RYAN Nelsen last night revealed he turned his back on a big-money move to Portsmouth because he believes he's got a better chance of fulfilling his ambitions with Blackburn Rovers.

The New Zealand international, who was the subject of three separate bids from Pompey this summer, finally ended all speculation regarding his future by signing a four-year contract with Rovers earlier this week.

Nelsen's decision to commit to Rovers came as a massive boost to manager Mark Hughes, and a crushing blow to Portsmouth chief Harry Redknapp, who was hoping to pair the impressive Kiwi with Sol Campbell at the heart of a new-look defence.

However, it was the prospect of a silverware, rather than the promise of roubles, which effectively persuaded the 28-year-old that Ewood was where he wanted to be, and now, with his future resolved, he can't wait to get stuck into the challenge of helping Blackburn improve on last season's sixth-placed finish in the Premiership.

The rugged defender, who will miss Rovers' Premiership opener at Fratton Park tomorrow because of a tendon injury, is convinced the club can scale even greater heights under Hughes' shrewd direction this term.

As expectations have soared, so, too, has the pressure, with many anticipating Rovers making another push for Europe over the next 10 months.

But Nelsen wouldn't have it any other way, and he insists he and his team-mates will thrive on it.

"Obviously, we beat everyone's expectations last year and now I think most teams will be after us.

"But that's the price of success and you wouldn't want it any other way.

"The exciting thing as players is we've now got a bar to reach.

"The great thing about success is the levels of expectation rise and you've got to match them.

"If you don't match them then you're not considered successful."

Nelsen insists he wasn't distracting by all the talk of a move to Portsmouth, even though the South Coast club were reportedly ready to offer him wages of £40,000 a week.

"I just ignored it, to be honest, and let the people who do the talking worry about that," said Nelsen.

"The main thing for me was the chairman and the manager here were both very honest and up front with me, and I respect that a lot.

"When you're working with honest people then it doesn't matter about the length of time (it takes to sort things out).

"The chairman is a fantastic person, and the manager has obviously been great for me, so I was happy to sign a new contract with Blackburn in the end."

Portsmouth's failure to land Nelsen - they had three bids rejected by Rovers, the highest worth more than £5 million - is symptomatic of the way the summer has gone for their manager Harry Redknapp.

With the millions of the club's Russian owner Sacha Gaydamak burning a hole in his pocket, Redknapp has tried - and failed - to land a team full of new faces.

In no particular order, Pompey have had bids rejected for Jermain Defoe, Ayegbeni Yakubu, Nicolas Anelka, Henri Camara, Stilian Petrov, Jeffersen Farfan, Gareth Barry, Sylvain Distin, Curtis Davies and, of course, Nelsen.

In fact, Redknapp became so desperate this week in his search for a new striker that he was forced to turn to the veteran Nigerian Kanu simply to make up the numbers.

In contrast, Hughes has had great success in the transfer market, recruiting Jason Roberts, Franny Jeffers, and most significantly Benni McCarthy (a one-time Redknapp target) to boost his strikeforce following the loss of Craig Bellamy to Liverpool.

On top of that, the Rovers boss has also managed to hang onto several star names from last season's squad (Nelsen being the prime example), despite interest from elsewhere.

"This time last year no-one wanted my players. But this summer everyone has wanted them," said Hughes.

"I think a lot has happened in 12 months and people have woken up to the fact that we've got good players at Blackburn Rovers.

"We've had to repel clubs and it's not been easy, but I think the fact guys have committed to us for longer periods shows they understand what we are trying to do here, and what we can offer players."