Ferguson Hands in Transfer Request

[Duff's Minder]

OK fine. But why make the comment without disclosing what it is he knows? Just comes over as a supercilious know-all.

Of course there will be a multiplicity of reasons why Ferguson has suddenly pushed a move to Rangers to the top of his agenda.

...and what were the rumours about Cantona?

the cantana rumour was that he had been dallying with another players wife and the squad had insisted he went.

Not claiming to be the font of all knowledge but my old man is a sports journalist and my little bro works for the FA so you hear a lot of these rumours from the horses mouth.

They're not always true mind, a bloke who works for Rooney's agent (SFX) told me that Scholes had retired from the England team because he had Leukaemia, that was clearly a load of old toss!!

will try and find out what the word is about Fergie...

[jim mk2]

.

..

Harry Harris is one of the few who really knows what he's talking about. He got his first big break on the Mirror when he got hold of Robert Maxwell's personal home number and (that only about 3 people knew) asked him for a job.

.....

What happened was Maxwell was so impressed that Harry had got his number he offered him a job on the spot - at (for the time) a ludicrous salary of course.

Harry is one of Fleet Street finest, the author of such literary gems as ...."Bethlehem, birthplace of the legendary Jesus Christ" .... and "from my hotel room overlooking Mount Everest".

[philipl]

This is part of the other half of the Soccernet article which appeared about ten minutes ago:

"Rangers have already had one £3million offer rejected and Blackburn, who still owe £2.5million from the original £6.5million fee from the Glasgow club, insist they will hold out for much more.

"Hughes said: 'It is very difficult for myself and the board to really understand which way this is going to go.

" 'Rangers have not come in with anything like a realistic bid and it is very difficult to say which way we can go with it.

" 'We will be speaking to Barry and his representatives on Monday and maybe then we will have a clearer picture.'

"Ferguson has also handed in a transfer request but Hughes denied it was exactly the same situation as had existed with Savage.

"He said: 'The difference is the level we wanted Robbie at. We made Birmingham a significant increase on their investment and Rangers have not on ours and unless they do he will remain our player.' "

This is significant in that having effectively called the bluffs of Rangers, Viola and Ferguson, it is the FIRST time Rovers have talked about a transfer fee- A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE OVER OUR INVESTMENT. Of course investment can be interpreted as including wages, expenses and medical fees plus the experience of playing in the Prem

So it is put up or shut up for Rangers. They said they wanted it resolved a week before the transfer window closes- here is the chance.

Clearly Rovers will be sitting down with Ferguson on Monday either with an acceptable offer from Rangers in hand (highly unlikely) or on the basis of Rangers having failed to follow through and therefore getting him to withdraw his request without the club ever having to refuse his request.

If Rangers play games, it is Mark Hughes talking, with JW, the Board and the Walker Trustees all held in reserve.

Beginning to look like we might see the Savage/Ferguson partnership make its debut on Monday evening. Which two from Emerton, Thompson and MGP will be with them?

Edited January 21, 2005 by philipl

[philipl]

Teamtalk saying the same thing

Meanwhilst the Scots dream on... However, it is interesting to see that the majority of that report is given over to what Blackburn Rovers have to say about it all. Hitherto, the Scottish press were treating this putative transfer as purely a matter of when David Murray applied the coup de grace.

It still is if he offers £8m

[RangerRover]

Blackburn next move is very simple, reject the transfer request but also slap a "PRICE TAG", to ensure clubs know our approx fee for the player

always start too high

8.5 million

then see if Rangers come back with a 3 million offer

We were daft enough to pay four million for an ageing 34 year old Colin Hendry. You reaped the rewards then but now it's a case of once bitten twice shy. I believe Rangers can get Fergie for £4 million and make a profit on that particular deal.

Ferguson's true value is currently around the £4 million mark - don't think many on here would disagree. If you paid over the odds for him then tough - live with it. Teams make mistakes when buying players - and Rangers should know - after all, we bought Hendry.

[Yorkshire Blue]

We were daft enough to pay four million for an ageing 34 year old Colin Hendry. You reaped the rewards then but now it's a case of once bitten twice shy. I believe Rangers can get Fergie for £4 million and make a profit on that particular deal.

Ferguson's true value is currently around the £4 million mark - don't think many on here would disagree. If you paid over the odds for him then tough - live with it. Teams make mistakes when buying players - and Rangers should know - after all, we bought Hendry.

