Ferguson Hands in Transfer Request

[Blackburn Ender]

I thought Rangers had already had a £3m initial bid turnded down by Rovers?

If that's their opener, presumably they'll go higher.

[herbergeehh]

They've said "we won't up our bid" to the media.. but if they don't, then bugger off - we can sell him somewhere else - or keep him..

[92er]

"In the meantime Rovers will give 'careful and fair consideration' to Ferguson's transfer request over the next few days.

Ferguson made it clear in a meeting with Rovers officials last week that he was hankering after a return to Rangers so when the Glasgow giants had a bid for him rejected last Wednesday,it was inevitable that a transfer request would follow.

"I half expected a written transfer request from Barry," said John Williams.

"He indicated in a meeting with us last week he would like to return to Rangers if possible.

"He's not interested in joining any other English clubs, he loves the training here and he likes Mark Hughes but the idea of joining Rangers appeals to him.

"We will consider his request fully in the next 48-72 hours before we make a formal response in writing."

.............................."There's a difference between our attempt to sign Robbie Savage and Rangers' attempt to sign Barry," said Williams.

"We were making serious bids for Robbie whereas Rangers' offer for Barry was not even challenging.

"If the board was to accept that offer then,in my opinion,I think the shareholders would look to remove the board.

"We are not going to write off £3.5 million for a player we paid £6.5 million for a tear and a half ago.

"It's like David Murray charging us £3.5 million to loan him for 18 months.It's preposterous"

LET-19/01/05

[broadsword]

Damn well said John Williams!

[herbergeehh]

Thank you, JW!

My thoughts exactly..

[youandwhosearmy]

those quotes are excellent, they sum up the situation perfectly

tell them where to go!

[Eddie]

Great response...so glad he is in charge

[Manchester Blue]

Why on earth do you keep coming up with this nonsensical figure of £8.5 million ? Every sane person knows that his true worth is £4m at the very , very most - it's BF we're talking about not Viera or Gerard.

So you seriously think Gerrard is worth £8m then do you?

p.s.

Great comments from your mate JW don't you think. Sums the situation up perfectly.

Edited January 19, 2005 by Manchester Blue

[Bobby G]

Thank God for JW.

The lack of official reaction from our side on the bid was starting to make me think we would consider it eventually.

Ill take 5 million pounds and the writing off of the remaining payment.Id even take 4.5 million and writing it off.

cause that would mean virtually a 7 million transfer with the money we owed them.

[broadsword]

It's not going to be written off, it's going to be paid no matter what, according to JW.

[philipl]

"In the meantime Rovers will give 'careful and fair consideration' to Ferguson's transfer request over the next few days.

Ferguson made it clear in a meeting with Rovers officials last week that he was hankering after a return to Rangers so when the Glasgow giants had a bid for him rejected last Wednesday,it was inevitable that a transfer request would follow.

"I half expected a written transfer request from Barry," said John Williams.

"He indicated in a meeting with us last week he would like to return to Rangers if possible.

"He's not interested in joining any other English clubs, he loves the training here and he likes Mark Hughes but the idea of joining Rangers appeals to him.

"We will consider his request fully in the next 48-72 hours before we make a formal response in writing."

.............................."There's a difference between our attempt to sign  Robbie Savage and Rangers' attempt to sign Barry," said Williams.

"We were making serious bids for Robbie whereas Rangers' offer for Barry was not even challenging.

"If the board was to accept that offer then,in my opinion,I think the shareholders would look to remove the board.

"We are not going to write off £3.5 million for a player we paid £6.5 million for a tear and a half ago.

"It's like David Murray charging us £3.5 million to loan him for 18 months.It's preposterous"

LET-19/01/05

Once again, brilliantly played by JW. This guy is world class!

By making this statement yesterday and allowing a leak suggesting Ferguson's request will be refused he really puts the onus on the Rangers side to put in a new realistic bid now. Relating it to a loan deal clearly tells Ibrox what realistic means which is you've got to offer all our money back to make us even think about it.

Anything less will not be "challenging" , great use of language.

If Rangers don't bid again at around the £6.5m level, JW will be strengthened in his argument that Rovers want Ferguson more than Rangers do when the Rovers' formal response to the Ferguson request is issued.

Two elements are worth highlighting

- the statement that Barry does not want to go to any other English club is both a hands off and a declaration of intent to keep the player and a clear warning to any EPL club coming in that they have to bid high to avoid a summary rebuff from the player and Rovers.

- the comment that the shareholders would demand the resignation of the board is a master stroke. It hits directly at Murray who is the 92% shareholder and is as fronting the negotiations for Rangers- he is totally exposed and has nowhere to hide. By contrast Rovers are multi-layered- Williams is negotiating who needs to have the support of the Board who in turn need the sanction of the Walker Trustees. Rovers can obfiscate, delay, refer to their heart's content totally legitimately whereas Murray/Rangers are reduced to a one-man band, Williams can go back three times asking for more on each occasion on behalf of each level in the Rovers' hierarchy.

No doubt the Jersey-based trustee is on a well-deserved holiday on a remote Pacific Island with no telecommunications.

