I'm over you! Samba’s not hung up on Arsenal now after transfer window unrest

By Chris Wheeler for the Daily Mail Updated: 16:38 EST, 16 September 2011

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Chris Samba admits his head was turned by interest from Arsenal this summer to such an extent manager Steve Kean decided he was not in the right frame of mind to captain Blackburn.

Samba only regained the armband this week following talks with Kean and senior players, allowing the 6ft 4in Congo centre back to lead out his team against the Gunners at Ewood Park on Saturday.

'Of course it was unsettling,' admitted Samba. 'It's a bit difficult because you think about your future, your dreams, your own ambition. Some people will understand, some won't.

Tough start: Christopher Samba (right) and Blackburn are bottom of the league

In the firing line: Blackburn boss Steve Kean

'Today if a club playing in the Champions League came in for me and showed interest, of course I'd be flattered.

'I don't say I've been perfect in my approach to all that but I'm still learning, and maybe I should have been a little bit more focused.

'With everything that happened the manager tried to protect me and get me focused on playing for Blackburn.

'I had a chat with him and senior players like Ryan Nelsen, David Dunn and Paul Robinson, and the only thing we need is me playing at 100 per cent for the club. If you are captain and not playing well, you're not going anywhere anyway.'

Samba spent transfer deadline day in Monaco, a far cry from the Emirates. 'Even if a club had come in for me, I don't think I'd have been able to get there on time,' he says with a smile.

But with Arsenal signing Werder Bremen's Per Mertesacker instead, it is clear that 27-year-old would love to prove a point to Arsene Wenger after recovering from a back injury that forced him off after the first half at Craven Cottage.

'I'll be okay,' added Samba, who scored the winner in this fixture last year. 'If there's one game I want to play it's this one.

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'We know what we need to do to beat Arsenal. We know we can't let them play their game. We need to get in their faces, which we'll do.

'If this club didn't make a bid for me then that's life. It's behind me now and now I just want to go out there, get our first win and relieve a bit of pressure on everybody.'

The anti-Kean march is scheduled to finish well before the game's lunchtime kick-off, which will be attended by members of the Venky family.

Samba is perhaps an unlikely candidate to offer public support for the manager considering he threatened to quit when the Indian owners installed Kean in place of Allardyce before eventually agreeing to sign a new contract in February.

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'It wasn't an easy time because we changed manager and we were in a phase when I thought there was no reason to change,' said Samba. 'But football is a crazy business and you don't always understand what happens.

'Of course Steve has my full backing. We have to move on and try to do the best for the manager who's here today.

'It's difficult to satisfy the fans sometimes. With Sam we finished 10th but a lot of them weren't happy with the way we were playing. You want a result and you want to play like Brazil – it's trying to find the balance they want.

'We need them to stick with us. If you hear a couple of boos on the pitch it's never easy. As a player you don't understand why that happens because they should be fighting with us not against us.

'Fans and players should be like a marriage – for better, for worse.'