THINGS are certainly starting to happen at Rovers, and it’s been great to see the new players coming into the club in recent weeks.

Anthony Stokes is a great signing. He’s a goalscorer and that’s exactly what you want.

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Securing Danny Graham on a permanent deal is fantastic too. He did well when he came in for the second half of last season and should be even stronger this time if the chances are created for him.

Owen Coyle has also brought in young Stephen Hendrie from West Ham, which is vital after the news that Tommy Spurr has left to join Preston.

He probably still needs another one in that position.

The lads are back in for pre-season training this week, and it will be good for Owen to get the group together and see how things shape up.

Having said that, I remember pre-season from my playing days as always being very hard.

It was a nightmare from because you had six or seven weeks off, then came back in and you couldn’t walk for a few days because you were stiff as a board!

When I was at Dundee United we ran and ran and ran - up and down sand dunes, which was the worst. We didn’t see a ball for weeks.

But then coaches realised that players work better with the ball and things started changing as my career went on.

The easiest pre-season I had was under Bobby Robson at Newcastle, and that was when I was 33 or 34 years old.

That was partly due to the way he did things. But I have to put some of it down to my time at Rovers under Roy Hodgson, who I learned a lot from.

It was pure mental training under Roy and that made me stronger as I realised I had to look after myself and not burn myself out. I learned to manage myself a lot better.

Getting a full pre-season under your belt is vital from a personal fitness point of view.

It sets you up, especially for the second half of the season, and you can tell the players who haven’t done it because they are inconsistent.

I’ve no doubt Owen will be working the players hard to make sure that’s not the case with Blackburn Rovers next season.