ways it made me work harder and do better things for Blackburn."