Damien Duff interview

[LeftWinger]

On 18/07/2020 at 03:54, bluebruce said:

Duff was the best left winger in the world for me, after the 2002 World Cup. 

I'd agree with that. I'd say I've been lucky enough to see two 'best in their position in the World players' in my time watching Rovers. Shearer and Duff. I'd say Friedel was probably in the top 3 keepers in the World at his peak as well.

[RevidgeBlue]

On 16/07/2020 at 12:32, LeftWinger said:

Just had a look and we got 22.5m for Dunn and Duff that summer (I'd forgotten they both left the same summer).

Brought in:

Emerton 2.5m - Great success

Amoruso 1.4m - Did OK

Reid 2.5m - Good signing eventually

Gresko 1.2m - Did OK

Yeldell FREE - Was never intended as a first team signing and proved as much

Ferguson 7.5m - Flop

 

So in summary, we would have been better keeping hold of Dunn and Duff.

Very generous on Amoruso, he was terrible, an oil tanker turned quicker. Souness turned the chance to extend Berg's contract to pay good money to bring that lummox in so it's hard to think there wasn't some shenanigans going on there.

On Duff, we originally put in a £17m release clause into his contract presumably thinking that would scare off any interest but Abramovich came along and changed all that.

The day the Trustees accepted the bid from Chelsea and didn't even attempt to improve Duff's terms or persuade him to stay was for me the day Jack's dream died.  Hardly surprising with hindsight given their subsequent conduct but I think it's more accurate to say they wanted the money rather than needed it.

 Probably Souness wanted some of it as well to **** away against the wall.

[Bigdoggsteel]

5 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Very generous on Amoruso, he was terrible, an oil tanker turned quicker. Souness turned the chance to extend Berg's contract to pay good money to bring that lummox in so it's hard to think there wasn't some shenanigans going on there.

On Duff, we originally put in a £17m release clause into his contract presumably thinking that would scare off any interest but Abramovich came along and changed all that.

The day the Trustees accepted the bid from Chelsea and didn't even attempt to improve Duff's terms or persuade him to stay was for me the day Jack's dream died.  Hardly surprising with hindsight given their subsequent conduct but I think it's more accurate to say they wanted the money rather than needed it.

 Probably Souness wanted some of it as well to **** away against the wall.

Ya and going off his interview, I don't think he was begging for a move to Chelsea , maybe United or Liverpool would have been different. So ya, we probably could have kept him another season. 

[Mattyblue]

I believe he didn’t want to leave, loved his life living in the Ribble Valley.

We’d just finished 6th by spanking Tottenham 4-0 at White Hart Lane, Duff was fantastic.

From memory he was literally about to leave on our pre season tour when Souness said we’d accepted an offer...

[LeftWinger]

5 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Very generous on Amoruso, he was terrible, an oil tanker turned quicker. Souness turned the chance to extend Berg's contract to pay good money to bring that lummox in so it's hard to think there wasn't some shenanigans going on there.

I'd forgotten the Berg situation. Rangers ended up signing Berg to replace Amoruso as well. We definitely got the worst end of that deal. 

Maybe I was being a bit generous on him as well.

[Scotland1]

8 hours ago, LeftWinger said:

I'd forgotten the Berg situation. Rangers ended up signing Berg to replace Amoruso as well. We definitely got the worst end of that deal. 

Maybe I was being a bit generous on him as well.

Had no pace and a dodgy heel injury if I recall correctly. Also had a cookbook, a cracking powerful free kick and a decent header we got him to late. He’s absolutely ripped hitting 50 though.

[oldjamfan1]

12 minutes ago, Scotland1 said:

Had no pace and a dodgy heel injury if I recall correctly. Also had a cookbook, a cracking powerful free kick and a decent header we got him to late. He’s absolutely ripped hitting 50 though.

He had other assets too. He wasn’t called ‘Stallion’ for nothing....

[Scotland1]

9 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

He had other assets too. He wasn’t called ‘Stallion’ for nothing....

True story I’m 30. When Amo came I’d have been 12/13 ish? I grew an Amorouso sequel hair style!

Edited July 23, 2020 by Scotland1

[oldjamfan1]

9 minutes ago, Scotland1 said:

True story I’m 30. When Amo came I’d have been 12/13 ish? I grew an Amorouso sequel hair style!

Brilliant ha ha

[JacknOry]

2 hours ago, Scotland1 said:

True story I’m 30. When Amo came I’d have been 12/13 ish? I grew an Amorouso sequel hair style!

