BLACKBURN boss Graeme Souness is lining up a swoop for another defender - regardless of whether he lands Rangers' Lorenzo Amoruso or not.

Souness has already struck a deal with the Gers for Amoruso and hopes to tie up the signing of the Italian after the Scottish Cup final, providing personal terms can be agreed.

But as I understand it, the Rovers chief wants to bring in another centre-back as well and Aston Villa's Alpay is the name at the top of his wish-list.

Financial constraints currently mean there is only money available to complete the Amoruso signing.

But if David Dunn was to move on this summer then that would free up more cash for Souness to swoop for Alpay, who has been a target for the Rovers chief for some time.

New Villa boss David O'Leary is currently trying to persuade Alpay to stay with the Midlands club after he fell out of favour under Graham Taylor.

But the 29-year-old defender appears resigned to leaving Villa this summer and a move to another Premiership club would be his favoured destination.

Rovers could pocket anything up to £7 million for Dunn if they get an acceptable offer for the former England Under 21 international.

Souness wants to keep the 23-year-old but his decision to turn down a new contract offer is likely to herald his exit.

Birmingham City and Everton are both keen on a move for the young midfielder.

Blues boss Steve Bruce has already tabled a concrete £5.5 million bid for Dunn but that is likely to be rejected because a large chunk of that is made up of add-ons and Rovers want straight cash up front.

Souness has already ear-marked £3 million of his transfer kitty for the signings of Amoruso and Parma's Vratislav Gresko.

And he's prepared to splash out a further £2 million on Millwall's Steven Reid, although the Lions have rejected his initial bid as we exclusively revealed yesterday.

The sale of Dunn would allow Souness to spend still further on Alpay and the Rovers chief is keen to unite the Turk with Amoruso at the heart of a new-look defence next season.