Sam Allardyce on Roque Santa Cruz

SAM Allardyce has told Roque Santa Cruz ‘all is forgiven’ after admitting the former Blackburn Rovers favourite is the type of impact signing he is targ-eting for January.

The Lancashire Telegraph revealed on Wednesday how Manchester City’s Paraguayan front man would relish a Rovers return and now Allardyce has opened the door for it to become a reality.

Ahead of this afternoon’s trip to Old Trafford, Allardyce has again emphasised the import-ance of finding a player capable of making an immediate impact and believes a fully-fit Santa Cruz could do just that.

His return would represent a dramatic twist after the striker left Ewood for Manchester City for around £16million in 2009, a move that followed months of him declaring his desire to leave.

Santa Cruz, who scored more than 20 goals in his first season for Rovers, even marked Allardyce’s first day in charge at Ewood with a radio interview saying he wanted to leave the club – but Big Sam insists the past does not matter.

Sam Allardyce

His January transfer kitty remains unknown, with new owners Venky’s yet to discuss their visions for the future with him, but Allardyce admits he would look to spend any money on an ‘impact’ player.

Santa Cruz is now understood to be available for less than £4million, or a potential loan deal, and joins the likes of John Carew and David Ngog as players Rovers are tracking.

Allardyce said: “I am not one for bearing grudges and not one for looking at the past too much. From my position a player of greater quality than you have already got is something you must always look at. A football club like this can’t afford to turn a better player down if he wants to come.

“As a player Roque Santa Cruz was outstanding. Unfortunately he was dogged for a long time by niggling injuries that stopped a career that would have been far greater than it has turned out to be.

“There is no doubt about that. It is a great shame such a talented player has had to suffer so many injuries. But if and when fully fit, like his first year here, there was not a better centre forward in the Premier League.

“Roque played for Blackburn in the Premier League and scored more than 20 goals. Pure class it was. I don’t know if City would loan him.

“I think many, many things might get thrown our way because it is that time of the season and the texts, the emails and the phone calls have started from various agents. But is that impact player we will be looking for.”

Rovers have scored two goals in each of their last four Premier League games as Rovers’ current strike force do their best to convince Allardyce he already has the necessary firepower to shoot them up the Premier League table.

Roque Santa Cruz

Jason Roberts has proved particularly impressive since coming back in from the cold, scoring two winners, and Allardyce believes his impact has shown the importance of having a plethora of attacking options.

“Always your front men make a difference,” said Allardyce. “You look at what Jason Roberts has done for us. We have won three out of four and Jason has won two of them for us. That is always the difference in a game. The fine line is so small.

“That scoring record is very good considering we haven’t got a lot more on the front line than we had last season. We had 14 Premier League games we didn’t score in last season “We would like to continue that goalscoring trend but it is about making sure we do things right at both ends of the pitch. We have gone 1-0 up so many times and let that lead slip. It was so costly we only ended up with nine points from the first 10 matches.”

Another striker who has had his problems this season is Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney but, having scored against Glasgow Rangers in midweek, Allardyce fears a return to form for the England man.

He said: “Now Wayne Rooney has recovered from his injury and from our point of view we just hope he isn’t in top form and hope he is not quite as good as we know he can be because he is one of the most dangerous front men in Europe and the world.

“Look at what he achieved last season when United needed him the most. They lost Ronaldo and he stepped up to the mark and produced.

“Somewhere along the lines we all have our ups and downs but I have no doubt he will come back and he outstanding for Manchester United again – I just hope that is not Saturday.

“Wayne Rooney looked very fit the other night. The more and more games he gets the better he is going to get again. It is like starting a new season for him.

“We know the energy that he has and we have to make sure we are in the right frame of mind to contain him as well as all the other good attacking players United have.”