Blackburn v Aston Villa: Sam Allardyce calls for warm welcome for Stephen Warnock
Sam Allardyce believes Stephen Warnock deserves a warm reception from the Blackburn crowd when the defender returns to Ewood Park tomorrow for the first time since his move to Aston Villa.
Saturday's Barclays Premier League fixture pits Warnock against his former employers, the club where he became a fans' favourite over the course of two seasons and earned a call-up to the England squad.
Allardyce admits he did not want to see the 27-year-old, who was voted Rovers' player of the year for 2008-09, leave the club, but said the reported £8million deal sealed in August represented good business and that there should be no ill-feeling towards the player.
Asked if he expected Warnock to be applauded by the Ewood faithful, Allardyce said: "I hope so, he has been a great servant to Blackburn.
"He got the move he wanted and we got the money that matched what we felt his value was. We were satisfied with that, even though we were disappointed to lose our player of the year.
"When you see Manchester United selling (Cristiano) Ronaldo then you see it's a business. When somebody is giving you the sort of money that we got for Stephen, then you can't say no.
"I didn't want it to happen but in the end it did. I think that, as always as a manager, you learn to live with the difficulties that the transfer window brings your way.
"The best thing we did was we got the right price, then we moved on and after that we got a really good replacement in Pascal Chimbonda, so we won't miss Stephen Warnock perhaps quite as much as we expected.
"It's a fantastic move for Stephen, the right time in his career, so I've got no problems with that. We just hope he plays not so good on Saturday, we beat them and then after that he can go on to win as many things as he possibly can!"
Blackburn, who currently lie third from bottom in the Premier League table after picking up just four points from their first five games, have their work cut out against an in-form Villa side who inflicted Allardyce's only defeat at Ewood Park last season.
