Blackburn Rovers boss Mark Hughes is confident he can help Francis Jeffers get back to his best just as he did for Craig Bellamy.

A few eyebrows were raised when Hughes swooped to bring the 25-year-old striker to Ewood Park on a two-year-deal after a couple of years in the doldrums at Arsenal and Charlton.

And he's confident he can help Jeffers, who he played alongside for Everton in 2000, get his career back on track as he did for the Welsh striker Bellamy who left for Liverpool on a £6.5m deal earlier in the summer.

Bellamy arrived at Ewood under a cloud after falling out with Newcastle boss Graeme Souness. But after just a season under Hughes' wing, the 27-year-old rediscovered the kind of form that made him one of the most feared strikers in the Premiership.

Hughes is hoping he can do the same with Jeffers, and admits he doesn't consider signing the former Everton front man as a risk.

He said: "I remember Frannie from a few years ago when I played alongside him.

"At that time he was one of the top young players in the country and we're only talking two or three years at the most ago.

"I think Frannie has the opportunity here to get his career back on track.

"It's obviously stalled in the last couple of seasons for whatever reason. But he comes here with a clean slate, he's got an opportunity with the way we work and the type of work that he'll get will improve him.

"That's what players who come here respond to on a day-to-day basis and I think Frannie will embrace that and get back to the level we know he can be.

"It's been a difficult couple of seasons for him but the talent is still there.

"He's still very much a young man at 25 years of age so I don't see it as a risk at all.

"I was always impressed by the quality of his movement in and around the box. His work off the shoulder of defenders and the timing of his runs was very impressive.

"He was always on the move and he reminded very much me of an ex-Welsh striker of mine with the angles of his runs. So I think that ability and knowledge in his game will always stay with him.

"Okay, he's lost a bit of form and a bit of confidence but we can build that and make that return, we hope."

But Hughes has emphasised that Jeffers won't walk straight into the starting eleven and must earn the right to be his first choice.

He added: "Frannie obviously accepts that he may not be first choice initially, but when he gets an opportunity, whether it comes sooner or later, he has to be ready to take that opportunity when he gets it.

"I don't want to place too may expectations on him but he has ability.

"He was sold for an exceptional amount of money when he moved down south to Arsenal and he's got qualities that will come to the fore, I'm sure, once he's been at the club for a number of months.

"Over the course of the next couple of weeks we'll sit him down and talk at length about what he feels has happened, what he feels he needs and what he's lacking that possibly affected the way he performed and hopefully get to the bottom of it and make sure we get him back to the level he feels he can be."