Rovers reduced Stephen Warnock to tears and he believes his decision to move on from Ewood Park was the toughest he made in his career.

His latest decision, to hang up his boots after 16 years, wasn’t much easier, one the 36-year-old admits he may come to regret when the season gets underway. But the defender, a Rovers player for two-and-a-half years, says the time was right as he looks to embark on a new chapter working in the media.

Warnock feels he is fit enough to continue in the game, but wanted to retire on his terms, after 540 career appearances.

He told the Lancashire Telegraph: “I just felt that the time was right to call it a day when you’re getting on the pitch and you’re still wanted and still feel you can do that, and people want you to play rather than retiring on the football pitch because you’re not good enough.

“I wanted to go out on my terms, when I was ready, and I will probably regret it when the season starts, because I know I’m still fit enough to do it and capable of playing at a decent level.

“But you have to hang them up at some point and look to the future and make a decision. It was one that was very difficult, it’s never easy to do but at this moment in time I feel it is the right thing to do.

“I’ve tried to look at the last six months and I knew there was the possibility that I might retire so I’ve tried to do as much media work as possible. Luckily things have gone okay on that side of things.”

Warnock made 109 appearances for Rovers after joining from Liverpool in 2007 and would enjoy a fine start to life at Ewood Park.

The 2006/07 season saw Rovers go within inches of reaching an FA Cup final, as well as qualifying for the UEFA Cup.

His form the following year brought him a first international call-up, with Warnock believing his century of games for Rovers were among the best of his career.

He added: “I’d say (so), possibly my first year at Villa as well.

“I loved my time at Blackburn, it was a time when we had a great team and a lot of success. I was made to feel very welcome when I came in to the changing room.

“When you get signed by someone and they are signing you to be part of their squad, it’s nice to be wanted by a manager and that’s how I felt as soon as I came in at Blackburn.

“I hit the ground running which helped a lot as well. I was fortunate to come in to such a strong team.

“When you look back at some of the players we had, we were littered with individuals and players that could win games on their own.

“It’s sad to see the way the club has gone, the couple of season’s after that, because it’s such a great club.

“But that season was great to be involved in, I think it’s days that I will remember forever and the rest of the squad will.”

There were regrets however, not least the UEFA Cup campaign which ended in disappointing fashion at the start of the 2007/08 campaign.

Victories over Lithuanian outfit Vetra and Finnish side MyPa-47 handed Rovers a tie against Greek opposition in Larissa.

Warnock scored in the second leg at Ewood Park, though a 2-1 victory wasn’t enough to overturn the 2-0 first leg victory.

“I’m not saying we took the competition lightly but we drew Larissa,” he explained. 

“We went away to their ground and the pitch was shocking, we didn’t start the game well, were on the back foot straight away and had a tough time.

“We tried to bring it back at home but we couldn’t quite do it. It was disappointing to go out like that because we felt that we could go on a decent run in that competition and cause teams a lot of problems. To go out so early was disappointing.”

Mark Hughes moved on to Manchester City in the summer of 2008, with his replacement Paul Ince lasting just three months before being replaced by Sam Allardyce.

Warnock admits it would have been difficult for anyone to follow the success of Hughes, but admits Allardyce changed the opinion of a number of players after ‘steading the ship’.

The year 2009 however brought a change of scenery for Warnock who explains how his departure came about.

“The chairman said that we needed to balance the books. There was me and Matt Derbyshire who there were bids in for at that time.

“It was said to me by Fabio Capello that if I wanted to make the World Cup squad then I had to play for a team fighting for the Champions League.

“At the back of my mind I knew the World Cup was coming up and it was an opportunity to move to a huge club, not being disrespectful to Blackburn.

“Villa were challenging for Champions League football and really going for it, and at that time we were selling a few players, David Bentley and Roque Santa Cruz had moved on, and I felt it was going to be tough.

“It was probably the hardest decision I made in football to leave Blackburn, I have spoken before where I actually cried because it meant so much to me. I’d had such a good time at the club and the club had been so good to me.”