Basturk given six months to impress Allardyce

(GETTY IMAGES)

Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce has signed Turkish international Yildiray Basturk after the midfielder was convinced to move from Stuttgart by former Rovers favourite Tugay.

Basturk has signed on a permanent deal for an initial six months and if he impresses, Blackburn will look to offer him a new contract in the summer.

The 31-year-old, born in Germany and who has played his entire professional career in the Bundesliga, said: "I had contact with Blackburn for three months and I spoke to Tugay, and he said it was a very good club and to come here and try it.

"I played about 50 games for the national team with Tugay and he always told me what a good club Blackburn is, and over the last three or four weeks he told me I should take this chance. I know how the people here love him, and I will meet him in the next few days and he will help me settle in."

Basturk has a wealth of experience with both club and country, having won 49 caps for his national team and featured in the side that finished third at the 2002 World Cup.

The midfielder previously played for the likes of Bayer Leverkusen – with whom he reached the 2002 Champions League final, where they lost to Real Madrid – and Hertha Berlin before moving to Stuttgart in 2007.

Allardyce is still targeting a replacement for Benni McCarthy after he moved closer to completing a move to West Ham for a fee believed to be around £2.5m. Stoke's James Beattie is one player Allardyce is understood to be considering.

The manager condemned McCarthy as "unprofessional" after the striker stayed away from training this week in an attempt to force through a transfer. Allardyce said: "What he's done is unprofessional. It shows you that the only loyalty a player has got is to himself.

"This is what we deal with today in football, there's not such a thing as loyalty as there used to be in the older days when I was a player. It's a selfish attitude they have and that's not just about Benni, that's all players today. If they want something they do anything to try and get it."