TIME was that Wanderers' fans gloried in Eidur Gudjohnsen's performances.

Today they are bracing themselves, fearing the free-scoring Chelsea striker, along with his sidekicks Gianfranco Zola and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, could do untold damage to their hopes of a Premiership revival.

And with good reason, according to the man who knows him as well as anyone and better than most.

Gudni Bergsson is struggling to be fit for Saturday's Reebok encounter but his assessment of his former team-mate and close friend serves as a chilling warning to whoever is given the unenviable task of marking him, provided he plays - and there is some doubt about that.

"Eidur is one of the best strikers in this country," the Wanderers' skipper says of the 24-year-old hit-man whose Stamford Bridge future has been shrouded in doubt since new contract talks stalled.

"It is difficult to put a number on it but I would put him in the top 10, which is some claim because we've got some very good strikers."

Perhaps more worrying still is Bergsson's opinion that his young pal is a much better player now than he was when Wanderers sold him to Chelsea for £4 million in the summer of 2000 - a direct consequence of their failure to regain their place in the Premiership.

"Eidur is an all-round player," the veteran Wanderer says of the youngster who is now fulfilling the potential that first came to light as a teenager at PSV Eindhoven.

"His goalscoring has improved since he was here; he can put players in; he has a great understanding of the game and a belief in his own ability because he has so much of it!

"He might come very close to being a complete player in two or three years, with more experience."

So improved, in fact, that he is now being strongly tipped for a big money move to Manchester United.

Gudjohnsen's status as one of the most feared strikers in the Premiership is a personal triumph for a player whose career went on hold for almost two years after he broke his ankle playing for Iceland Under 18s in Dublin. Forced to abandon his position as 'Ronaldo's sidekick' in Holland, he re-surfaced as an overweight trialist for Wanderers at Waterford on the pre-season tour of Ireland in July, 1998.

He did not waste his second chance. In two incredible seasons he scored 27 goals in 73 games before being sold to balance the books.

Now, like Bergsson with whom he played as a part-timer for Valur in their native Reykjavik, Gudjohnsen is a Premiership star - a sporting hero in his own country.

"Hopefully I've been an example for some young defenders back home, staying here as long as I have and playing at the highest level here in England," says Bergsson, who at 37 is in his final season.

"I'd say every young player in Iceland would aspire to play at the highest level in this league which they all follow so closely.

"But Eidur is THE player with Icelanders - and understandably so, considering what he is doing in the Premiership.

"When players of that calibre come forward it gives everyone a lift."