JUSSI Jaaskelainen's impressive Premiership form has sparked speculation, so far uncomfirmed, that the Wanderers' keeper has signed a new and improved five-year contract.

Wanderers are making no comment on reports that the highly-rated 26-year-old Finland international has agreed a deal that will keep him at the Reebok until 2007, replacing the extended contract he signed last summer.

But Sam Allardyce, who describes Jaaskelainen as "one of the best keepers in the country" was delighted to acknowledge that his number one was "back to his best" after seeing him keep his second successive clean sheet at Southampton on Saturday.

And that marks an astonishing turn of fortune for the player who cost Wanderers a modest £300,000 when he signed from VPS Vaasa in November 1997.

A year ago, having been at the top of his form, he was starting the long road back from a career threatening knee injury - a blow to the player and to the club who have since used six different keepers to cover for the Reebok's undisputed number one.