TONY Parkes believes he could have snapped up a "bargain" in £2.5 million Per Pedersen - and the Danish international striker is aiming to prove him right.

International clearance was received by Rovers today, to make Pedersen eligible immediately, and he spoke of his Ewood ambitions.

"The main reason for coming here is that Blackburn are a Premiership club," he said.

"I know about almost every player here. We see a lot of English football on television in Denmark.

"As far as I know, Blackburn are the first Premiership club to show an interest in me and the negotiations did not take very long, just a few days, and I have been very impressed since I came here on Wednesday.

"I am just delighted to be here, I'm very confident and it's like a dream come true.

"It may seem a little bit late (at 27) for me to go to a foreign country. Maybe that was because of my injuries but it's never too late to move. "And I must be a very fit man now, because I was having medicals for 11 hours yesterday and I still signed!"

Parkes' first signing for Rovers was Sean Curry for just a few thousand pounds from Liverpool when he was caretaker-boss for the first time in 1987.

Now he has splashed £2.5 million and he didn't shirk the responsibility.

"I'm the manager and the buck stops with me. We've paid £2.5 million but I hope we have got a bargain.

"The figure is relatively cheap for Premiership players these days and if you say it quickly, it doesn't sound a lot! It's not like real money, it's football money.

"But it was important for us to bring someone in and we have been aware of him for some time.

"I have seen him play, in a game in Copenhagen a couple of months ago. Everyone is looking for goalscorers, because they win games for you.

"We hope he will score goals, create goals, contribute to the team and help us stay in the Premiership this season."

Parkes revealed that Bolton's aborted bid for Pedersen a few weeks ago had tipped him off and, when the Marek Citko deal broke down, he proved another option.

Pedersen himself also spoke to Bolton's Dane Per Frandsen about English football.

"He recommended everything to me and said how good it was here," added Pedersen.

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