Chairman David Sheepshanks says the club's new international scout will be named within the next few weeks. The Blues want to increase their ability to recruit players from abroad, while not making the mistakes which upset the balance of the squad back in 2002.

Sheepshanks said: "We will buy domestically but prices tend to be higher in the UK than outside, as Premier League clubs have already discovered.

"We need to be expert and well positioned so we can take advantage of those deals available abroad.

"One person can't know the whole world and the focus will be on Europe, but we will look at places like Argentina.

"We have some very strong candidates and we hope that will be concluded in the next few weeks.”

One name which may be in manager Jim Magilton's thoughts is that of former Leeds United and England full-back Terry Cooper. Magilton knows Cooper from his time at Southampton and was keen to add the 63-year-old to his staff two years ago when he first took over as boss. Cooper was then chief European scout with the Saints, but left St Mary's last summer.

Sheepshanks concedes that the club got it wrong with many of the overseas signings made during their last spell in the Premier League: "We had some success but we also had some failures. Candidly, we did not have enough expert intelligence in those days.

"Since then we have not been able to afford to recruit internationally but the quality that we secured with Velice Sumulikoski demonstrates the players and deal that are available outside this country.”

Meanwhile, Shane Supple will make the final appearance of his loan spell at Falkirk this afternoon when the Bairns travel to Kilmarnock.

Former Blue Ian Miller is in League Two play-off action for Darlington as they visit Rochdale for the second leg of their tie. Central defender Miller came off the bench to score the winning goal in the final minute of Darlo's 2-1 victory over Dale in the first game last week.

Photo: Action Images

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