The Paraguay international has publicly stated his desire to leave Ewood Park and Manchester City manager Mark Hughes, who signed the player for Rovers from Bayern Munich last season, has had two bids rejected already.

Allardyce has always insisted he does not have to sell Santa Cruz - it was one of the issues he wanted chairman John Williams to clarify before he took over from the sacked Paul Ince last month.

And with City's last bid, believed to be £16million, not meeting his valuation and a fortnight remaining in the transfer window the Rovers boss claims it is a "certainty" the player will not be leaving this month.

"The bottom line is, we don't want to sell Roque Santa Cruz," said Allardyce, whose side's 3-0 victory over Newcastle at the weekend lifted them out of the Barclays Premier League relegation zone for the first time in two months.

"For me, we won't be selling Roque Santa Cruz, that's a certainty. The money is no good to me at this stage of the season.

"Roque Santa Cruz is more valuable to me and more valuable to Blackburn Rovers than the money, whoever might offer.

"There's £40million at stake [to stay] in the Premier League per year and I don't think anyone is going to offer us £40million for Roque Santa Cruz."

When asked if he would sell for £40million, Allardyce told talkSPORT: "I think I'd have to.

"I don't think the board would take too kindly to me saying 'No, I'm still not taking that'."

Despite his stance on Santa Cruz - who made his first appearance in five matches as a substitute against Newcastle - Allardyce has been linked with a number of strikers as way of a replacement should the Paraguayan leave.

Salzburg's 6ft 5ins striker Marc Janko and Atletico Madrid forward Florent Sinama-Pongolle - who spent three months on loan with Rovers from Liverpool in 2006 - are two names which have been mentioned.

However, Allardyce's first-choice pairing of Benni McCarthy and Jason Roberts are currently doing an excellent job for the manager.

Both were on target against Newcastle and between them they have scored four apiece since Allardyce was appointed - which represents all the club's goals in the four unbeaten league matches Allardyce has been in charge.

But Roberts is well aware they have to keep scoring if they are to escape relegation this season.

"We need to maintain our form and keep kicking up the league. We believe we should be higher, but we have no God-given right," he said.

"This is the start of a new challenge in my opinion. We have a big job to do, we know that."

Roberts told the Lancashire Telegraph: "This is a great club. We are out of the bottom three now but we are not satisfied with that.

"We want to be kicking on and I plan to help this team climb the league.

"We want to be in the top half of the league as soon as possible.

"Then we can start thinking about all the exciting things ahead. For me I am totally focused on the games ahead."