Reward awaits for Souness

As we revealed at the back end of last season, the club had always planned to reward the highly-rated Scot with a new contract offer during the summer following his excellent work in the Ewood hot-seat.

And I can now confirm a brand new three-year deal is on the table as the board look to tie-up the former Liverpool chief for the foreseeable future in an effort to build on the success of the last two seasons.

As things stand, Souness still has a year left to run on his existing deal after putting pen to paper on a three-year contract when he joined the club in March 2000.

But after leading Rovers to promotion and a memorable Worthington Cup triumph in his first two seasons, he has now re-established himself as one of the most sought-after managers in the game after his reputation suffered during an ill-fated spell as boss of Liverpool during the early 1990s.

And that has prompted the board to act as Souness has been linked with a number of high-profile positions over the last six months.

Leeds United are the latest club who are rumoured to be considering an approach for the Rovers boss following the departure of David O'Leary last week.

However, Ewood chief executive John Williams is quietly confident Souness will sign a new contract with Rovers in the next couple of weeks when he returns from holiday after the 49-year-old reaffirmed his commitment to the club over the weekend.

"Graeme is currently away on holiday but as you would expect I speak to him regularly about our plans for the forthcoming season and on Saturday we quickly talked about the speculation surrounding Leeds United and he said to me that he wants to stay at Blackburn," said Williams.

Celtic boss Martin O'Neill remains the strong favourite to replace O'Leary at Elland Road but according to stories in the national Press, Souness is rumoured to be on a shortlist of five possible alternatives for the vacant position if United can't lure O'Neill away from Parkhead.