This means the Rovers now command the most powerful element in this negotiation which is time. There were 20 days to the end of the window when JW held the meeting he had initiated with Viola and Ferguson (again, JW taking that initiative in the first place buys him more ability to delay later) and today there are 11 days left. All that has happened in the intervening period is that Ferguson has made himself financially more disadvantaged viz a viz the Rovers by asking formally for a transfer request- as JW acknowledges in his comments that was what in effect happened a week last Tuesday.

If the Rovers want to retain Barry, they are playing a blinder.

If Rovers are to get the last Scottish bank note on the deal, everyone has to be convinced not only Rovers want to keep Ferguson but that they stand a decent chance of doing so.

The suggestion dropped on Rovers World that Ferguson's injury would not be recovered in time for Monday was another smart move and could quite possibly be true- groins can take three to four weeks.

Murray is backed into a corner and Viola has probably over-played his hand.

Everybody knows that Ferguson is nowhere near as strong a character as Savage. Ferguson has often said all he wants to do is play football- I should imagine the just the hint of what happened to Savage might be repeated would weaken Ferguson's resolve.

Edited January 20, 2005 by philipl

[Tris]

We've managed to get hold of a copy of Ferguson's transfer request.

[Scotty]

You can dress it up as much as you want Philip but, at the end of the day, one of our better players doesn't want to play for us anymore and we won't get anything like what we paid back for him.

And personally, I don't want us to keep him now. Yes, the board are doing a good job with the negotiations, but we're in danger of being left with a player who has publically stated he wants to move.

[thenodrog]

All this and the Boumsong deal included just confirms to me that after the Old Firm being rebuked by the Prem League last season Murray is simply using different tactics to get his sticky little fingers into the 'Sky' pot...... albeit with huge help from his 'man on the inside' of course..... Double Agent Souness.

[AussieinUk]

We've managed to get hold of a copy of Ferguson's transfer request.

Once a again Tris, VERY GOOD!!

This and the baby bottle by Cn174..

[broadsword]

You can dress it up as much as you want Philip but, at the end of the day, one of our better players doesn't want to play for us anymore and we won't get anything like what we paid back for him.

And personally, I don't want us to keep him now. Yes, the board are doing a good job with the negotiations, but we're in danger of being left with a player who has publically stated he wants to move.

Yeah, but Scotty, say if we did reductio ad absurdum.

Rangers just bid £50K and say that we still have to pay up in full. And they will not increase that bid. So we would've paid 7.5m for an 18-month loan. Since Barrae Puff doesn't want to go anywhere but Rangers, does that mean, that they will get him for 50K? We can't just let him go because he wants to, the bidding club has to make a sensible bid.

I suppose what Rangers have done is bid at pish-take level, waiting for the disruption, and then will bid at barely-acceptable level.

For all JW's semantics (and I think he's clever in what he says) we are probably still fighting a desperate rearguard action to salvage a face-saving amount of cash.

[MCMC1875]

What happened to 'transfer tribunals'? Could they be adapted to deal with Dick Turpins like Murray?

[Scotty]

For all JW's semantics (and I think he's clever in what he says) we are probably still fighting a desperate rearguard action to salvage a face-saving amount of cash.

My point exactly Bryan. Of course we can't let him go for nothing, but we're not going to get what we paid for him either. To read Philip's post you'd think we're in a great position and we'll have no trouble getting £7m off Rangers.

As I said before, only Ferguson will get what he wants out of this situation and he holds all the cards. We've just got to get what we can for him.

[Duff's Minder]

the transfer system is deeply flawed and we're on the wrong end of it this time.

Bottom line is we will sell him. The guy doesn't want to be here and he's just going to hang around like a very expensive bad smell ruining the team spirit.

We need to get rid as soon as possible. Take the £3m and never deal with Murray again.

Then scrap transfer fees between top-flight clubs.

[1864roverite]

Maybe Rovers can add amoruso as a clause in the transfer. Give us 4 million and take them both back

[philipl]

To 1864, Scotty, Duff's Minder, Blue Phil et al:

Is Boumsong worth £8m?

Is £3m a fair price for Savage?

Are Rovers handling the Ferguson saga better or worse than Birmingham handled Savage or Rangers handled Boumsong?

PS Cn and Tris-

[Al]

Unless Rangers come up with an acceptable deal we should sit tight.

Come February he will soon withdraw his transfer request when there is nowhere else to go and he will have to keep up his standard of play if he wants to go anywhere in the summer.

We still hold his registration.

[T4E]

Go, go now, and don't come back.

Thompson is scoring goals and playing well from the centre of midfield, and alongside Savage we probably have to most tenacious midfield partnership in the league.

We wont miss you Barry.

[broadsword]

Phil, I don't think there's any argument that Rovers are handling this better than Brum P*rn Peddlars Inc handled the Savage thing.

Just a bitter acceptance that Rovers will lose out in some way over this because Souness didn't do his homework on Fergus0d's temperament and family situation.

Losing Duff was bad enough, but wasting the transfer proceeds it gave us was worse. Tragic for the club, sadly.

[Jan]

Tris

Only one thing

You used "too" correctly once, and he'd NEVER do that