KENNY Dalglish could be set to provide stiff competition for a long-time Blackburn Rovers transfer target - Norwegian starlet John Carew.

The talented teenager has had Ewood trials this season and, although the financial side of a possible deal seemed to be a stumbling block, Rovers have maintained a watching brief on the schoolboy international striker.

But I can reveal that Newcastle United are now showing an interest.

And Dalglish recently pipped another of his former clubs, Liverpool, for a highly-rated young player.

The Tyneside boss signed Bjarme Gudjonnson for £500,000 from Icelandic club Akranes, after the player had been for trials at Anfield.

Recently-departed Rovers youth coach Alan Irvine, now a member of the St James's Park staff, will know all about Carew.

Irvine, in fact, could well have been the man to draw Dalglish's attention to the potential of a player first recommended to Rovers by Henning Berg.

Carew made a brief visit to Blackburn early in the season, scoring a hat-trick in an A team game.

He returned to Ewood, during the holidays in the New Year, and played for the reserves against Leeds, when he could have had a hatful of goals.

Talks took place with the player and his Norwegian club Lorenskog IF.

But I understand that the sort of figures mentioned at the time were totally unrealistic for a schoolboy player of potential but still unproven talent.

Rovers, however, have retained contact with him and certainly not given up hope of bringing him to Ewood on a permanent basis.

But the spectre of Newcastle and Dalglish could prove a problem.

Meanwhile, Tony Parkes was expecting George Donis to report back for training today, after the Greek winger's return from international duty in Bosnia was delayed by a cancelled flight. Rovers received a fax from the Greek FA yesterday, telling them of the travel delay, and there was no mention of any injury problem.

And Parkes, who had no worries about his other international players, is hoping that Kevin Gallacher's midweek scoring heroics for Scotland will have a rollover effect for the player at club level.

"It would be nice to think there will be a spin-off effect for the club but Kevin has already had a good season for us," said the caretaker-boss.

"He deserves his goals for the way he plays and works during a game.

"Kevin has certainly got an appetite for the game and you get out of it what you put in.

"So, in his case, he is only reaping the rewards he deserves.

"But scoring goals like that for Scotland shouldn't do his confidence any harm at all."

Stuart Ripley is now training again after a recurrence of the problems with the arch of his foot.

It has been a nightmare season for the winger, with a succession of injuries, and he said: "I've had an injection which seems to have made it easier.

"I could train before but it was still giving me pain and affecting my performance. It seems the only real cure is to rest it."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.