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Blackburn owners have Maradona on radar

Last updated on: December 15, 2010 15:35 IST

Blackburn Rovers' owners on Wednesday dropped a bombshell when they admitted that they are considering former Argentina coach Diego Maradona to succeed Sam Allardyce.

Steve Kean is expected to stay in charge of first team duties until the end of the Premiership campaign.

Rovers owners Venky's chairwoman Anuradha Desai said the club is seriously considering hiring the legendary Argentina player.

"We thought about Maradona as a coach after we took over," she told The Mirror.

"Talks were at the initial stage then, but there is no development on that front yet. For now, the current coach will be the manager till the end of the season.

Diego Maradona"There is no question of signing anyone for such a short time," she added.

Maradona has been keen to coach in Premier League and was linked with several top EPL clubs before.

Desai, a member of the Rao family, defended the company's decision to sack Allardyce, but also hoped that current Blackburn chairman John Williams would stay and give a helping hand in running the club.

"We do not mean anything bad for Sam Allardyce but we feel that we need to take the club up in the league and grow," Desai was quoted as saying in the Telegraph newspaper.

"We want Blackburn Rovers to be fourth or fifth in the league or even better. It is nothing against Sam but we have a different vision looking forward and we want the club to grow.

"We had been talking to Sam in the past few weeks but he did not fit in with our vision for the club's future.

"We wanted good football, wanted the games to be interesting and of course wanted to win and to have good players," she added.