Hughes talking about Ferguson and Savage in the same interview. "One in, no-one out." Elsewhere he says a straight transfer will bring in Savage so the widely reported speculation of Gray being the makeweight seems to be wrong. Perhaps Rovers want the Savage deal done without waiting for negotiations around Gray to be concluded. Certainly the Mirror got over-excited about Savage in, Gray out, Fergie out, Ball in.

Only David Murray is talking about Ferguson being out of contract next year. Every other comment reports two and a half years left. Murray has spoken in a Glasgow evening peper to the effect that Ferguson has to engineer his own exit from Ewood Park. He has also said that £2.56m falls due to be paid by Rovers NEXT WEEK and that he therefore offered the princely sum of £440,000 in cash! I would say it is almost worth the Rovers paying a day early and sending it up in used fivers with a pink ribbon round it. Apart from that, Murray is very dispassionate- they were alerted to the player being available and they created the opportunity for him. If he wants to go back to Glasgow he can. Perhaps Viola over stated the Fergusons' homesickness and understated his length of contract.

Scott Parker has a broken foot. Ferguson has said he is happy at Rovers according to Andy C's post on this thread. Mark Hughes could not be clearer in saying Ferguson is not for sale. Doesn't Sparky look like a vicar in that Sky Sports picture? Is he no longer going to shock Jan and Roversmum with his language in the technical area (perhaps it should be renamed the swear box)?

So Reid is still out? Flitcroft requires a fitness test according to the official site.

I agree with you Andy- that was my hope for the future. Into pure speculation mode here but Sparky has seen enough in one or more of Reid, MGP, Flitty, Tugay to believe he has enough in midfield with the addition of Savage to operate without Barry, or Sparky has some obscure midfield gem in his targets, or Sparky is OK with a Savage for Barry swap in midfield and will use the Barry transfer money on a very decent striker, or Your contact had simply picked up on the contingency planning in the event of a serious bid for Barry as opposed to the Rangers' joke.

That makes a lot of sense Andy. Also good to see that Hughes is fully in control of the situation. Let's see what happens with the Savage deal but I expect that the details are NOT released. Now let's see, £2.2m bid "not worth the fax paper" + £0.5m forgiveness of the tail end of the Dunn deal + £0.5m bargain price for a 30 yo former contracted ex-England international = £3.2m = saved faces for Sullivan et al at Brum + = a shrewd piece of business for Rovers + = some unhappy Rovers fans but what's new?

Rovers are right to hard ball this. Ferguson is not for sale. Ferguson will only go if He submits a transfer request in which case Rovers and Rangers together will squeeze both him and Viola because Rovers will play very hard on the transfer fee, or Rangers offer £6.5m+, or most likely A two or three way bidding war erupts and an EPL club which can afford it pays £6.5m+ As things stand, I think it is extremely unlikely he will join Rangers in this transfer window. Their offer is derisory.

Aren't the Scots on this board feeling utterly humiliated that one of the two biggest clubs in Scotland only values your national team's skipper at £500,000 cash? ...or less than 10% of the cash value of the England u-21 skipper we sold 18 months ago?

A glasgow paper's take on the situation. Whilst it is full of caledonian hubris (a Bosman is 30 months away and no account is taken of the improvements playing in the EPL will have brought!), the interesting comment is the one that Michael Gray "has been released". Presumably a half-baked reference to the Birmingham link without taking into account we still have Matteo, McEvely and Gresko. ahem, Michael Ball anyone? I think Murray can whistle waiting for a written transfer request- Viola is in for the money.

Krasner's comments confirming the threat of administration. This is tantamount to throwing in the towel. Anyone wanting to buy Leeds would rather let an administrator deal with the £25m debts than buy them off Krasner. The only issue is Championship existance more valuable than life in League1. Frankly no or at least not worth carrying £25m debt for. Sheff Wed are showing it is possible to get decent crowds in the third division and Man City went from that level to the Prem in two seasons whilst Reading and Sunderland have gone from the third to Premiership play-offs the next season- QPR and Plymouth are both in with a shout of doing that this year.

