Samba to reclaim the band

Steve Kean has confirmed that injury permitting Chris Samba will regain the captain armband for the game against Sunderland this afternoon.

Samba was only recently stripped of the honour of being captain of the Rovers but it appears a heart to heart before the West Brom game has made the difference.

Kean spoke to the Lancashire Telegraph and said - "If he is fit he will captain the side. I had a chat with him before he had the fitness test before the West Brom game, that was the morning of the game.

"He pushed hard but he was still feeling it. He was not confident of placing his foot down and was not striking the ball properly. He was getting a twinge but hopefully that will be better.

"The way he explained it to me was really good. He said 'I have never asked to leave. All I said was if a bigger club come in for me, as I have aspirations to play in Europe and to win things, then I would consider that`.

"I have tried to stress to him we are trying to build a squad that gets us into the top half and come the next window we will be trying to make a difference to the squad again and build a team that is challenging top six.

"As soon as he heard that he was much more positive. He said 'great I am happy now that I know we are going to be making signings and are aspiring to be at the top end of the table and not the other end.

"He said he didn`t want to make a sidestep so you are minimising the clubs who could come in for him and that can only be good for us."

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