For his part, Jansen, who had struggled to make an impact during Kidd's era and was never given regular football under Parkes, faced the prospect of a fourth transfer in the space of three years."A lot of clubs came in for me last summer," he said. "I was considering my options but then the manager came up to me and said I wasn't for sale. He told me I was very much part of his plans and that he wanted me to help the club get back into the Premiership. Under normal circumstances, if a manager told you those things, you would probably have a little think about it and decide to stay. But this was not just any manager; this was Graeme Souness telling me he was counting on me. I knew there and then I was going nowhere."Blackburn, who travel to Birmingham today, currently lie in third place. The Lancashire club are just outsidethe automatic promotion spots, occupied by Fulham and Bolton, but the feeling is that Souness' men might be on an unstoppable run.

"I think we've only been beaten once in the last 19 matches," Jansen said. "We had a little bit of a patchy start to the season, but we've become much more of a unit and I sense we're coming good now."Jansen attributes much of Blackburn's new-found confidence to the man he calls "a legend of the game". Equally, though, Souness has been quick to single out Jansen'sattacking talents and utilise them appropriately. "When I was a kid, I used to spend hours watching videos of Maradona and then I'd go outside to try to replicate what he did," said Jansen, who has scored 12 goals from his withdrawn, Teddy Sheringham-like, striker's role "But Graeme Souness was another one of my favourites. Although he was a very different player to me, there was something incredible about his determination to succeed."He added: "That's the big difference between Brian Kidd and the current manager.

They both like to play football, but Souness wants to see his players fighting. Some of the lads, such as Stig-Inge Bjornebye, tell me that he's a lot quieter and calmer than before, but he's still not afraid to kick us up the backside. Believe me, if he thinks a player is not trying, then you hear about it."Unsurprisingly, the Ewood Park corridors are believed to be relatively quiet these days.. With 15 matches postponed in the Nationwide divisions, the teams whose games defied the frost had ample opportunity to make up ground at the top and bottom of their sections. Bolton Wanderers, second in the First Division, made no mistake with their chance to open up a five-point gap between themselves and the play-off places by beating Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 at Hillsborough. With 15 matches postponed in the Nationwide divisions, the teams whose games defied the frost had ample opportunity to make up ground at the top and bottom of their sections.