BLACKBURN boss Graeme Souness will make his first signing of the summer by landing highly-rated young keeper David Yelldell.

Rovers have agreed an undisclosed fee with German outfit Stuttgart Kickers for the 21-year-old shot-stopper.

And his transfer is expected to be rubberstamped in the next few weeks once Rovers have sorted out the finer details with the German part-timers.

Yeldell, who holds both German and US passports, was first recommended to Souness by a contact on the continent.

The player then took the chance to impress during two separate week-long trials in the second half of last season which finally persuaded Souness to move in for the kill -- as we exclusively revealed he would do three months ago.

Yeldell will sign a three-year deal with Rovers at the beginning of July and goalkeeper coach Roy Tunks believes he has the potential to make the grade in England.

"He was recommended to us by a contact in Germany and he impressed everyone when he came here for two separate trials," said Tunks.

"He's 6ft 4, he's athletic and we believe he has great raw potential so it's up to us to bring that out of him.

"What impressed me was the fact he seemed to be a quick learner. Any information which we imparted he seemed to take on board fairly quickly which is always a good sign and the other senior keepers we have at the club were impressed with him, too."

Yelldell will compete with Alan Kelly for the understudy's role behind Ewood number one Brad Friedel.

He was born in Germany but his father is American and the player harbours ambitions of following in Friedel's footsteps and playing for the US national team one day.

Meanwhile, top Irish scout Noel McCabe claims Liverpool could have saved themselves a fortune in the transfer market if they had followed his advice and signed Damien Duff as a schoolboy.

McCabe first recommended Duff to the Merseysiders BEFORE he signed for Blackburn but they snubbed the chance to take him to Anfield.

Since then Kop boss Gerard Houllier has been linked with a £12 million swoop for Duff, but McCabe insists they could have had him for free if they had listened to him.

"I told Liverpool about Damien when he was a schoolboy at Lourdes Celtic," said McCabe.

"At the time he would have swum across the Irish Sea to sign for an English club and Liverpool were ahead of the posse.

"They did watch him and looked at him in a schoolboy international but the following week I got a call and was told they didn't think he had much between his ears because he kept getting caught offside.

"It was a kick in the teeth for me because I knew how good Damien was. They're supposed to be after him now but imagine how much they will have to pay when they could have got him for nothing."