Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce believes defender Gael Givet has an important part to play in the club's future.

The 27-year-old former France international has signed a four-year deal at Ewood Park having spent the second half of last season on loan from Marseille.

His versatility at being able to play at left-back and centre-half helped him settle very quickly into English football and Allardyce, who brought in the Frenchman in January, had no hesitation in offering him a permanent deal.

The fact Givet had fallen out of favour at Marseille after a row with former coach Eric Gerets at the start of last season meant a deal to bring him to Ewood Park was fairly straightforward.

"It is a critical signing. Gael made a massive impact last season while on loan here and I think he can get even better," said the Rovers boss.

"A player coming from abroad would usually need a fair amount of time to adjust to the different culture, the different climate and the different way of doing things.

"This lad took about two weeks to find his feet. Right from the start he wanted to go out and play, but I resisted. I started to play him in the cup games first and then let him get back to playing as he hadn't played for such a long time.

"But it isn't often that a player makes such a massive contribution from day one, particularly in January.

"There is more to come from Gael. Nobody really knew who he was, but I did based on knowledge in Europe over the last eight years.

"I used to watch him playing for Monaco and thought here is a very good player who got blown out for one reason or another by Marseille.

"He came here and made a massive contribution, a major reason why we stayed up."