BLACKBURN boss Graeme Souness has shelved plans to sign American hot-shot Josh Wolff until the New Year.

The United States international was due to return home this weekend after spending the last 10 days training with Rovers.

But Souness will invite him back in February when he hopes to have a closer look at the 24-year-old in a couple of specially arranged practice games as he explores every avenue in his quest for extra firepower.

"Josh has now gone home for Christmas but we are hoping he'll come back in February when we plan to take another look at him," said Souness.

"However, the fact we want him to return would indicate we have seen enough to suggest he's worth another look."

Wolff currently plays for Chicago Fire in the States and has been described in some quarters as America's answer to Michael Owen.

Meanwhile, Souness believes the possible arrival of Savo Milosevic could make the difference between battling against relegation and challenging for Europe.

Souness hopes to sign the former Aston Villa hitman from Parma at the beginning of next week.

The deal, which would see Milosevic join Rovers on loan with an option to make it permanent at the end of the season, is on hold while new managerial team Arrigo Sacchi and Pietro Carmignani settle into their new roles after Daniel Passarella was sacked by Parma this week.

Milosevic would cost Rovers a substantial fee and it is only 18 months since Parma paid Real Zaragoza £15million for the 28-year-old Yugoslav international.

However, Souness reckons that would be money well spent.

He firmly believes he could form a useful partnership with England Under-21 striker Matt Jansen up front.

"He's one that excites you," said the Rovers chief.

"I think he's the type of player who would be a good partner for the other strikers we have here.

"You look at his goalscoring record and it's very, very good, both at club level and on the international scene.

"As I've said many times these type of players are big money - big transfer money and big wages."

Souness feels a goalscorer like Milosevic could fire Rovers up the table to possibly a top-six place.

"I don't think it's any secret that if you look around, all the top strikers are at the top five clubs with maybe one or two exceptions," he said.

"And that's the thing that separates them from the rest of us - they have the best strikers around.

"When they're having a bad day, one of those strikers will put the ball in the net and turn a bad day into a good day for their team.

"I go back to my last year as a player with Liverpool and I think that was maybe the worst Liverpool team I played in, but we won the European Cup, the League Championship and the League Cup that year.

"That was because we had a really sold defence and Rushie Ian Rush up front and we used to win games 1-0. That was the difference.

"If you have that cutting edge, it makes all the difference.

"That's why I believe if we get the right man in we would go from a team at the moment in danger of dropping into the relegation battle to a team possibly challenging for a European spot."

Ironically, Milosevic's Premiership career effectively ended at Ewood in January 1998 when he was accused of spitting at Aston Villa fans during his side's 5-0 drubbing.

In the mean time, Rovers could be boosted by the return of Matt Jansen in time to face Sunderland on Boxing Day.

Rovers' medical staff feared the 24-year-old could be missing for up to a month when he damaged ankle ligaments against Newcastle last week.

However, the injury has since responded to treatment, so much so that he could be back two and a half weeks ahead of schedule.