Kean insists Blackburn are better without Samba

The 27-year-old joined Russian giants Anzhi Makhachkala in a £12million deal on Friday.

The highly-rated defender handed in a transfer request in January and was strongly linked with the likes of Tottenham and Queens Park Rangers.

Kean said: “From our point of view Chris never withdrew his transfer request or apologised. He wanted to go – and made that quite public.

“On a positive side, now we know everyone we have in the dressing room wants to be here. We will all be pulling together.”