ROVERS defender Lucas Neill today said Hakan Sukur's arrival has left the rest of the strikers at Ewood looking nervously over their shoulders.
Sukur grabbed the headlines with two fabulous finishes in the 4-0 demolition of Fulham earlier this week - his first goals since joining Rovers on a free in December.
Manager Graeme Souness still insists there's more to come from the 31-year-old between now and the end of the season.
But Neill is adamant the former Inter Milan star has already made such an impact that Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke can no longer consider themselves to be automatic choices.
"Hakan and Vratislav Gresko have both turned out to be two fantastic signings for us," said Neill.
"Everyone knows about Hakan from what he's achieved with Turkey and he's starting to come good for us now.
"Injuries originally affected his progress at Blackburn but he scored two great goals on Monday night.
"Strikers gain confidence from scoring goals and now that he's got two in a game he can only go from strength to strength from here.
"I thought him and Andy did really well at Fulham. I always like playing with a big man and a little man up front but, more importantly, his arrival is going to keep the rest of the strikers on edge now.
"It won't always be Yorkie and Cole every week, it's going to be whoever the manager thinks will score the goals."
Souness was set to stick with Sukur and Cole up front for this afternoon's clash with Charlton at Ewood, with Yorke likely to be left on the bench again.
"Dwight will take it like a man because that's how the business works," said the Rovers boss.
"I don't think he expected to play because we've just won 4-0 and both of our strikers played very well."
"But we are looking to share the workload, as we have done all year."
Nevertheless, Souness was delighted with Cole and Sukur's contribution at Loftus Road and he's not worried by the fact that Cole hasn't scored since January.
"I know Andy will be frustrated at not scoring goals but if he performs like he did on Monday in the next six games then I'll be delighted with that," said Souness.
Meanwhile, Souness hopes to tie up the signings of Sukur and Gresko in time for the summer.
The Rovers boss has already indicated his desire to make Sukur's stay a permanent one and he plans to put the wheels in motion in the next couple of weeks.
"There's a month of the season left so we'll look to do that in the next couple of weeks," said Souness.
"But I'm confident that we'll come to some sort of deal because I believe he is happy here.
"As for Gresko, I'd like to think we are the favourites.
"He's here with someone he knows because he used to play with Hakan at Parma and he's also teamed up with a couple of the other lads, too. So he's very happy here."
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