Roque Santa Cruz looks a strong contender to leave Blackburn Rovers, but the striker who has led the mini revival in Sam Allardyce's three games at the club yesterday warned him to beware of the false promise such a high-profile move might provide.

Benni McCarthy, his own sense of contentment returning with three goals in those three matches, said: "Here, you are appreciated, but go elsewhere and you have to start all over again. Who knows whether you will be as popular as you were at your previous club when you join your next one?"

Although Santa Cruz's fate does not yet seem to be sealed – there is no clause in the player's contract which means the club must sell him, should a £20m offer, the size of the one expected from Manchester City be formally tabled – the body language does not augur well.

The Paraguayan lasted five minutes of Allardyce's first training session before hobbling off with the calf injury which forced him to miss Sunday's encounter with his prospective suitors.

The new manager appears to have injected some camaraderie into the squad he inherited from Paul Ince. "With other teams, it is each man for himself because you earn good money and you are supposed to get on with your own life," McCarthy said.

McCarthy, who was limited to three starts under Ince, suggested that the training regime has altered radically under Allardyce. "We do different training and the emphasis is more on strikers working with each other, practising our finishing with crosses coming in," he said.

"The worry factor is over for us. We now know that if we keep playing the way we are playing, then we will get out of the mess that we are in."

Although Santa Cruz, along with West Ham's Craig Bellamy and Scott Parker, are City's key targets, the manager Mark Hughes indicated that he believes the building of the team may take several transfer windows.

"We need to go through three or four before we can even suggest that we are going to challenge at the top end."

Daniel Sturridge, Hughes' saviour in the 2-2 draw at Ewood Park, indicated that he believes he is worth a place in the starting line-up and is ready to prove it, despite the Santa Cruz talk.