ROBBIE Savage today hailed Benni McCarthy's blossoming partnership with Roque Santa Cruz as one of the deadliest in the Premier League'.

Blackburn Rovers' dynamic duo, who were both on target in the 4-2 win over Reading last weekend, have shown encouraging signs of striking up a lethal alliance, sharing 12 goals between them since the start of the season.

Some fans have already dubbed Mark Hughes' new R&B' combination the best strike-pairing since the SAS' days of Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton.

And even Savage insists there's times when he can scarcely believe he's playing in the same side as two former Champions League winners of the calibre of Rovers' first-choice front two.

"Without question, if you had said to me four years ago when I was at Birmingham that I would be playing with Roque Santa Cruz and Benni McCarthy, I would have thought you were lying," said the Welshman.

"To me, they are one of the best strike partnerships in the Premier League.

"If you add David Bentley, Matt Derbyshire, Jason Roberts and all the other attacking talent we have here, it just proves what talent we've got here.

"This is a great squad - probably the best I've ever been involved in.

"If you look at the team we put out on Saturday, Morten Pedersen was only a sub, and everyone knows what a player he is.

"Then we've got Steven Reid coming back, and the skipper, Ryan Nelsen, wasn't available on Saturday either, so that shows what strength in depth we've got now."

What is all the more remarkable about the McCarthy-Santa Cruz partnership is it cost just £5.8 million to assemble, which is loose change considering Tottenham - Rovers' opponents on Sunday - blew nearly three times that amount (£16.5m) on Darren Bent at the start of the summer.

Savage added: "If you look at what people are going for in this day and age, for those two to have cost that much is unbelievable.

"Darren Bent is a fantastic player and it's not up to me what people say of other players.

"But all I can say is that getting Benni and Roque for £5.8m is an incredible bit of business.

"The gaffer does not look too much at players because he believes the more you look, the more you start to see the negative in players.

"It's a good job he looked at me after just one game!"