Rangers had to pay over the odds for Hendry. Rovers didn't want him to go. They had to make an attractive offer to prise him from our hands.

If Rangers really want Ferguson, they will have to do likewise.

[S15]

RangerRover... Don't you feel Barry will find it insulting that a player that Rangers sold for £7.5m is now only valued at less than half of that by those who 'love him most?'

[RangerRover]

RangerRover... Don't you feel Barry will find it insulting that a player that Rangers sold for £7.5m is now only valued at less than half of that by those who 'love him most?'

No, Shillito, I don't.

If he is living in the real World - and from what we know about Ferguson he isnt - then he would reluctantly have to agree that he was never a £7.5 million player just because he had a few successful seasons in Scotland.

[philipl]

Actually Ranger Rover, I had forgotten about Hendry. Yet another example where the selling club extracted a huge price from the purchaser for a player they did not want to sell but the player wanted to go. As I have previously pointed out, there are parrallel markets depending on the length of contract left. Measured against £8m for Boumsong, £7m for Distan, sure Barry is worth £8.5m. That's the market he is in and saying he is worth no more than £4m is empty- it doesn't buy anything except perhaps a lawsuit from Blackburn Rovers against the player and agent to recover the value they have destroyed.

This transfer is particularly odd as the player has by all accounts prevented an open auction in which the Rovers could get highest price. The newspaper cutting quoting David Moyes saying that he would have bid for Barry had the player not said he would only leave Rovers for Rangers is no doubt sitting in an appropriate file.

The key difference with Savage and Everton is that Savage rebuffed Everton after Rovers and Brum had agreed a deal and after Brum had made a fat profit on him.

There has been no public movement on this matter today so my odds now swing heavilly towards Rangers failing. I am sure the journos are tracking the key people so there are unlikely to be secret meetings happening.

One poster on this thread showed how Rangers had already spent the Boumsong money so Murray is clearly going to get nowhere near the Rovers' requirement unless he is willing to lend more personally to Rangers.

The only question left on this issue now is how an elegant solution can be engineered for Ferguson to carry on playing with the Rovers.

Edited January 21, 2005 by philipl

[den]

RangerRover... Don't you feel Barry will find it insulting that a player that Rangers sold for £7.5m is now only valued at less than half of that by those who 'love him most?'

No, Shillito, I don't.

If he is living in the real World - and from what we know about Ferguson he isnt - then he would reluctantly have to agree that he was never a £7.5 million player just because he had a few successful seasons in Scotland.

£7.5m was Rangers valuation of the player. That's what Rovers had to pay.

What anyone on here values him at doesn't make any difference to anything.

If Rangers valued him at that price then, why should they value him at any less than that now?

[joey_big_nose]

RangerRover... Don't you feel Barry will find it insulting that a player that Rangers sold for £7.5m is now only valued at less than half of that by those who 'love him most?'

No, Shillito, I don't.

If he is living in the real World - and from what we know about Ferguson he isnt - then he would reluctantly have to agree that he was never a £7.5 million player just because he had a few successful seasons in Scotland.

£7.5m was Rangers valuation of the player. That's what Rovers had to pay.

What anyone on here values him at doesn't make any difference to anything.

If Rangers valued him at that price then, why should they value him at any less than that now?

Rangers are counting on Barry forcing our hand.

We are counting on Barry having the decency not to force it any more than he has done.

It really comes down to that.

I think what Williams and Phillipl are getting at is that there are certian 'rules of engagement' where all parties have to act with a certain amount of respect. We could have waited for Savage to decline to play andtry and force Birmingham to take something like a million. It was a possible option as long as Savage was willing to do it- but we paid a fair price "significantly above City's investment". We are hoping Barry and Rangers will do the same.

But there is no way we can make them if Barry decides to undercut us unless we put him in the reserves which is throwing 30-40k a week out the window.

If Rangers and Barry do play silly buggers it will be a new low not seen since Campbell screwed Spurs thoroughly.

[American]

We could also assume that if a deal is not made Barry will still be a professional and give his all out on the pitch. I don't see him not doing that, so I don't think he would need to rot in the reserves. I've asked for a transfer to a different office in the past and been turned down, but it doesn't mean I don't work as hard. Strip the captaincy? yes. Have him rot in the reserves? no.

