Blackburn Rovers boss Sam Allardyce credits his young players for bringing the best out of El Hadji Diouf.
After a bright start to life at Ewood Park, Diouf started to have less of an impact but, after being dropped for a period last season, he has responded to the challenge of Rovers' emerging youth in style.
"I think he has been here a long time now and perhaps he got a little bit cushy thinking his place was safe," Allardyce told the Lancashire Telegraph.
"Then though lots of young lads started playing really well and put everybody at senior level under a lot of pressure, that is where we hold our biggest hope again this year in terms of improvement.
"We have to hope our younger players keep getting better and the older players have to kick on because transfer wise we are very limited indeed. We showed that by signing two players one on loan and one on a free."