GRAEME Souness expressed his delight in landing Paul Dickov by declaring: "I couldn't have picked a better player for the young guys to learn from."

The Blackburn Rovers boss is relishing the prospect of adding the ingredient of Dickov's experience to the raw talent of Paul Gallagher and Jonathan Stead next season.

The Scottish striker signed in from Leicester City yesterday for a cut-price £150,000 because of a clause in his contract which allowed him to leave for that amount if the Foxes were relegated from the Premiership last season.

Souness said: "It's a blinding deal, but even if he was going for £750,000 to £1million I would still be telling John (Williams) to do the deal.

"At this time, I couldn't be bringing a better striker to the club than Paul Dickov for Jonathan Stead and young Gallagher to look at and think, 'that's how I want to be when I'm 30'.

"Last year he still managed 14 goals in a side that was fighting relegation throughout the campaign, which is quite an achievement."

While Dickov's last two seasons at Leicester have been the most prolific of his career, which has also taken in spells at Arsenal and Manchester City, it's not just the goals that attracted Souness to the 31-year-old.

He added: "I think the first thing you notice about him is his great enthusiasm and he will be bringing that in abundance.

"When you've got people like him around, it motivates everybody else because he embarrasses other people into working.

"Payers like him are few and far between. They play and train as if it's the last game they're going to play in and the last training session they're going to do.

"I'm a great believer in having senior pros because they show the way for the young players and ones who are not so young.

"He works his socks off but he has quality and I'm delighted, he will be a real asset."

But the admiration between the Scots is not one-way, as Dickov revealed: "When I was growing up Graeme Souness was one of my heroes and when he asks you to come and play for his team I take it as a massive compliment.

"The manager is a winner and passionate about how he wants his football played and I'm passionate about the way I play. I think if you have a manager who is a winner it can only rub off on the rest of the team."