[1864roverite]

some very interesting thoughts over the last few posts regarding BF.

However

On this occasion surely the whole deck of cards is with BRFC.

they dont have to sell.

rangers have failed to make suitable offer.

rovers have made it clear they still want BF to stay at the club.

rovers are not in the position of having to sell.

the player is under contract with 2 1/2 years to go.

rovers pay his wages.

if rangers wanted him back then they would move heaven and earth just like rovers did in their pursuit of Savage.

rovers are not conducting the transfer speculation it is the media and BF's fat agent viola

and

there are only a few days left of the transfer window.

So that puts the ball well and truly into the corner of RB nesbitt fc. If they want him then they must pay the going rate. Surely Viola,Murray and Ferguson must realise that.

If Fergie does not get his move and throws his dummy then he gets fined, plays with the stiffs and does not get any bonus money, therefore he loses out, same for next window, if RB nesbitt fc fail to make the right offer then again he stays and plays with the stiffs, therfore continually missing out on the big money. The only way for him to benefit is that when he does actually move, having played with the reserves he would just be about fit enough for the monopoly league that is the scottish premier league.

Yes he can play at home crowds to 52k

yes he can play celtic 4 times a season plus the possibility of 2 further cup ties against them

and yes he can go and visit the likes of motherwell, hearts, dunfermline and the like instead of the mighty grounds that are old traford,highbury,coms,anfield,Ewood,st marys's et al.

#

so thats my view, take it or leave it

[thenodrog]

Rangers had to pay over the odds for Hendry. Rovers didn't want him to go. They had to make an attractive offer to prise him from our hands.

If Rangers really want Ferguson, they will have to do likewise.

I think it's taken as read that that will not happen cos the 'Glasgow Giants' are borassic.

[jim mk2]

The only question left on this issue now is how an elegant solution can be engineered for Ferguson to carry on playing with the Rovers.

Disagree.

Hughes said today: "Rangers have not come in with anything like a realistic bid and it is very difficult to say which way we can go with it. We will be speaking to Barry and his representatives on Monday and maybe then we will have a clearer picture."

My reading of the situation is that Rovers are waiting only for a better offer, probably this weekend, and Ferguson will be on his way. Williams, for all his faults, knows that keeping an unhappy player at the club against his wishes is in no one's interest.

[1864roverite]

interesting read

Boarder crossings

Steve Wilson

It came as no great surprise when Barry Ferguson put in a transfer request this week after just 18 months as an uncomfortable and under-performing Blackburn Rovers player. The Scotland skipper has evidently failed to settle at Ewood Park since moving south from Ibrox for £7.5million in August 2003, even after taking over the club captaincy this season.

Ferguson: Family never settled in the north west. (AdamDavy/Empics)

Despite twice leading his former side to domestic trebles, in 1999 and 2003, captaining his national side and being rated as one of the finest products of the Rangers youth system, Ferguson simply couldn't cut it in England.

A swift return to the Scottish Premier League and the familiar surroundings of his former club seems to be Ferguson's wish, and one that will be granted.

After the fanfare that greeted his arrival south of the boarder, this tacit admission of failure will be of huge disappointment to both Blackburn and a legion of Scottish football fans, constantly called upon to defend their country's league in the face of, often ill-informed, criticism from their English counterparts, convinced as they are that Scottish football begins and ends with the Old Firm. And that even the two Glasgow giants exist in a rarefied world where they are only ever tested on the European stage, where they usually come up short.

It wasn't always that way of course. Time was when no English team, or at least no English team intent on seriously challenging for silverware, could do without their own legion of Scottish exiles.

The names are too many to list here in their entirety but where would English football be without Denis Law, Billy Bremner, Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Tommy Docherty, Dave Mackay, George Graham, Kenny Dalglish, Jim Baxter and Alex Ferguson, to name just a few of the players and managers who developed their extraordinary talents in Scotland before bringing them to bare in the English game.

Regardless of which team you follow, or even what country you pledge your footballing allegiances to, it is undeniable that until the last two decades, Scottish football, now the subject of scorn, brimmed with talent.

Long before the birth of the Premier League and the influx of continental players that has erupted in the last decade, the Scottish top flight was a steady source of supply for an inordinately large percentage of the players in the Football League and especially the old First Division.

