MARTIN Olsson believes Blackburn Rovers will be stronger for last season's struggles as he sets his sights on a top half Premier League finish.

The Swedish international defender is part of the Rovers squad who return to pre-season training at Brockhall today, having spent the last week in Austria, and is confident there is a lot to look forward to.

It took a final day of the season win at Wolves last time round to banish the threat of relegation as Rovers struggled for form after the shock sacking of Sam Allardyce in December.

An encouraging end to the campaign though has left Olsson predicting better times ahead as the club step up their preparations for the big kick-off.

Olsson said: “We had a little bit of pressure on ourselves last season but it’s a learning curve and I think we’ll come out stronger for it next season.

“We’ve just got to work hard. It was frustrating losing some games we didn’t deserve to lose.

"But now we’ve just got to move on and think of this season, and make sure we finish much stronger than we did last time.

“We have the potential to be high up in the league next season and hopefully we will do that. We certainly believe we can get back in the top 10.”

Rovers will hope to told talks with Monaco defender Cedric Mongongu early this week with Kean bidding to persuade the 22-year-old Ewood Park is the right place for him.

Kean will also continue his efforts to bolster in midfield and upfront over the next few days ahead of their first official friendly of the summer – against Accrington and Morecambe on Saturday.

Olsson said: “We’ll see what the manager does with bringing in new players but it doesn’t matter who it is, we’re just going to stick together as a team.

“We’re very confident, we play some good football and we started to create a lot of chances as well. We showed that at the end of last season.

“Things are looking good with us a whole team, defending as well.

"The manager wants us to trust ourselves and I think we showed that at the end of the season.”