RYAN Nelsen is backing Blackburn Rovers to take Europe by storm next season as manager Mark Hughes closes in on a big-name striker to fill the boots vacated by Craig Bellamy.

Hughes has already boosted his strikeforce this summer with the captures of Jason Roberts and Franny Jeffers, but the Rovers boss is still hoping to add at least one more new face up front, with Porto's Benni McCarthy now believed to be his top target after a deal to sign the Egyptian hitman Mido fell through at the weekend.

While Bellamy's shock departure to Liverpool was a major blow for the club, the arrival of a proven striker of McCarthy's calibre would do much to restore optimism as Hughes prepares his players for a UEFA Cup campaign.

Nelsen, himself the subject of a recent bid by Portsmouth, certainly believes the addition of an experienced goal-getter would give Rovers the arsenal they need to be a force on foreign soil next term.

The Kiwi international, currently on a training break in Germany with his Rovers team-mates, said: "Obviously, any team would not be happy to lose a player like Bellamy, but who am I to say that?

"The management know what they are doing and signing a striker is the number one thing they are after."

Bellamy might have been a significant player in Rovers' success story last season, but they were far from a one man team, which is why Steven Reid, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Lucas Neill and Nelsen have all been the subject of interest from other clubs this summer.

Rovers, in fact, turned down a bid from Portsmouth for Nelsen after Pompey boss Harry Redknapp identified the 28-year-old as the defensive rock on which he hoped to build a new-look team valuing him in excess of £4 million.

But that bid was quickly rejected out of hand by the club a measure of just how highly Hughes rates his defensive lynchpin.

"They put in a bid for me and Blackburn turned it down, and that's about it really," said Nelsen, who has never lost sight of the fact it was Hughes who gave him the chance to prove himself at Premiership level.

"We are in the Uefa Cup this year, it's an awesome club with a great manager, and I'm definitely really happy here."