UTILITY player Paul Warhurst will be offered a new contract when his present contract with Blackburn Rovers runs out this summer.

But the club will still be prepared to sell him if they can find a buyer.

Warhurst and Shay Given are the only two senior professionals out of contract next month and they have already talked to Given about a lucrative new deal.

The goalkeeper, however, is set to move to fulfil his ambitions of regular first-team football, with Newcastle - again! - the place where he is likely to end up.

So Given will almost certainly go soon with a transfer tribunal proably deciding the fee.

And, if Rovers wish to obtain a fee for Warhurst, Rovers have to make him an offer at least as good as his present terms .

Otherwise, he would simply be entitled to a free transfer and could move wherever he wanted.

There have been several clubs interested in him in the past, including Birminham, Bolton, Manchester City and West Ham.

Rovers have no doubt discussed the situation with Warhurst, who joined them for almost £2.7 million from Sheffield Wednesday in September 1993.

And I understand they are prepared to listen to bids and would not stand in his way if he wanted to talk to other clubs.

He has suffered two broken legs during his Ewood career and had a series of lesser injuries which haven't helped as he has struggled to make an impression.

Future opportunities with Rovers look limited especially, with new players expected to come in soon.

But, unless the club are prepared to write off the whole of his transfer fee, they have to make him a contract offer.

Even if another club comes in, they couldn't expect to get anything like their money back on Warhurst.

Something like half that figure might be nearer the mark. Or, should Warhurst decide his future lay abroad he could, in fact, join a continental club for nothing under the present rules.

Former Wolves and Leicester midfielder Robert Kelly is on his way to Ewood to strengthen the youth staff under new chief Bobby Downes.

Kelly, currently working as youth coach under Downes at Watford, is believed to have been targeted to join the expanded set-up.

Mel Highmore, stadium manager at Ewood, is on a fact-finding trip to America with a Department of Trade and Industry delegation to look at advances in new technology. Mr Highmore was invited to represent football's interests and he said: "In many respects, the game has been low key about things like this. But Ewood is one of the most technologically complex grounds in Europe.

"There are a lot of new challenges and the picture is changing all the time."

Laser technology and virtually reality concepts are among the things the delegation are studying.

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