BLACKBURN boss Graeme Souness has begun planning for next season - and top of his agenda is snapping up three of his existing stars on new deals.

Craig Short, Jonathon Douglas and Tugay are all out of contract this summer and Souness is hoping to persuade the trio to sign new contracts in the next couple of weeks.

All talks were put on hold while Rovers battled against relegation, but Saturday's 1-0 win over Manchester United guaranteed the club's Premiership status for a further 12 months.

That means Souness can now press ahead with his plans for the future and he wants Short, Douglas and Tugay all on board when Rovers kick-off the new campaign in August.

"We put all talks on hold whilst we were battling to stay in the league because we wanted to focus all our energies on that," said Rovers' chief executive John Williams.

"But now we are safe, we can start planning for next season safe in the knowledge that we'll be playing in the Premier League again.

"We are currently in discussions with Jonathon Douglas and I've had a preliminary discussion with Craig Short, which we'll be looking to carry on this week.

"That just leaves Tugay and we're hoping to sort something out with him as well in the next few weeks."

As well as thrashing out deals for the three players who are out of contract, Rovers can also start making plans for a pre-season tour.

Originally, the club had planned to go to Australia where they were hoping to take part in a four-team tournament involving Everton and two Spanish clubs.

But that has now fallen through and club officials are currently investigating alternative destinations.

Meanwhile, Souness believes his young strike-duo of Jonathan Stead and Paul Gallagher could be terrorising Premiership defences for years to come after the pair gave fans a glimpse of the future in Saturday's victory over United.

Gallagher replaced Andy Cole in the 84th minute and within 60 seconds of his arrival, he had conjured up a brilliant winner for Stead.

"We've got Gally who's arguably technically better than Jon Stead," said Souness.

"He's not as physically strong as Jon and there's a slight question mark over whether he'll get the big head on.

"But if he doesn't get the big head on then what a wonderful partnership him and Jon could be."

Stead has adjusted quickly to life in the Premiership, having scored six times in 11 games since arriving in a £1 million deal from Huddersfield.

That has promoted Sven Goran Eriksson's assistant, Tord Grip, to identify the 21-year-old as a possible England star of the future.

And Souness can see his young protege going all the way to the top, providing he keeps a level head.

"The hardest place to play football is up front, and the hardest thing to do is score goals but he's doing that in the highest league," said Souness.