BLACKBURN boss Graeme Souness today said he's almost settled on his starting eleven to face West Brom on the opening day of the new season.

Souness has virtually decided on his team to face the Baggies after experimenting with a number of different permutations during the club's pre-season friendly campaign.

But the squad have one last chance to impress the manager when they take on Bray Wanderers in Ireland this evening.

And Souness has admitted that one or two positions are still up for grabs if someone can make a late impression on the Rovers boss.

"I'm not far away," said the Ewood chief.

"In my head, I've got what my starting eleven will be for this time next week, barring maybe one or two positions.

"Some of the players will be disappointed that they won't be playing against West Brom but football is now a squad game more than ever and they're all going to play a part at some point this year."

Souness has already described his current squad as the strongest he's ever worked with during his four-year Ewood reign.

Paul Dickov, Javier De Pedro and Dominic Matteo have all joined this summer, while the only departure has been Andy Cole, who moved to Fulham on a free.

But Souness is keen to strengthen his hand still further before the transfer deadline at the end of the month.

Rovers have already tabled a bid in the region of £200,000 for Dutch striker Mounir El Hamdaoui, who plays for Excelsior in Holland.

The 20-year-old forward made a big impression on Souness during a recent trial spell and the Rovers boss thinks he's worth a gamble.

"There's three different routes you can go down when you're trying to sign players these days," said Souness.

"The first is to sign a 25-year-old who plays in the Premiership, or you know can play in the Premiership.

"But we can't afford players like that anymore so that market is now closed to us.

"That means we've then got to go down one of the other two routes instead.

"You either sign a 30-year-old like a Paul Dickov or a Dominic Matteo, or you take a gamble on a younger player who you think has potential.

"Obviously, there's a greater risk in doing that but we can't afford to go out and buy the finished article anymore."

Such a policy inevitably increases the pressure on Souness to unearth a gem in the transfer market with limited financial resources.

But that kind of scenario is now becoming commonplace amongst the clubs outside the Premiership's top five.

"There's more and more pressure on everyone in football," said Souness.

"For this club to exist and go forward, we have to be in the Premier League.

"The problem is the gap between the top five and the rest is getting bigger and bigger.

"You've got three clubs who can win the league and then Liverpool and Newcastle competing for the fourth Champions League spot.

"After that, the rest - and I mean the rest - are all talking about survival.

"It's not just us who can't afford to pay big transfer fees. Everyone else outside the top five is in a similar boat.

"Just look at what's happened in the transfer market this summer.