Sam Allardyce hopes Matt Derbyshire does not mark his return to England with a goal on Saturday.
Striker ready for return against old club Rovers
Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce is hoping Matt Derbyshire does not mark his return to English football with a goal for Birmingham on Saturday.
Derbyshire has returned to the Premier League with Alex McLeish's side after completing a loan move from Olympiakos, who the 24-year-old left Blackburn for last year.
The front man is now in line to make his debut for the Blues when they take on Rovers at St Andrews at the weekend and Allardyce is wary of the problems Derbyshire could cause on his comeback to the English game.
"He is a very good goalscorer, we all know that, and that is why we got an unbelievably good fee," said Allardyce.
"We let him go there on loan and he became a hero, they paid a lot of money for him and we capitalised on that because we needed to.
"He was part of the healing process for Blackburn's financial difficulties. Over four million euros was one of the best deals, for him and for us, that I've done in my time.
"Now he comes back, hopefully not to haunt us on Saturday, because we know that, particularly off the bench, he is good at turning a game with goals."
The Ewood Park chief did not expect to see Derbyshire back on these shores so soon after allowing the former England Under-21 international move to Greece.
And he admitted to being surprised at his return, which was sealed on Monday when McLeish swooped to bolster his front line.
Allardyce added: "I don't know why he is back, he told me that the place he wanted to be is Greece.
"He said he didn't want to stay in this country, it's that good there he wanted to be there, so I don't quite know what has happened along the line. Obviously it's not quite as good as he thought it was."
Former Manchester City striker Benjani Mwaruwari has been training with Rovers with a view to securing a contract, someone Allardyce feels could be a "good signing" for the club if he can prove his fitness.