It was not only quantity that Scotland provided; a seemingly endless stream of superstars brought their footballing genius south to illuminate Stadiums in a 'foriegn' land. This is not to mock or belittle modern Scottish football. It is more a lament that the abject decline has been so dramatic. And that its consequences reach beyond its own boarders.

The well of Scottish educated footballers is at the point of drying up after years of plundering by English sides. Scotland gave England the notion of a passing football style (one of the reasons that early international competition between the two sides was dominated by the Caledonians); they gave the English league two of the greatest and most successful managers of all time in Bill Shankly and Sir Alex Ferguson; the Wembley Wizards gave a complacent England side a footballing lesson in the famous 5-1 victory of 1928. To underline the point, seven of that famous team were plying their trade south of the boarder at the time.

But, along with the misfiring Ferguson, in the last ten years, the Scottish Football League has offered, amongst others, the following - how times have changed:

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Neil McCann:

Rangers - Southampton, £1.5 million, August 2003

A tricky attack minded midfield player, McCann went down in Rangers folklore thanks to the two goals he scored in a tempestuous encounter - is there any other kind? - against Celtic on May 2, 1999.

In what was the Gers' 100th league victory over their fierce, impassioned rivals, violent scenes pervaded the encounter, mostly on the pitch. Referee Hugh Dallas had to receive treatment for a head wound after being hit by a coin; three players were sent off; there were several pitch invasions and one Celt fan fell from the upper tier of the stands.

All of which served to make McCann's legend; that and the fact that his goals ensured that Rangers clinched the title at Parkhead for the first time in their history.

McCann started his career as a Dundee trainee but moved to Hearts after just 1 appearance. After impressing for the Dark Blues he earned a £2 million move to Ibrox in 1998. The switch to Southampton came at a time when McCann's star was slightly on the wane and after 21 appearances in his first season he tallied 0 goals.

The 2004/05 season has seen a regression in what was already patchy form with just 10 games this term, 5 as sub. In the five games that McCann has started this season Saints have a record of won 0, drawn 1 and lost 4.

Nicknamed Terry after Dennis Waterman's hired muscle character in the show Minder, the £1.5 million pay off that Rangers took for McCann looks like just the kind of deal Arthur Daley himself would have been proud off.

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Kenny Miller:

Rangers - Wolves, £3 million, January 2002

Tipped as one of Scotland's great white hopes for the future at the turn of the centaury, Miller once attracted interest from both Leeds and Arsenal. Bags of natural talent, pace and the ability to shrug off defenders seemingly at ease marked him out as one for whom success was a formality.

Transfer listed Kenny Miller currently earning his wage outside the Premiership. (AlexLivesey/GettyImages)

After starting life on the books of Hibernian, a loan spell at Stenhousemuir allowed him the freedom to play his natural game and, as is the way with fresh talent in Scotland, one of the Old Firm came calling.

38 appearances for Rangers drew 11 goals in a season and a half at Ibrox. But, unhappy at not being automatic first choice, he was loaned to Wolves at the end of 2001 and a return of two goals in five matches convinced the Midlands club to part with £3 million for his services on a permanent basis.

Finding the net 24 times in the Midlands club's promotion-winning 2002-2003 season, Miller looked to be settling in to the English game and fulfilling some of his huge potential. Goals in Wolves' 1-0 victory over Manchester United in January 2004 and in the 1-1 draw against Liverpool four days later hinted at good times ahead but relegation has seen him, along with the rest of his team, struggle.

Unable to force his way past George Ndah and Carl Court in the starting line up earlier this season, Miller put in a transfer request but injuries have allowed him back in and 11 goals from 24 starts is perhaps warning that he should not be written off completely just yet.

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Stephen Glass:

Aberdeen - Newcastle, £650,000, July 1998

Already a Scotland under-21 international when he moved south under freedom of contract - a fee still paid because of his tender years - Glass was viewed at St James', briefly, as the man to fill the void left by David Ginola's departure on the left wing.

With pace and a great crossing ability he initially impressed but injury in February of his first season resulted in a loss of form and Glass barely registered on the starters list again.

He did make the Scottish full-international side shortly after the transfer, coming on as a substitute in a 2-1 win against the Faroe Islands but, despite the travails of the national team, he has not featured again since.

