Ferguson Hands in Transfer Request

[No Nay Never]

Apparantley Rangers are confident that he will be back at ibrox by the end of january, the midfielder has made it clear he wants to return to his former club.

[Tony Diamond Inc]

whoops, see transfer thread!

[baarree]

As long as they pay more than we did

[Alan75]

Well seeing it's now official. Topic re-opened.

Blackburn Rovers have today rejected a bid from Glasgow Rangers for the club captain Barry Ferguson. Speaking on the club web site John Williams stated "We have received an offer from Rangers but we have informed them Barry is not for sale"

Ferguson has been the subject of much speculation linking him to a return to Scotland during the current transfer window. Some media reports suggest Rangers will buy the midfielder for a cut-price £3m as he is keen to return to Glasgow, while other sources quote Ferguson as being "very happy at Blackburn"

[Alan75]

BBC Wednesday, 12 January, 2005, 15:31 GMT Rovers Snub Rangers Bid

[Bobby G]

Id expect a second bid by friday at the latest,but probably tomorrow.

It will be interesting to see how quickly we wait before rejecting it,if we do in fact turn it down.

I wont be happy either way with this saga.A player who would consider moving isnt totally commited.On the other hand we wont find a quality replacement for 5 million these days and in fact we are short a midfielder so we would need to sign 2 midfielders.

[Oklahoma]

Main problem if he leaves is that we don't have that many quality players in the team, some are too old and it would probably be too late to get a good replacement...

[Bobby G]

Sack the agent!

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

I may be wrong - but I think that Barry's agent may be using Rangers to flush out other interest.

I would imagine that when Souey left he gave gentlemans assurances that he wouldn't unsettle any of his old team.

What better way - let Rangers do the dirty work and then jump in with an offer when the player is clearly going anyway.

Fergie to Newcastle - watch this space.

I have to agree with what a number of people on this message board have already written - I don't think he is anywhere near the level of Keane or Vierra (as promised by Souey). He is talented (without a doubt) - but no more so than any number of similar midfield players that we could get from the continent. I do wonder what his best position within the midfield is - I don't think he is exceptional as an attacking midfield player, or as a defensive/holding player. However, we should still hold out for maximum cash - use it be buy Savage ( a proven premiership player) and then take a risk on a younger midfield player from the continent with the remainder of the money.

[philipl]

Good point.

Interesting to see that Rangers themselves are indicating that John Viola initiated this thing (presumably to avoid tapping up accusations) and that Barry himself is not quoted - yet.

If Barry remains tight lipped we stand a very good chance of holding on to him unless Rangers can find a decent amount to pay for him- at least what we paid- and I don't think they are that flush.

Remember they still have debts of over £20m after the £52m in jection and they didn't get as much as they had hoped for.

I am afraid it is only a matter of time before one or both of Moyes and Souness reckon Rangers have done a good enough job of loosening Ferguson from Rovers. At least in those circumstances we should get a very decent price for him.

Great pity because I was really looking forwards to seeing Ferguson and Savage together.

[Bobby G]

Everytime things begin to look up for us,we get dealt a big blow.

We finished 6th and Duffer left.

We saved ourselves from relegation,Cole was sold.

Now,we are picking up form and Bazza is set to leave.

All this not to mention Shearer leaving us in a pissspoor time.

[philipl]

Some quotes from the Aberdeen Press and Journal of 29 November last year:

Aberdeen boss Jimmy Calderwood has blasted Charlie Miller's agent, John Viola, for trying to engineer a move for his client. Miller is keen for a move back to the SPL and Viola had suggested he was being earmarked for a switch to Aberdeen.

However, Calderwood has now hit back at these claims by suggesting he has little interest in the Brann Bergen schemer.

''It's a case of his agent trying to get him a move. It would be nice for John to phone me and tell me I'm interested, though,'' Calderwood told the Press and Journal.

''That's the normal thing to do. I've not spoken to John and I can't remember the last time we did speak. He's not got any of our players.

"When Charlie is fit, he is a very good player. When he was mentioned last time it jogged my memory a little bit because you tend to forget about him being in Norway.

"With no disrespect to Brann Bergen, I'm not sure how strong they are but if Charlie can't get in their team, he won't get in ours.

