WITH Dwight Yorke now a Blackburn Rovers player, manager Graeme Souness is expected to step up his efforts to strengthen other areas of his squad.

Striker Yorke completed his £2m move from Manchester United on Friday and joined up with the Rovers squad on their tour of Austria and Germany on Saturday.

Israeli international Shimon Gershon was also jetting in today, allowing Souness to take a look at the defender, although Rovers seem well served in that department at the moment.

The Rovers boss is known to be a fan of former Liverpool midfielder David Thompson, who is available for £2.5m from Coventry, and Souness also made an inquiry about Aston Villa winger Steve Stone towards the end of last season.

And, although Souness is out of the country, there is plenty of work going on behind the scenes.

Souness is keen to strengthen the right-side of his midfield and has targeted Coventry's Thompson for some time.

Villa, meanwhile, are expected to make Stone available following this week's capture of Ulises de la Cruz from Hibs.

Ironically, Villa boss Graham Taylor claims that Yorke would have "walked back to Birmingham" to play for him instead of joining Blackburn.

Taylor was the man who brought him to England after seeing him play for the first time as a 16-year-old and he could have signed him again before he opted to join his old teammate Andy Cole at Ewood Park.

"I could have signed him from United and I know he would have walked back here to play for me," said Taylor.

"I thought about it long and hard. But I could not convince myself it would have been in Dwight's best interests or the club's.

"He's not the 16-year-old boy I brought to Villa. He's now a 30-year-old man at a different stage of his career and with a totally different outlook on life.

"I'll never forget how my heart missed a beat in Tobago watching him for the first time.

"But deep down I just felt it probably wasn't the right thing for either of us and I'm sure he has made the right move in linking up again with his big mate Andy Cole.

"People say things about Dwight but I will never hear a bad word said about him.

"I was at home a couple of hours before Manchester United played Bayern Munich in the 1999 European Cup final when my phone rang.

"It was Dwight, just before he left the hotel to get on the team bus.

"He said he just wanted to thank me for everything I had done for him before he went off to play in probably the biggest game of his life."

Rovers got their tour off to a flying start on Saturday when they beat the Austrian part-timers Tennenga Auswahl 9-0 in Abtenau, and Yorke is expected to make his debut in a blue and white shirt tomorrow night when Rovers face a much tougher test against Bundesliga side Nurenburg in Weismain.