BLACKBURN Rovers' determination to ensure their players' every needs are catered for seemingly knows no bounds out here in Germany.

Graeme Souness has even insisted on shipping the club's team bus over here so his players could be ferried to and from the games in maximum comfort.

However, spare a thought for the poor guys who had to get over here from Blackburn in the first place.

While Souness and the players made the short two-hour flight from Manchester to Stuttgart last week, it took Colin Lancaster, the club masseur, Alan Whitehead, the kit man, and Dean, the coach driver, the best part of two days to get here by land and sea.

Their journey began at Brockhall, from where they embarked on the two and a half hour drive to the port in Hull.

Then came an 11-hour overnight ferry crossing from Hull to Rotterdam, followed by a gruelling nine-hour drive through Holland and Germany, until they arrived at the team's base near Aalen, no doubt completely exhausted.

But if that doesn't sound arduous enough already, the trip was made all the more taxing by the fact they were ordered to unload virtually everything off the bus at Hull so it could be checked by customs officers.

That meant skips full of training gear, medical kits - the lot - had to be taken off and then loaded back on again!

It really is unsung heroes like those three who ensure that pre-season trips like these run without a hitch.

Incidentally, the fact that Souness and his players have their own bus over here means they can keep up to date with exactly what's going on at home.

The coach is fitted with a satellite TV system, which means they can watch Sky on their way to and from games, a luxury they don't have in the team hotel.

The only problem is Phil Boersma, the assistant first team coach, is a big fan of musicals and keeps trying to seize the remote!

GRAEME Souness gave his players a well-earned break from training yesterday afternoon following a week of hard labour.

And the team used the time-off to visit the city of Ulm, where they spent a few hours wandering the streets, buying gifts for their families back home and doing a bit of sight-seeing.