Alan, that story is running in the Mirror this morning. The more I see of our management team the more impressed I become (and I know that comment is going to hack off our perpetual miseries). John Williams is once again proving himself a marvel in transfer negotiations. Gray was undoubtedly on huge wages and had been "found out" by Prem managers/coaching staff rendering him virtually unusable. Bruce has bought another Yorke off us. For all Gray's virtues, he can be turned and left on his derriere and probably 15 out of 19 Prem clubs have players good enough to be certain of exploiting that weakness to set up at least two goal scoring chances in a game. I would be rather surprised if the £3m "cash" figure does not include a trade of some of the more contingent elements in the Dunn deal.

I completely agree Blueboy but perhaps not so colourfully! Thankfully, no reports of Everton interest in the media this morning- yet! One piece of speculation which makes sense is that Rangers and Barry have been asked to wait until the summer so that we can get out of this season as a Premiership outfit. Then I would imagine it will be a re-run of the Dunn scenario as he will still have two years left on his current contract Barry will be offered a contract extension. If he signs fine. If not, negotiate the biggest fee possible- at least Rangers won't be able to play silly with the £2.5m outstanding as it will have been paid by then. This is going to turn me into a Celtic supporter- Rangers were too skint to put in a decent bid now and will be again in the summer if they don't have guarranteed Champs League football.

The Leeds nightmare is returning with a vengeance. Today it is reported that £7.6m was spent on agents' fees (£900K- not too bad in the circumstances) and wages just to get players away from Elland Road and off the payroll. Our own Dominc Matteo is one of the beneficiaries which is good news as I had wondered who was paying the old Leeds contract off when he came to Rovers. More to the point, the Sainsbury consortium have pulled out of negotiations "finally", Ken Bates wanted his £10m to give him 51% but nobody is playing with that particular bundle of fun and a local builder is left as last man standing in takeover/bail out talks with Krasner. Administration is now very likely. A ten point deduction will see Leeds perilously close to relegation again and with Forest surely likely to mount a charge, quite probable. Scott Carson will definitely be sold. I will ask again, are there any promising youngsters still at Elland Road we should go in for? The Leeds Directors must be desperate this morning.

I was utterly sickened when I saw that number. I just hope it is Birmingham talking telephone numbers to support Sullivan's ridiculous outburst which included the assertion that Savage had told them he had been offered £12k a week more at Rovers.

Still nothing on the Everton bid for Ferguson but the Everton boards are reporting that Petrov, Daccourt and Tongue have all turned down moves to Goodison.

Andy D'Urso is the ref. Cue another mind numbing penalty d'ecision and a d'isgraceful d'isplay of d'isingenuous d'ecisions from D'Urso. Changed my mind- we are going to lose this one.

I think that Rangers and their joke of an offer can be forgotten about. Unfortunately, Radio Merseyside are reporting Everton are about to put in a bid for Ferguson. What is for sure, Real Madrid have now made a formal bid for Gravesen. This is a big blow given we seem to have just signed Savage.

The Savage information coming out of Birmingham would tie up with the reported sighting of Savage at Brockhall today having a medical.

I wonder if this will hit the newswires unlike Murray's original statement on the BBC this morning that he had only offered £500,000 cash and wasn't going to raise his bid for Ferguson? RANGERS' FERGUSON VOW DELIGHTS ROVERS By Ian Rodgers, PA Sport Blackburn chief executive John Williams believes Rangers' refusal to increase their bid for Barry Ferguson is "fantastic news" for everyone at Ewood Park. The Scotland international, who left Ibrox for the Barclays Premiership club in a £6.5million deal just over 16 months ago, is understood to be keen to move back to Scotland with his boyhood favourites at Ibrox. The 26-year-old and his agent John Viola reportedly informed Rovers of that earlier in the week and, on Wednesday, Rangers made their bid in the knowledge that Blackburn still owe them £2.5million for the player. Rovers rejected that offer, with Williams insisting the player was not for sale. However, the Light Blues are adamant they will not be making another increased bid for their former captain. And the Rovers chief executive maintains that is "music to the ears" of all associated with the Lancashire club. Williams told the Press Association: "I have seen the quote from David Murray saying they would not be raising the bid under any circumstances. "That is fantastic news for us. I am delighted to hear that and that is the end of the matter. "It is music to our ears that they are not going to raise the bid - it is what all Rovers fans wanted to hear. "Barry is a genuine lad, who has always worked hard for us and will continue to do a good job for us. "We have only had Barry for around 18 months and, sadly, he got injured in the line of duty. "But I find him extremely professional as he was in his rehabilitation from the knee injury. I would be disappointed if he is unhappy but I have seen the mark of a real professional and I am sure he will continue to do a job for us." But Rangers chairman Murray insists the player must negotiate his exit from Ewood Park - or risk missing out on a return to Ibrox completely. Murray told BBC Scotland: "We are not prepared to spend any more. If the deal is not done a week before the window closes we will be signing another midfielder."