Two seasons at Watford brought greater first team action and ended in the summer of 2003 with a return to Scotland and Hibernian.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Giovanni van Bronkhurst:

Rangers - Arsenal, £8.5 million, June 2001

If Arsene Wenger is the master of the transfer market; able to pluck unknown world class players from abroad for favourable prices and sell them on for a profit, then the summer of 2001 was the urbane Frenchman's one forgivable blind spot.

Arsenal forked out £25 million pounds on fresh talent in that particular off-season. They did not spend wisely.

Charlton fringe player Franny 'fox in the box' Jeffers accounted for £10 million, Everton benchwarmer Richard Wright cost a further £6 million and, just as wastefully as it transpired, Giovanni van Bronkhorst was coaxed down from Rangers; a snip at just £8.5 million.

Across three seasons at Highbury van Bronkhorst, or Gio as he prefers to be known as these days, started just 31 games in all competitions and never lived up to his billing as the natural replacement for Barcelona bound Emmanuel Petit.

Tried in a variety of positions, including left-back, Gio never settled into a successful side and eventually got the move he craved last summer to Barcelona, becoming an integral part of compatriot Frank Reijkaard's La Liga pace setters after spending a season's loan there last year.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steven Crawford:

Raith - Millwall, undisclosed fee, July 1996 & Dunfermline - Plymouth, Free, June 2004

Winner of the player's player of the year in the Scottish First division whilst a youngster at Raith Rovers in the 1994-95 season, Crawford's rise through the Scottish game was to suffer stops and starts despite his early promise. His debut for the national team came whilst still at Raith as he scored the winner in a 2-1 victory over Ecuador but he was to wait a further six years until the second of his 23 caps was handed out.

His first foray south of the boarder was to Millwall where he was an ever present when available. 11 goals in 40 league starts resulted in a £360,000 move to Hibernian where he averaged around a goal every 2.5 games before being offloaded to Dunfermline.

A consistent goalscorer at East End Park, his five years there reignited his Scotland career and tempted fellow Scot Bobby Williams into taking him to English First division new boys Plymouth Argyle on a free transfer.

Crawford was a regular for the Pilgrims in the first half of the season, scoring seven goals for the club but the stay was to be a short one. Confirming Plymouth's long held reputation as the furthest outpost of English football, geographically, Crawford complained of chronic homesickness and with several interested parties in the SPL, signed for Dundee United, his second English experience even shorter than his first.

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Pierre van Hooijdonk:

Celtic - Nottingham Forest, £4.5 million, March 1997

Whilst 29 goals in a promotion winning season may not represent a true footballing failure, you will be hard pressed to find a Forest fan who remembers the Dutch striker with anything approaching affection.

Pierre van Hooijdonk: Loyalty is a bonus. (TonyMarshall/Empics)

A phenomenal goalscoring record in Holland earned the muscular van Hooijdonk a move to Celtic where his 26 goals and a Scottish Cup win in his first season endeared him to the Parkhead faithful. His quality never questioned, and his venomous free-kicks almost unparalleled, van Hooijdonk's Achilles Heel was always his temperament; an acrimonious departure from Parkhead in 1997 merely a taster for what was to come.

Nottingham Forest's 1998/99 Premiership season began without van Hooijdonk. Still back in Holland, he contacted the club only to let them know that he had gone on strike, claiming the club had reneged on an agreement to let him leave. He eventually returned to the starting line-up but was sold for £3.5 million to Vittesse Arnhem at the end of the campaign.

Van Hooijdonk further incensed Forest by serving them with a writ for outstanding monies including, incredulously, a hefty loyalty bonus. Since leaving Forest he has enjoyed a successful, if nomadic, career. Benfica, Feyenoord - where he scored 52 goals in 61 league appearances and earned a Uefa Cup winners medal in 2002 - and Fenherbahce have got good service out of the moody forward. And a ten year international career brought him 37 caps, albeit including a Dutch record 35 from the bench.

Feyernoord fans may have recorded a single called Put your hands up for Pi-Air which charted in the Netherlands prior to the 2002 UEFA Cup final but you won't get many requests for it at the City Ground.

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Ian Durrant:

Rangers - Everton, loan, October - December, 1994

A Rangers legend, Durrant moved for an ill fated spell with Everton in 1994 in a loan deal. He and Duncan Ferguson were strangely packaged together as a two-for-one offer, as he tried to rebuild a career shattered by injury.