Oh dear

[bazza]

On 22/07/2020 at 11:52, LeftWinger said:

I'd agree with that. I'd say I've been lucky enough to see two 'best in their position in the World players' in my time watching Rovers. Shearer and Duff. I'd say Friedel was probably in the top 3 keepers in the World at his peak as well.

I think if you look elsewhere on the brfcs website for the "best ever Rovers 11" you'll find those three players in it.

Duff is the best left winger I've ever seen playing for Rovers and I've seen, from Jackie Wharton onwards, an ageing Bobby Langton, McLeod, Harrison, Wagstaffe, Sellars, Wilcox and MGP.

I read that Ranieri's wife's favourite player was Duff. I worked in Bolton and my trotters-supporting friends told me they were scared stiff of only one Rovers player........Duff.

[joey_big_nose]

The weird thing was why did we sign Ferguson when we had Tugay? I mean they are very similar types of player - but Tugay is a genius while Ferguson run of the mill. Bringing Ferguson in was only going to out one of put best players of all time on the bench to justify the price....

Just seemed unnecessary.

And I was pretty sure we did everything to try and keep Duff but he had a release clause and there was nothing we could do about it.

Edited July 24, 2020 by joey_big_nose

[Scotland1]

Just now, joey_big_nose said:

The weird thing was why did we sign Ferguson when we had Tugay? I mean they are very similar types of player - but Tugay is a genius while Ferguson run of the mill. Bringing Ferguson in was only going to out one of put best players of all time on the bench to justify the price....

Just seemed unnecessary.

And I was pretty sure we did everything to try and keep Duff but he had a release clause and there was nothing we could do about it.

Barry in his pomp was a true box to box midfielder. Advocaat used to play him higher up the pitch, was only in his later years he dropped deeper and deeper. Still regarded as one of the best transfers Birmingham made, he’s one of the best PL players they’ve had.

We didn’t get the best out of him coupled with his knee injury but I remember him coming back under Hughes and he absolutely ran the game I think against Sunderland? He may have scored towards the end too. 

[joey_big_nose]

5 minutes ago, Scotland1 said:

Barry in his pomp was a true box to box midfielder. Advocaat used to play him higher up the pitch, was only in his later years he dropped deeper and deeper. Still regarded as one of the best transfers Birmingham made, he’s one of the best PL players they’ve had.

We didn’t get the best out of him coupled with his knee injury but I remember him coming back under Hughes and he absolutely ran the game I think against Sunderland? He may have scored towards the end too. 

Okay fair enough. But he was hardly Tugay though was he? And him and Tugay were never going to play together, just like they didn't at Rangers.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 hours ago, Scotland1 said:

Barry in his pomp was a true box to box midfielder. Advocaat used to play him higher up the pitch, was only in his later years he dropped deeper and deeper. Still regarded as one of the best transfers Birmingham made, he’s one of the best PL players they’ve had.

We didn’t get the best out of him coupled with his knee injury but I remember him coming back under Hughes and he absolutely ran the game I think against Sunderland? He may have scored towards the end too. 

He was class act when he playing for Rangers and Scotland. 

[oldjamfan1]

15 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

He was class act when he playing for Rangers and Scotland. 

He made the game look very easy when he was at Rangers - a sign of class, especially in the frenetic old firm games. We only ever saw glimpses of that, perhaps because he was up against better players than he was used to and it took him a while to get used to that. Sadly, just when he was starting to look like the Rangers version of Barry Ferguson he got that shockingly bad injury at Newcastle.

One that got away as far as Rovers are concerned.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

45 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

He made the game look very easy when he was at Rangers - a sign of class, especially in the frenetic old firm games. We only ever saw glimpses of that, perhaps because he was up against better players than he was used to and it took him a while to get used to that. Sadly, just when he was starting to look like the Rangers version of Barry Ferguson he got that shockingly bad injury at Newcastle.

One that got away as far as Rovers are concerned.

I saw him played for Scotland at international level against the best of Europe and he still looked top class. He reminded me a bit of Souness himself as a player. As you saw he was just beginning to find his feet when he got that freak bad injury at Newcastle.

As I said earlier every transfer is a gamble. Plenty of good players haven't made a success of the move from Scotland to England and plenty of unknowns have gone on to be real stars down here. Archie Gemmell being just one but I could name dozens of other similar cases, our own Colin Hendry is an example nearer home.

Edited July 24, 2020 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[oldjamfan1]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I saw him played for Scotland at international level against the best of Europe and he still looked top class.

The jocks always used to raise their game in that sort of international - Fergie was always up for them (Scott Brown is similar in that respect) but he used to coast through some domestic games in his first spell at Rangers and that's where he got found out a bit when he first came to us - you never got the chance to do that in the big boys league at that time so he had to be on tip-top form every week. 