That's the same story which has been repeated verbatim several times over since it first appeared 24 hours ago. Ferguson himself has not said anything in public. Update in this LET report- Ferguson says he is happy at Blackburn but would move if Rangers bid for him. However, the LET got the value of the offer wrong and the suggestion that a second bid would be made wrong as well based on David Murray's BBC interview. Rangers have very publicly stated that John Viola initiated the whole thing. I know its not ideal but it gives Barry a lifeline back to the club, the players and Mark Hughes. He can argue its his wife, Savage argues its his parents- what comes around, goes around...

I am still genuinely shocked that Rangers actually had the nerve to offer just £500,000 in cash for the Scottish Captain! I wonder if that was a backwards riposte from Rangers to John Viola? The fact that Martin Bain more or less repeated John Williams' words could be a give away. I suppose if Barry submits a transfer request, this thing might run on but Rangers are hardly welcoming him with open arms by offering £500,000 in cash. Barry probably feels deeply snubbed by that £500,000 offer. The good aspect about the Rangers "deal" imploding so quickly is that this hasn't triggered anybody else to step in with a bid and Rovers have successfully shown steely resolve. It has also signalled to anyone else who fancies buying Ferguson not to even think of offering less than £5m. The bad aspect is that Viola is probably now furiously hawking Ferguson like a Glaswegian market stall holder with a dodgy load of tomatoes having now opened the doubt about Barry's commitment to Rovers.

BBC Radio Scotland- Murray says Rangers will not increase their offer for Ferguson. Well hopefully, that is the end of that and John Viola comes out of this as everybody's villain.

The noises coming out of Glasgow this morning seem to be pretty consistent. Rangers have either offered £3m or £3.5m. They do NOT seem to have included forgiveness of the £2.1m Rovers have still got left to pay. So they are offering Rovers a straight £3m loss on the player over 18 months. Rangers seem to believe Rovers' valuation is £5m but they are swithering even over offering that because, as the defeat against Celtic showed, they need to get in a central defender. I wonder if Amo will be played into the equation as the next best thing if they cannot get Ferguson. My guess is that nobody at Rovers has even mentioned a value on Ferguson- he is not for sale plain and simple. At the moment I would say it is looking more than unlikely that Ferguson will be going back to Rangers. The likes of Moyes and Souness must have looked at the Rangers offer and decided that it is so lacking in seriousness that there is no danger of Ferguson going and so are not rushing in with counter offers. Checking the newswires, I see the same story verbatim has appeared at least half a dozen different Scottish news sites - obviously they are short of journos who can write original copy north of the border. It is the one which headlines Rangers will up their bid and quotes both Williams and Bain saying a bid was made and rejected and that Ferguson is not for sale and concludes with Viola saying everything is up in the air.

I remember reading either 2nd or 3rd february.

I have been extremely disappointed that there has not been a closing of ranks amongst Rovers supporters to urge Ferguson to stay. Nobody is arguing about his class or that he is the heart of the current Blackburn Rovers team. The lad was just getting to show whjat he was truly capable of with two or three stupendous performances before the kneecap break at St James's. Since he came back he has been showing glimpses of that form but an injury like that takes some getting over psychologically as well as physically. I am very confident that with the astute management of Hughes and Bowen and the right moves in the transfer market, Barry will come very good for Blackburn Rovers in the second half of this season.