The last bit of transfer business that Mike Walker was to undertake at Goodison, Durrant turned out just five times for the Toffees (once as a sub) and whilst Big Dunc was making a name for himself under Joe Royle by bagging the winner in a Merseyside derby, Durrant was shipped back to Ibrox.

Durrant was perhaps before his time in being a box-to-box midfield general who was also blessed with great passing ability and vision. In 14 years with the Scottish giants he won 10 titles, 3 Scottish Cups and 7 League Cups but was never the same player after the horrific injury he infamously suffered in 1988.

In a Scottish league match against Aberdeen, at Pettodrie, a reckless, some suggest premeditated, foul with studs raised by Neil Simpson threatened Durrant's career. In fact extensive surgery on a shattered knee took three years to put Durrant back on the pitch. The incident sparked a bitter rivalry between the clubs' fans that exists to this day. The crowd favourite sued Simpson for loss of earnings and took a settlement of £300,000.

Durrant retired three years ago after a short spell, including a losing appearance in one last Scottish Cup final, at Falkirk. In all Durrant played 283 times for Rangers, scoring 27 goals in the process.

At Everton he played five games, once as a substitute and failed to find the net at all.

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Eoin Jess:

Aberdeen - Coventry, £2 million, February 1996 & Aberdeen - Bradford City, Free 2000

Supposedly the subject of a mooted £4 million bid from Serie A giants (back then at least) Torino in the early 90's, Jess' passing ability and, especially, his eye for a goal from midfield made him one of the hottest properties in the Scottish game during the majority of his eight productive seasons at Aberdeen which included 50 goals in 201 league starts.

Half-way through the 1995/96 season Coventry City paid £2 million for his services, still a club record transfer receipt at Pittodrie, but he failed to produce the sparkling form that had made him a regular in Craig Brown's Scotland squads. Just one goal in 18 months at Highfield Road led to a swift return to Aberdeen at a net loss to the Midlands club of £1.3 million.

More goals and England came calling again, this time in the form of a Bradford City side fighting in vain against relegation from the Premiership. Perhaps Jess' best season in England came in the Banthams' first season back in the First Division when he grabbed a respectable 14 goal haul.

Currently playing at Nottingham Forest where he has struggled to win over a large section of the fans and only really got a settled place in the side during Joe Kinnear's brief tenure as manager.

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Lorenzo Amoruso:

Rangers - Blackburn Rovers, £1.4 million, July 2003

Like Ferguson, Amerouso arrived in English football courtesy of the Graeme Souness' Rangers connection at Blackburn Rovers, a £1.4 million purchase in July 2003.

A solid centre back with a willingness to put himself about when necessary, Amorouso nonetheless came to England with a reputation for being error prone.

A £5 million signing from Italian side Fiorentina back in 1997, the imposing, pony-tailed defender and Rangers club captain had his critics north of the border, but amassed 226 appearances for the club and won the SPL title three times.

The transition had seemed to go perfectly when, one game on from scoring the winning goal in a Scottish Cup final, he scored the opening goal in a 5-1 mauling of Wolves on the opening day of his first Premiership season.

However, a few erratic performances as Blackburn sank towards the foot of the table probably meant that the five month lay off with a knee injury came as some kind of odd relief.

Four wins out of five games with Amorouso restored to the side at the tail end of the season did help preserve Blackburn's Premiership status but suspicions remain over his concentration and pace, or rather lack of it. Mark Hughes certainly doesn't trust him: the Italian has yet to start a game under his new Welsh boss.

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[JC4LAB]

Perhaps a player exchange might resolve the matter..Is there anyone in the Rangers team we fancy?

[krislu]

Even Anti Euro Smiths Fan can't beat that hughe 2860 word post by 1864roverite....

[trueblue]

Even Anti Euro Smiths Fan can't beat that hughe 2860 word post by 1864roverite....

Gawd Krislu... I can't believe you've sat and counted em mate !!

[Parasyte]

Perhaps a player exchange might resolve the matter..Is there anyone in the Rangers team we fancy?

Novo's looked good this season for them, and seems to be the only player being able to get to performances that Bazza can (but hasnt) reached... but Rangers wont get rid, so theres no point in even seriosly mentioning it. My quick glance over the Rangers first team through up a shock, in that for the first time in years, I barely knew any of the names... just a squad of foreigners.

