ROVERS boss Graeme Souness today slammed Tottenham for their 'shabby' treatment of Ewood keeper Alan Kelly.

Spurs boss Glenn Hoddle first contacted Rovers over a fortnight ago about the availability of the transfer-listed Republic of Ireland international and the two clubs promptly thrashed out a fee.

However, when the former Sheffield United stopper then travelled south to finalise personal terms he then found the White Hart Lane club had moved the goalposts and promptly returned home.

So, with no sign of the talks being resurrected, the 33-year-old is now stuck in limbo with the new season just three weeks away, prompting a stinging attack from Souness who has blasted his old club for the way the whole situation has been handled.

"Tottenham have treated Kell shabbily and I'm very disappointed with the way they've handled it," said Souness.

"He went down there to sign for them and asked if they'd put him up in a hotel and they said no, so they were even expecting him to pay for his own hotel.

"Then they decided to change the length of his contract. When he walked in one of the first things they said was we're not going to give you three years now, it's two instead.

"And they also told him we're not going to give you any more money because the house prices in North London are the same as in the North West of England.

"At the end of the day, Kell is a nice lad and he shouldn't be getting treated like this.

"But it looks as though the whole thing is dead now."

Meanwhile, stepped up their pre-season preparations with a 2-0 friendly win against Port Vale last night.

Goals from Matt Jansen and Nathan Blake saw Rovers comfortably kill off the challenge of Brian Horton's Second Division battlers.

And Souness declared himself satisfied with what turned out to be another useful workout.

"It was another good evening for us and I thought we won quite comfortably," said Souness.

"Obviously, we're still a wee bit short of where we want to be although I think everyone at this stage in pre-season would say the same.

"We've picked up one or two little knocks and strains along the way which is inevitable in pre-season because you're asking the players to train twice a day and on top of that play hard, demanding games.

"But, right now I've got to be happy with the way things are going."

"From now on in, it's all about becoming sharper and sharper but that's a difficult thing to achieve because you're already asking a great deal from your players because you're training them so hard anyway.

"So it's about finding that happy balance where you're still working them hard enough but they're actually getting sharper and sharper all the time.

"And, unfortunately, there's no easy way of doing that.

"No pill has been invented that I know of which can get you fit to play football.

"There's only one way to do it which is by training hard and playing games."

ROVERS were today being linked with a move for Alaves defender Oscar Tellez.

However, the £3 million-rated left-sided centre back is not thought to be a name currently being considered by Souness as he looks to strengthen his squad.