 

[LeftWinger]

I'm sure Tony Parkes picked Barry Ferguson in his greatest ever Rovers side.

In fact he did, comments on him from Parkes here....

BARRY FERGUSON

I don't think people saw the best of Barry Ferguson at Blackburn Rovers. He got injured early on when he was just starting to find his feet in the Premiership, and then when he came back from injury he was just starting to flourish again when he moved on to Rangers.

To be honest, I could have seen Barry going onto bigger things in the Premiership if he had stayed with us.

He might have moved on to one of the big clubs eventually, but whether he ever comes back now or not has got to be doubtful.

His decision to go back to Scotland means he will never be judged as a great player because as long as he's up there, he won't be playing against top class opposition week in, week out.

For me though, he was a very good midfield player. He could break forward and score goals or he could sit in there and play. He was a good passer, he knew the game, and he could do everything. I'm sure once he'd got the pace of the game down here he would have gone on to become a huge star.

[bluebruce]

55 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

I'm sure Tony Parkes picked Barry Ferguson in his greatest ever Rovers side.

In fact he did, comments on him from Parkes here....

BARRY FERGUSON

I don't think people saw the best of Barry Ferguson at Blackburn Rovers. He got injured early on when he was just starting to find his feet in the Premiership, and then when he came back from injury he was just starting to flourish again when he moved on to Rangers.

To be honest, I could have seen Barry going onto bigger things in the Premiership if he had stayed with us.

He might have moved on to one of the big clubs eventually, but whether he ever comes back now or not has got to be doubtful.

His decision to go back to Scotland means he will never be judged as a great player because as long as he's up there, he won't be playing against top class opposition week in, week out.

For me though, he was a very good midfield player. He could break forward and score goals or he could sit in there and play. He was a good passer, he knew the game, and he could do everything. I'm sure once he'd got the pace of the game down here he would have gone on to become a huge star.

Wtf? Ridiculous thing for Parkes to say. Greatest ever Rovers side, Barry Ferguson?!? His name wouldn't even come up. I wouldn't even name him in my top 20 Rovers midfielders. Those with older memories probably wouldn't name him in their top 50.

The very fact he is saying we never saw his best is reason enough to have him nowhere near our greatest ever side. Are you sure he picked him for that and these aren't just unrelated comments? It seems like a fair appraisal until the verdict is that he's one of our greatest ever! ?

[JacknOry]

2 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Wtf? Ridiculous thing for Parkes to say. Greatest ever Rovers side, Barry Ferguson?!? His name wouldn't even come up. I wouldn't even name him in my top 20 Rovers midfielders. Those with older memories probably wouldn't name him in their top 50.

The very fact he is saying we never saw his best is reason enough to have him nowhere near our greatest ever side. Are you sure he picked him for that and these aren't just unrelated comments? It seems like a fair appraisal until the verdict is that he's one of our greatest ever! ?

Have to agree, you cannot pick players for a greatest club side for what 'might have been' or 'what could have been', it has to be on what they did in that clubs shirt. Wasnt a lot in the end albeit down to injury initially. He would get into the Rovers greatest flops side though, even though he was obviously a good player on his day.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Wtf? Ridiculous thing for Parkes to say. Greatest ever Rovers side, Barry Ferguson?!? His name wouldn't even come up. I wouldn't even name him in my top 20 Rovers midfielders. Those with older memories probably wouldn't name him in their top 50.

The very fact he is saying we never saw his best is reason enough to have him nowhere near our greatest ever side. Are you sure he picked him for that and these aren't just unrelated comments? It seems like a fair appraisal until the verdict is that he's one of our greatest ever! ?

In our greatest ever side -no, but I agree with what Parkes had to say about his all round game. He was top class, unfortunately we never saw him at his best in a Rovers shirt.

[gumboots]

I've said it before. Duff had no expectation of leaving when he did. He told my daughter the evening before he signed, when she asked him, "Are you going to Chelsea?" No, I dont think I am. It wasnt his choice at all

[IrelandsRover]

No mention on here yet on how the likes of Sutton and Sherwood treated young players ...

[Leonard Venkhater]

On 25/07/2020 at 07:42, gumboots said:

I've said it before. Duff had no expectation of leaving when he did. He told my daughter the evening before he signed, when she asked him, "Are you going to Chelsea?" No, I dont think I am. It wasnt his choice at all

Partly because he was still hoping Utd would come in for him at the 11th hour. I read that in an interview in an Irish paper