"A fully fit Charlie Miller has lots of qualities but if I want to bring him here I'll say it myself, I'll not get an agent to say it.''

A possible insight into Ferguson's agent's modus operanda.

Edited January 12, 2005 by philipl

[mrsjansen]

Rovers reject bid.

Willaims denies he is going anywhere.

He'll be sold by next week then..........

[greggyk]

Everytime things begin to look up for us,we get dealt a big blow.

We finished 6th and Duffer left.

We saved ourselves from relegation,Cole was sold.

Now,we are picking up form and Bazza is set to leave.

All this not to mention Shearer leaving us in a pissspoor time.

does it not occur to you that since we signed Ferguson, things have got worse

[teapreacher]

BBC Scotland reporting that Barry is certain to sign again for Rangers - that was the sports headline....will post again with more detail.

[B.R.F.C]

And Rovers future is set to go down the drain once more. We bought Ferguson for £7 million and now we want to sell him for £5 million within about a year and a half? If we are going to have a squad that is going to perform well in the Premiership we have to build it round a player like Ferguson. Ferguson is not only a better player than his rumoured replacement Savage but he is also a lot younger. If we are going to sell him Id want all of the £7 million recouped at least but of course we're Blackburn and that never happens

[mick]

let's not forget that the rovers were interested in extending his present contract and any agent doing their job would then look to up the ante.

ask rangers if they are interested and this applies very direct pressure to raise his contract wages significantly or he leaves...maybe? and the agent gets another piece of the pie.

i would have liked to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting with bazza, his agent and jw.

and rovers have him signed until 2007 so if rangers want him they have to pay up.

either way bazza wins and so too does his agent.

let's not forget we are playing the sports version of 'monopoly' here.

[teapreacher]

BBC Scotland said that Barry has told Blackburn he wants to return to Rangers and they report that the deal is more or less done and dusted.

[LeChuck]

The problem is that Ferguson is not and never has been worth anything like £7 million. £3.5 million is something like his proper value and it's what we should have been paying, if we got £5 million for him then we'd be getting more than what he's worth...the only reason that may look like a bad price is because of the ridiculous sum we paid for him.

There are plenty of midfielders around who are as effective as Ferguson and they cost a fraction of the price...Matt Holland, Michael Brown, Papa Bouba Diop, Amdy Faye, Tim Cahill...the list is pretty much endless. He's a decent Premiership midfielder but nothing more...he's not really attacking enough be the forward running midfielder and he's not physical enough to be the defensive one..it's difficult to know what to do with him.

I've been impressed with Hughes in the transfer market so far and I'd trust him to make better use of £5 million+ than Souness did so if Rangers came in with that kind of fee then I wouldn't be at all bothered if he left.

Edited January 12, 2005 by LeChuck

[broadsword]

Yep, I'd have to pretty much agree with all of what LeChuck said ... thanks Graeme for screwing up the proceeds from the Duff sale ...

Edited January 12, 2005 by Bryan

[andyrovers]

Did Hughesey know that he was leaving and tried to preempt it by luring Robbie Savage?

I personally like Ferggie and think he's a great player, if he is going to go back to Rangers then lets hold on and try and get more than we payed for him.

[brfcshabba]

Wonder if we can flog Amoruso in the same deal

[philipl]

I don't know where the £5m number came from.

Either Rangers have slammed in a new and seriously big bid in which case Rovers both have time to exploit the window and to make a few phonecalls of their own to other known admirers of Ferguson, or I expect Rovers to fight this one with enormous vigour.

If Ferguson is going, it could be a great pretext for Rovers to say they were looking to pair Ferguson with Savage but now that is not possible they are looking elsewhere.

[Dan Furness]

Surprised Hughes aint got a slating from some people on here for not coming out and saying 'we want to keep him'

I cant see Hughes being bothered either way, I fully respect him as a manager and think he would use the money well.

If Ferguson wants to basically prove he cant handle a higher league, good luck to him. Dundee away on a Tuesday night, god i might go myself....

[modes98]

I expect Rovers to fight this one with enormous vigour.

The thing that supports that is the rangers guys quote of "As a result, we made an offer. However, this was rejected and we have been informed the player is not for sale."

And with us saying he isn't for sale i can't see him leaving. If we wanted to sell surely we would have said the bid wasn't up to scratch.