[American]

14,566 characters

[1864roverite]

Gee thanks

[Scotty]

That's the market he is in and saying he is worth no more than £4m is empty- it doesn't buy anything except perhaps a lawsuit from Blackburn Rovers against the player and agent to recover the value they have destroyed.

WTF are you talking about? Lawsuit? How's that going to happen - when has it happened in the past? On what grounds? Get real ffs.

Jeez Philip, you seem obsessed by this whole situation. The bottom line is that our captain wants to leave and that's not good. If you think we'll get back what we paid for him fine, I disagree, but even if we did I can't see it happening in January.

So were left with a player who wants to play elsewhere. Great. Will he be professional? He's not been so far, he wouldn't have put a transfer request in if he was, so what makes you think he will be in the future? Even if he is, do you really want to see a player playing in the blue & white shirt who wants to play at another club? I don't.

Praise John Williams all you want but it's a sorry situation to be in, we'll be shafted one way or another, and it's only bad news for Rovers. Stop making out that we're in control when we're not.

[philipl]

Scotty, it's not a good situation- I'm not pretending otherwise. But equally, I think your assertions are ludicrous.

Tell me. I don't know what you do but aren't there other companies in your industry you would fancy working for or other locations you would like to work in? Have you ever been for a job interview whilst still working for another company?

If you have, does that make you incapable of working for your existing employer?

Sure you get excited at the prospect of moving, get low when it doesn't happen; but you realise you are happy where you are and get on with it.

There will be very few people looking at this who will not recognise themselves in those situations. Doesn't mean they are doing a lousy job where they are employed does it?

Of course every footballler would play at Stamford Bridge given the chance but they cannot so get on with doing a thoroughly professional job where they are.

If your existing employer knows you would prefer to be somewhere else but are basically happy where you are, what does a good and caring employer do?

I would suggest he tries to facilitate a transfer making sure no harm is done to his own business but if that is not possible, the employer will sit down and work with you to ensure your motivation and that the disappointment doesn't cloud the fact that you are already happy where you are. That was exactly what Mark Hughes did yesterday- he opened the door for Barry to go to Ibrox so long as Rovers were not damaged financially.

I know it is different in the hot house goldfish bowl of football but only by degree.

A different analogy. Company A buys Company B for £6.5m and the Directors of Company B sign a four year service contract with Company A. Eighteen months into the Agreement, an Investment Bank comes to the Directors of Company B with a proposal for a Management Buy-Out of Company B and together they table a proposition to buy out for £3m to Company A.

Company A is quite happy with the acquisition- its not hitting the top end of forecasts but it is one of the better performing divisions. It is pretty ###### off with what has happened and declines politely and firmly. It indicates it wants a profit from its investment which would suggest an £8m buy-out price, otherwise the matter should be closed.

If the Investment Bank and the Company B Directors then persist but now pursue their scheme using non-cooperation to the extent that £3.5m of value is destroyed, then I can promise you, m'learned friends would be briefed, injunctions issued and they'd be seeing each other in the High Court.

Football is a different world but not THAT different.

My reading of the situation is that in their childish, yah boo (football) way, Brum showed what a football club can do when its best asset decides to hand in a transfer request whilst under a long term contract.

The statement by Gordon Taylor that footballers do not have all the power in these contractual situations and that the contract enabled Birmingham to make a substantial gain had two intents:

- PR to diffuse any backlash against footballers and the PFA, AND

- a clear warning to his members who are on long term contracts that if they put in transfer requests, they can ONLY expect to move if the selling club makes a PROFIT. And by implication, don't expect much more than sympathy from the PFA if it doesn't work out for them if the selling club doesn't make a profit and as a result takes whatever action it deems fit.

1864 Roverite's post at 18.22 yesterday on page 37 sums up the situation exactly as it is. BRFC holds the whole stack of cards.

The analogy is perfect- you can have a great hand in the crap game, but you still have to play the hand with skill to win.

I'm simply pointing out that Rovers are playing their hand with great skill and to the extent anyone from Rovers read this thread, they need to understand there are supporters out there who:

- understand and appreciate that

- will be very angry if we loose out financially when we don't need to

- will be very happy to welcome Back and be very supportive of Barry Ferguson in the blue and white halved shirt when the club has resolved this mess.

[Bobby G]

Id rather keep Bazza,IF HE IS truly happy to stay if the move to Rangers doesnt materialize,than sell him for 5-6 million.