BLACKBURN striker Benjani Mwaruwari claims there is "no trust" at his old club Manchester City and that some of their players are motivated primarily by money.
The Zimbabwe international agreed a deal with Rovers last week having been released earlier this summer by City, where he had spent a largely unsuccessful two-and-a-half-year stint.
With a raft of expensive new players arriving at Eastlands after he was signed in 2008 by then-manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, Benjani, whose time with City was marred by injury, was deemed surplus to requirements by the club's current boss Roberto Mancini.
The 32-year-old forward has now proven his fitness sufficiently to win himself a contract at Ewood Park and while expressing his delight at earning another chance to play in the Barclays Premier League, Benjani has also taken the opportunity to fire a parting shot at his former employers.
Asked what it was like to be at City when they were spending so much money, Benjani said: "It sounds great, but in football money is not everything.
"What is needed is people who can hang around and love you to be there.
"Sometimes you are loved to be there because of money, which is not good. I would prefer to be here without having all those facilities, be happy and trust everyone around you."
Asked if he thought some players at City were interested in money more than anything else, Benjani said: "Yes, it seemed like that and behind the scenes, there is no trust.
"I would prefer to play for a club where you are being trusted and you trust everyone around you."
After being without a club all summer, Benjani is a few weeks behind the rest of the Rovers squad in terms of fitness, but the striker hopes to catch up soon.
He said: "There was some question about my fitness so I came here to prove that I didn't have any problems and now I have signed.
"Blackburn is a good team, now I am here, I am happy here, I hope to score goals here.
"I'm stil working on my fitness right now so hopefully when I am fit I will fight for a place in the team. The lads are performing so it won't be easy, I won't be able to just walk into the team, I need to work hard and I'm still working hard.
"My fitness is not yet up to the level of the Premier League at the moment so I'm working very hard with the fitness trainers at the moment, if I can get some practice matches in I should be fit in one month."
The striker will have "Benjani" on the back of his Rovers shirt, along with the number 21.