BLACKBURN boss Graeme Souness today backed Andy Cole to win a dream ticket to next summer's World Cup finals following his club record move to Ewood Park.

As we exclusively predicted last week, Rovers made a sensational swoop for the Manchester United star over the weekend in a deal believed to be worth £7.5 million.

And now Souness believes he can provide his new star signing with exactly the stage he needs to force his way back into Sven Goran Eriksson's plans in time to secure a trip to Japan.

"I'm sure the priority for Andrew right now will be to score goals for Blackburn Rovers and then put himself back in the frame from there," said Souness.

"He's been around long enough to realise that so his thoughts won't be on the World Cup as such, the priority for him will be to settle in here, score goals for us, and then take it from there.

"But I know he wants to go to the World Cup. He might not admit it, but he wants to go to the finals next summer and I'm sure playing in our team, we are going to help him to achieve that."

After spending weeks scouring Europe for a striker, Souness finally got his man on Saturday after United's power brokers gave him the green light to open talks with the player about personal terms.

And now the Rovers boss believes the former Newcastle hit-man has what it takes to follow in the footsteps of former Ewood legend Alan Shearer.

"There's nothing to separate them, is there?" said Souness.

"As it stands, I think Alan Shearer is the top scorer in the Premier League since it was formulated and Andrew is second.

"You just have to look at his goalscoring record from his time at Newcastle when he scored 50-odd goals in 80 games -- it's just ridiculous, it shouldn't be allowed.

"So I'm sure he's going to do very, very well here.

"We've got several young players who are going to relish playing with him.

"Getting goals is the hardest part of football and that's something you cannot coach. And Andy has that special gift. He's had a great career at Manchester United, he's got his medals and he's got his cash. But now I think he wants to come here and prove a point.

"That's the biggest single reason for him deciding to leave Old Trafford.

"Manchester United must be a very, very special place.

"But it's not a special place if you're sitting on the bench.

"You want to be playing football and Andy Cole's no different."

Cole finally decided to call time on his Manchester United career following seven glorious years after becoming increasingly disillusioned by his lack of first team starts since the arrival of Ruud Van Nistelrooy in the summer.

But, though he admitted it was a wrench to leave, he is now excited by the prospect of a new challenge at Ewood.

"I'm really looking forward to it," said Cole.

"Blackburn might not be as big as Manchester United or Newcastle but when I see the manager here and the way he spoke to me about how he sees the future, that made my mind up for me and I'm really relishing the challenge.

"I could have stayed at Manchester United but football means more to me than just sitting on the bench at the biggest club in the world.

"I just want to play regular first team football and that's why I'm here.

"Obviously, I've got some mixed emotions. Manchester United are a great club, I had seven great years there, I won medals and did everything I ever wanted to do as a kid.

"But things like this happen in football and there comes a time when you have to move on and this felt right for me."

Rovers were due to register the England man with the Premier League today in time for him to make his debut against Spurs tomorrow.

And Cole cannot wait to get his Blackburn career underway -- hopefully, with a goal.

"I'd love to score against Spurs because we need a few good results to get ourselves up the table," said Cole.

"We want to be in the top half of the table and then we can see where we'll go from there."