BLACKBURN Rovers today hit back at criticism that they only made a "marginally improved" bid to buy Robbie Savage.

Birmingham City made the claim in a statement yesterday after turning down a second bid from Rovers for the want-away Welsh midfielder.

Blackburn's initial bid of £2.2million was upped to £2.5million and Rovers chief executive John WiIliams insists it was a "substantial" rise, despite falling well short of Birmingham's £3.5million valuation.

Williams said: "There was criticism from Birmingham about the nature of our first offer so our second one was substantially increased. But it still falls way way short of what they are looking for.

"It was worth £2.5million, but within that we doubled the down payment and the total guaranteed money has gone up by 33 per cent.

"But he is their player and they are entitled to turn our bid down. They are determined to hold on to their player."

Williams hasn't ruled out a further bid for Savage, but his desire not to break the bank, coupled with Birmingham's hard-line response to the player's transfer request, is seriously jeopardising the potential transfer.

Blues owner David Sullivan accused Savage of "greed" and dismissed his claims that he wanted to move to the north west to be closer to his family in Wrexham.

And the club have even offered to provide a car and driver to chauffeur him to and from his home town.

Williams said: "They are making it extremely difficult. We never like to say never, but they are clearly determined not to sell him.

"We'll look to re-group and see where we go from there but we are not in a position to overpay for players.

"We have to be extremely careful with our money and we've made a good offer. But the club clearly don't need the money and there's no way we can overpay."

Savage was axed from the Birmingham City line-up for last night's 2-1 Premiership home defeat to Bolton.

Blues manager Steve Bruce said: "As far as I am concerned Robbie has made his feelings clear by handing in a transfer request and that stinks to me of someone not wanting to be here, of someone who would rather be elsewhere.

"If that's the case then we as a club must stand strong and I know the owners will be right behind me and we are not just going to kneel down and bend down to things.

"If we don't receive what we think is a fair price for Robbie Savage, then he is going nowhere. We are all disappointed at receiving the transfer request, which has been rejected."

BLACKBURN boss Mark Hughes is considering a move for Benfica's 27-year-old Croatian international striker Tomislav Sokota.

ROVERS reserves are in action against Liverpool in the Barclays Premiership Reserve League Northern Section tonight. The kick-off at Wrexham's Racecourse Ground is 7pm.