I AM sure a few eyebrows were raised earlier this week when news of Graeme Souness's interest in the Leicester City striker Paul Dickov first broke in this paper.

It's not so long ago that Dickov was being chastised the length and breadth of the country after spending a week in a Spanish jail following the Foxes' now infamous trip to La Manga.

But three months on, the Scotland striker has suddenly become the most wanted man in the Premiership for entirely different reasons.

With the charges dropped and his name in the clear, Dickov is now free to get on with the rest of his life and it would seem that half the Premiership are keen on snapping him up this summer in the wake of Leicester's relegation to the Nationwide League.

Norwich City, West Brom, Portsmouth, Birmingham and Everton have all expressed an interest in the 31-year-old during the last seven days.

Now Souness has made his interest known, too, and he plans to speak to the player at some point this week.

Although Dickov is not the big-name signing many of the fans crave, I think it could be a shrewd piece of business on Souness's part if he ends up persuading him to make a fresh start at Rovers.

The main plus for me is he's proven at this the highest level.

He knows what the Premiership is all about, and he knows he can do the business at this level.

I also like to see forwards with a proven goalscoring record and Paul has that.

Last season, I think he scored 13 goals in a Leicester side which ended up getting relegated and when you consider what else was happening in his life at the time that's not a bad return.

At the end of the day, if a striker chips in with 15 or 20 goals a season then you can forgive him for many of his faults.

But perhaps Paul's most endearing quality of all is his willingness to work for the team.

Rovers aren't fortunate enough to have a team full of top class individuals so the only way to compensate for that is to make sure the players you do have in the side work harder than their opponents.

That's the only way you can realistically compete with the Arsenals and Chelseas of this world and Paul's workrate would make him an excellent foil for Jon Stead or, indeed, Andy Cole.

So if Souness wants to sign him this summer in then he should pull out all the stops to get him.

Let's face it, how many proven Premiership goalscorers can you pick up for £100,000?