BLACKBURN boss Graeme Souness today admitted he's had to shelve plans to sign Aston Villa's Steve Stone after exhausting his Ewood transfer kitty.

I can reveal the Rovers chief was pondering a move for the former England star and even watched him in action earlier this week when he played in a reserve game against Rovers at Villa Park.

However, Souness has now cooled his interest in the £1.5 million-rated midfielder -- for the time being at least. And there are unlikely to be any other new arrivals in the coming weeks to help boost Rovers' survival bid unless he can off-load some of his fringe players first.

"Steve Stone is one we have looked at but, right now, we can't go out and buy anyone because we haven't got the money," said Souness.

"We can't buy anyone until we sell first so we are not in a position to bring anyone in at this stage.

"We have to sell and there's nothing on the horizon in that department as we speak.

"But it's something I've been aware of for a while. We spent big on Andy Cole recently which was a big commitment by the club.

"So we are now in a situation in which a lot of other clubs currently find themselves, whereby we have exhausted our budget and we've got to sell before we can buy."

Having picked up just six points from their last 11 league games, Rovers are desperate for a change in fortunes as they battle to beat the drop.

And Souness has made no secret of the fact he would still like to add a left-back and a right-sided midfielder to his squad to aid that survival bid.

However, first he must generate his own transfer funds and that could see some wheeling and dealing over the next couple of weeks.

Souness started to put the wheels in motion yesterday when he revealed that Damien Johnson will not be offered a new contract in the summer. That means Rovers will now listen to offers for the Northern Ireland international with Preston and Birmingham both waiting in the wings.

And Republic of Ireland midfielder Alan Mahon could also be another player used as a potential bargaining tool with speculation continuing to link him with a switch to Birmingham.

Then there's the likes of Egil Ostenstad and Simon Grayson who have been available for a while.

But Souness knows his hands are tied to a certain extent and he's largely reliant on offers coming in.

"I can't work on trying to get people out," said Souness. "That interest has to come from other clubs.

"There are certain players I could go out and get offers for today but they're not the ones we want to sell.

"We are looking to keep the ones who we feel are the future of this club."