Hughes revealed today Rovers had turned down a bid - believed to be around £15million - for the Paraguay international.

The Manchester City boss is keen to strengthen his squad as quickly as possible and has been chasing Santa Cruz, who he signed for Blackburn last season, since taking over at Eastlands in the summer.

However, so far Rovers have resisted every approach for their most valuable asset despite the player publicly stating last month he wanted to move to a bigger or more ambitious club.

The Ewood Park board are keen to maximise their profit on Santa Cruz - signed from Bayern Munich for a bargain £3.8million in July 2007 - to give manager Sam Allardyce much-needed funds to improve his squad for their relegation battle.

Having turned down two bids from City in the last six months Rovers cannot hold out for much more and Hughes seems determined to get his man.

"We have made an improved bid, a substantial bid for Roque Santa Cruz but it was rejected," said Hughes.

"We made a bid in the region of £12million in the summer and it (the new bid) is significantly higher than that.

"We still want to bring him to the club if we can but he is Blackburn's player and they don't want to deal at the level we have made a bid at. That is their prerogative."

Hughes also revealed approaches had been turned down for West Ham duo Scott Parker and Craig Bellamy.

"We made initial enquiries about Parker and Bellamy, made a double bid, but that was rejected. We haven't gone back to the table on that one but we may well do," he added.

Hughes denied reports today he had made a bid for Newcastle goalkeeper Shay Given and dismissed speculation linking him with Juventus striker David Trezeguet despite the player's agent claiming he had been approached by a City representative.

"A man close to Manchester City called me some days ago to tell me of his interest in David," Antonio Caliendo told L'Equipe.

"I believe the club are ready to put on the table a bid of more than 20 million euros (£18million) to get him."

The City manager's response to the club's supposed interest was: "It's a new one to me."

Hughes' first - and so far only - signing of the January transfer window Wayne Bridge has admitted he quit Chelsea because he did not think he was getting a fair deal.

The England left-back revealed he jumped at the chance to work under manager Mark Hughes, whom he played with at Southampton earlier in his career, as he could not see a future at Stamford Bridge.

"I thought I was going to get a lot more games than I had been doing," said Bridge, who completed his move for a fee in the region of £10million on Saturday.

"It just was not happening (at Chelsea) and it was probably the most frustrated I have been.

"There was a time when I had a string of games in the first team and then Ashley Cole came straight back in.

"Maybe he (Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari) thinks Ashley Cole is a better left-back than me. No matter how well I played I was never going to establish myself there.

"I spoke to Scolari but I'll leave that between me and him and I left on a good note.

"Everyone was happy when an offer from Manchester City was put on the table and for me it is a great opportunity for me to start playing week in, week out."