Steve Kean says he has been boosted by messages of support from fellow Premier League managers.

Kean, whose Blackburn side are five points from safety, revealed he had had a “good chat” with Sir Alex Ferguson.

“What was said I would rather keep private but it was very encouraging,” said Kean.

“For him to take the time out to phone me and give me a message of support shows the stature of the man. I was really impressed.”

Kean, who said he had also received supportive messages from the likes of Harry Redknapp, David Moyes and Alan Pardew, acknowledged Ferguson would not be so charitable when Blackburn travelled to second-placed Manchester United 
on Saturday.

“It’s going to be a tough game,” said Kean, whose team were buoyed by a 1-1 draw at Liverpool last time out. “They are scoring goals and not conceding too many, so we know it’s going to be a tough task.

“But we have got to take confidence from what we’ve done in our last game at Anfield. We’re going to have to at least give what we gave at Anfield –
and more.”

Kean is having to cope with a long injury list and admitted there was “a need to strengthen” his squad in the January transfer window.

“Anybody can look at the squad list and see how many defenders we have got injured,” he said. “We certainly need to get some bodies in.”

Despite Rovers posting an annual loss of £18.3m this week, increasing the club’s overall debt to £26.3m, Kean said there will be talks with the club’s owners, the Venky’s, over a potential budget for January.

“I am very optimistic we will get funds,” said the Scot. “The financial side of the club is dealt with by the financial directors and the people that crunch the numbers.

“Hopefully they can come back in the next few days and say that we can be active at a good level.”

Kean acknowledged that the club’s very open approach in past transfer dealings may have been wrong.

“I wouldn’t like to mention any names because we’ve done that before in previous windows,” he said.

“Then it doesn’t happen and it ends up just putting pressure on ourselves, so we’d rather do our business quietly and under the radar.

“We were never leading the fans along but, in hindsight, maybe now we will just not mention anybody and when fans see somebody arriving then they will be happy with that.”