GRAEME Souness has turned up the heat ahead on tonight's big game with Liverpool by revealing that Gerard Houllier made a last-ditch attempt to hijack Rovers contract talks with Damien Duff.

Liverpool chief Houllier made an official bid -- believed to be in the region of £10 million -- for Duff last week in one last desperate attempt to scupper Rovers' hopes of persuading the 23-year-old to sign a new deal.

But the Reds' offer was flatly rejected by Souness and the Ewood board and the club now plan to announce that Duff has signed a new contract before tomorrow night's match, which is sure to add extra spice to the contest.

"Liverpool made a bid for Damien last week after weeks of stories in the papers but it was nowhere near good enough," said Souness today.

"It wasn't even half way to what we would want, let's put it that way.

"I think it took John Williams about 10 seconds to put something on a fax.

"There had been talk of offers and offers but we hadn't had an offer until last week."

Despite repeated talk of big money offers, Souness insists he has never once been tempted to cash in on his star winger.

"I don't think that would send out the kind of message we want to send out," said the Rovers boss.

Meanwhile, Duff's advisers are due in Blackburn this evening to oversee his contract signing.

Rovers hope to bring the long-running saga to a successful conclusion at some point in the next 36 hours, hopefully in time for kick-off tonight.

"His people are due over tonight so he'll either sign it before the game, sometime tomorrow, or immediately after the game," added Souness.

"But all this speculation doesn't appear to have affected him.

"I think he was a wee bit tired because he'd been away on international duty and all the travelling that involved.

"In terms of the day-to-day business and the games he has played, it's the same old Damien."