NICKY Marker will be just one of the players made available by Blackburn Rovers this summer as the signs point to a significant Ewood exodus, writes PETER WHITE.

Only two senior men, Paul Warhurst and Shay Given, come to the end of their contracts but Rovers will be looking to prune their senior staff substantially with a two-fold target.

The club need to make way for some major new signings when Roy Hodgson arrives from Inter Milan.

And they will be looking to clear the decks to enable some of the promising young players at Ewood to make progress.

There is also the prospect of several senior players aiming to sit down with the club and talk over their futures.

That is expected to happen with Graeme Le Saux, whose comments have left little doubt that he could be on the move and was today reported to be the subject of a £4.5m bid from Chelsea.

Jason Wilcox revealed recently that he was looking to a summer summit meeting and others such as Lars Bohinen are clearly not happy with the way things have gone.

Having lost his place in the Rovers team, Bohinen has also paid the price at international level.

With the World Cup finals next year, the Norwegian will want to be playing regular senior football and it does not seem as though that can be guaranteed at Ewood.

Greek international George Donis too recently expressed dis-satisfaction at his situation. There are a number of fringe players who could either be looking for moves, or the club will be seeking to off-load. Marker has already had talks and will be available, even though he still has a year left on his contract. It's a position the utility player understands and is quite happy about. If he doesn't find a new club, he won't have any problems in fulfilling the remaining 12 months of his contract before moving on.

Marker has been an excellent servant since his £500,000 move from Plymouth but Rovers have to make it possible for youngsters such as Marlon Broomes to further their careers.

It would also be more advantageous for the player, 32 today, to play regular first team football at this stage of his career.

Matty Holmes is another who needs a move. His career has come to a full stop at Ewood and the midfielder desperately needs a change of club to kick-start it again.

Others who have not so far prospered with Rovers include Niklas Gudmundsson, currently on loan at Ipswich who are battling for promotion, and Adam Reed and Graham Coughlan, whose loan spells with Darlington and Swindon respectively come to an end this weekend.

Several young players were told some weeks ago that they would be released when their contracts expired.

It's an open secret that one of the two out-of-contract men, Given, will be leaving - probably for Newcastle.

Warhurst hasn't been a regular either, but if Rovers want to ask a transfer fee they must offer him terms no worse than those he is on at present.

Warhurst has interested several clubs in the past and newly-promoted Barnsley could be the next to look at him.

A move must be a possibility for him too, but that depends on a club coming up with a substantial transfer fee, as well as matching his wages.

Derby have made a £3million offer to Monaco for their versatile defender and Rovers target Emmanuel Petit, according to reports in France.

But a club official said that Monaco would make no statement until Sunday on any of the offers they have received for players.

Petit has expressed a keen interest in a move abroad and preferably to England.

Club president Jean-Louis Campora has said Monaco do not want to release Petit, who is under contract to Monaco for another two seasons.

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