Wanderers have signed the future England left back in Robbie Elliott, according to Alan Thompson.

The Geordie duo, who grew up together at Newcastle United, teamed up again when Wanderers returned to pre-season training yesterday - with Thompson in no doubt the record £2.5million outlay was money well spent.

"He is a very good player, one of the best if not potentially the best left back in the country," raved the midfield powerhouse whose decision to pledge his future to Wanderers will be met with as much enthusiasm among fans as Elliott's mega-money signing.

He added: "If Robbie has a good season I can see no reason why he can't be in the 22 that England take to France for the World Cup Finals next summer - and hopefully I won't be far behind him."

Elliott admits that Thompson's willingness to sign a new contract helped to convince him that the switch from one of English football's top clubs to Wanderers was a step in the right direction.

"The club must be going places or Alan would not have signed a new contract," he declared. "That showed me the ambition of the club."

The 23-year-old just needed one look at the magnificent £35million Reebok Stadium to know he wasn't moving to a smaller stage and dismisses the suggestion that it is a step down.

"I would argue totally against that," he says. "The stadium is still a bit of a shell but It is going to be unbelievable. It is better than St James and when Newcastle won promotion they didn't come up as well as Bolton came up last season."

Elliott, who had been at Newcastle from the age of 13 and made his deput at 17, was in the 14-man squad in all but three of Newcastle's matches last season, starting 35.

But he remained unsure over whether the change of manager from Kevin Keegan to Kenny Dalglish would affect his long term chances of holding down a regular place.

"I would hope to command a regular place in the side which I could never do at Newcastle.

"The side I played in last season was Keegan's team. Dalglish took over and you never know what a manager's thoughts are and I wasn't willing to hang around and possibly find out later that I wasn't part of the plans.

"Being a big signing is going to help me get more recognition than I was getting at Newcastle. I want to get a full season under my belt and I believe the team can do well.

"Nobody is talking about relegation. Europe would be a major boost athough I think we'll be looking at above half way."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.