GRAEME Souness is in talks with Sporting Lisbon over a million-pound move for Alan Mahon.

The Rovers boss goes into tomorrow's FA Cup tie against Bolton and the crucial league fixture between the two clubs on Friday wanting to strengthen is squad on more permanent basis.

The 22-year-old winger has impressed manager Graeme Souness since his loan move from Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon in December.

And now the Rovers boss is ready to pay cash for the player who cost Sporting nothing when he moved from Tranmere Rovers last summer.

Under the current rules of the transfer system in England, if any player under the age of 24 moves back to England after a Bosman move to Europe, the purchasing club may incur a fee to the original English club, as well as any price the European club might demand.

It is thought Sporting Lisbon would be looking for around £1.5million for Mahon. Tranmere have agreed to a fee of £200,000.

Rover chief executive John Williams said: "We agreed the fee with Tranmere when Alan moved here on loan at the end of last year, but that is not to say we have agreed a fee with Sporting although preliminary discussions are going on.

"It was a prudent piece of business between us and Tranmere. We needed Tranmere's support to push the loan move through and we agreed to pay them an appearance-based loan fee as well as the £200,000.

"It is a fairly nominal amount for Tranmere but in their eyes it is better than getting nothing."

It is good news for Ireland international Mahon, who struggled to establish himself as a first-team regular in Portugal.

The tricky winger will be hoping to put the transfer speculation out of his mind when he gets stuck into fifth round FA Cup action at the Reebok Stadium tomorrow as Rovers take on local rivals Bolton.

The two managers squared up at a joint press conference yesterday, but both conceded they would gladly trade in a quarter final spot for a place in the Premiership next season.

Souness even suggested he would play a weakened team in tomorrow's game.

"The FA Cup is a very special competition. It is rightly regarded as the number one cup competition in the world but the big picture for both Blackburn and Bolton is the Premier League," he said.

"It would be nice to do well in both but given a choice I want to be in the Premier League next year.

"I won't be playing the same team in both games.

"But come kick off on Saturday it doesn't matter who says what to who the players will be up for it. I think it will be an excellent game."

Bolton boss Sam Allardyce confirmed there will be no stopping his players, especially those that have played for both teams.

"If I said to Per (Frandsen) or Colin (Hendry) that I didn't care about the Cup they would smack me in the face," he said.

And he paid tribute to Rovers, who are breathing down the necks of his side at the top of the First Division.

"I saw what Blackburn did to Derby in the last round, the power they showed, and then take into account that this is a derby match. Once the whistle blows all the players will be thinking about the FA Cup."

Souness said the 'derby factor' will be all-important for both this and next Friday's league game between the two clubs.

"As a player if you have anything about you you want to play in as many derby games as possible in your career.

"This game doesn't seem to have attracted the same interest as the game against Burnley but maybe that is because we hadn't played Burnley in so long.

"But it is still a derby and I think both games will be very good games of football.

"But whatever happens on Saturday it won't count for anything come next Friday."

Souness denied that the FA Cup had lost its 'magic' and said it was a competition he wanted to do well in, even if not at the expense of the league.

"Sometimes if you have a good cup run your good form can flow over into the league but you don't want a cup run affecting you league position.

"This game is certainly not something we could have done without because we want to go as far as we can in every competition we play in.

"It would be lovely to win on Saturday but I would be delighted to win next Friday."

ROVERS: from Friedel, Curtis, Taylor, Berg, Mahon, Flitcroft, Dunn, Duff, McAteer, Hughes, Bent, Jansen, Hignett, Berkovic, Keller, Short, Kenna, Gillespie, Filan

BOLTON: from Sommer, O'Kane, Bergsson, Hendry, Elliott, Barness, Charlton, Nolan, Frandsen, Farrelly, Gardner, Hansen, Ricketts, Holdsworth, Passi, Richardson, Morini, Summerbee