Souness to get transfer kitty

Blackburn manager Graeme Souness will be handed a pot of cash for transfer targets following the £17m (€23.9m) departure of Ireland international Damien Duff to Chelsea.

That was the promise this morning from the club’s chief executive John Williams, who said some of the money would be utilised to reduce the club’s overdraft.

“You can expect to see two, maybe three players arriving at Ewood Park,” he told BBC Radio Lancashire.

“They will be the kind of players that Graeme Souness will see as improving the team.

“So big is this deal that not only can we address our overdraft we also have the cash to spend at a time when cash is king.

“When you are running a challenging side in the Premier League from the demographics of a small town, inevitably debts do occur.

“This is a great opportunity to reduce these debts and enable us to bring financial security to the club for the foreseeable future.

“We are going to have to be careful. We have got to make sure we do the right thing with the money. We are not going to rush.”