DICKOV

SIGNS

Two-year deal for Scottish star

PAUL DICKOV officially became a Blackburn Rovers player today.

The former Leicester City striker was at Ewood Park this morning, where he signed a two-year deal.

Rovers paid a £150,000 fee for the player, who had a clause in his contract which enabled him to move from the Foxes if they were relegated.

Dickov agreed in principle to the deal last week, and tied up the loose ends after returning from holiday at the weekend.

He is manager Graeme Souness's first signing of the summer.

Meanwhile, Rovers are set to shelve plans to put in an increased offer for Morten Gamst Pedersen.

The club's written bid to land the Norwegian winger was rejected by his club Tromso last week and Rovers chiefs will meet today to decide whether to up the stakes.

However, their initial offer, believed to be £1.5 million rising to £2 million based on appearances, is well short of the Norwegians' valuation of their 22-year-old international star.

And Tromso, who are top of their domestic league, are still reluctant to let Pedersen go while they are in the middle of their season.

Rovers chief executive John Williams said: "I don't think Tromso want to sell him. But we've made a fair offer and it's their right to turn it down.

"There's not much scope left for us to increase the offer, but we'll see where we go from here.

"We might have a look at going in with a different offer or whether we want to re-structure it or change it a bit, but we're not looking at massively increasing it.

"At this time and in this market we've made a bid that we feel is right."