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Lancashire Evening Telegraph (18.Jan.)
Gers' valuations defy description

DURING the course of a football season there will be things uttered by people within the game that will trigger a whole range of different emotions within the football fan.

There's the humour from people such as Ian Holloway and Gordon Strachan, the surreal from Iain `bouncebackability' Dowie, the nasty from Messrs Ferguson and Wenger, and the arrogance of Jose Mourinho.

None of the reactions I've experienced when reading quotes attributed to any of the aforementioned can remotely compare to what I felt when I read a quote from David Murray of Glasgow Rangers last week though.

When he backed up his measly offer for Barry Ferguson by saying that his value `decreases by ｣1million a year' I nearly fell off my chair!

How does he come to that conclusion?

A player that he sold just over 12 months ago for the best part of £7 million goes to a superior league to play against better players week in week out and becomes a worse player for the experience.

Not only worse, but worse to the tune of three and a half million pounds!

Can someone tell me if he was quoted from the comfort of a padded cell while wearing a strait jacket because that's the only logical solution I can find.

It would appear that Mr Murray is only happy when he's receiving the cheques, especially those written by Graeme Souness, but he's a little more reluctant to write them himself. The bid was a joke and rightly dismissed out of hand, but I'm pretty sure we haven't heard the last of it.

The meeting with John Williams, Ferguson and his agent hints that all is most certainly not well with the player.

The fact that John Williams saw fit to arrange such a meeting following the speculation says a lot, but not as much as the silence from the Ferguson camp which has been positively deafening.

This coming from a player who only a few short weeks ago declared himself settled in the area and happy under the new management team.

Something seems to have turned his head and it would appear that his days at Ewood are now numbered.

As I said last week, when a player wants to leave there's precious little any club can do about it. The players rule the roost these days and contracts are basically not worth the paper they're written on.

So, if as I expect, Ferguson does leave, how will this affect the team?

Even though he is currently our best midfielder, he has never lived up to the hype of when he arrived. We were led to believe he would be our Keane or Vieira, but he has fallen short of that.

Maybe it's unfair to use that comparison, but for the money spent he has never really stood out and took hold of games as I believe he should have.

The defining thing for me though is that he's willing to go back to the totally uncompetitive Scottish league. He'll forever be labelled as a player who couldn't make the transition to a higher level.

If it's to be goodbye Barry, then good luck. You'll need it in your titanic battles with Inverness Caley Thistle.



Evening Times(21.Jan) http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5034669.html
Barry will have 4 homes if he comes back to Rangers

LUXURY DEVELOPMENT: homes being built on the estate near Hamilton where Barry Ferguson has also bought two houses
SCOTLAND skipper Barry Ferguson will have the choice of four homes to live in if he returns to Rangers.
As speculation mounts about the 26-year-old Blackburn skipper moving back to Ibrox, public records obtained by the Evening Times show he has paid £335,000 for a plot to build his own home in the much sought-after village of Bothwell, Lanarkshire, which has long been a favourite home for Old Firm stars.
And two luxury homes being built for Ferguson on the outskirts of his home town of Hamilton are now nearing completion.
Developers say the detached £300,000 homes will be ready to move into within the next month.
His wife Margaret is said to have been closely involved in monitoring the progress of the homes.
As well as the Bothwell plot and the two houses near Hamilton, Ferguson still owns a secluded house further up the Clyde Valley, near Ashgill, where he lived with his family when he played for Rangers.
His growing property empire first hit the headlines in September 2003, when he queued with other housebuyers outside a Hamilton estate agent to make sure he snapped up the exclusive houses.
And he has also bought another of the houses on the same street of the development where Rangers pal Bob Malcolm is also due to move in.
Ferguson, who left Ibrox 18 months ago, submitted an official transfer request yesterday although the struggling Premiership side are keen to keep him.
Rovers have already rejected a £3million offer from Rangers, but Ibrox chiefs remain hopeful they can bring him back.
Sources close to the player have claimed his family failed to settle in Lancashire.
And today's news of Ferguson's growing property empire will add to the belief that he and wife Margaret would rather return to Scotland with their three children to be near family and friends.
A Lanarkshire property source said: "It's mainly Barry's wife who has been making the final arrangements to do with the houses on the outskirts of Hamilton.
"I'm not sure if he and the family are moving in there, but one of the places should be ready by the middle of February. " A neighbour on the exclusive estate said: "We've seen Bob Malcolm and his girlfriend around quite a bit.
"We saw Ferguson in the queue back in 2003 and had heard some of his relatives were moving in to one of the houses."
The plot in Bothwell, which Ferguson bought, is in a leafy neighbourhood which has been home to many Scottish Premierleague players, including former Celtic star Henrik Larsson.
Ferguson's agent John Viola said he had bought the plot jointly with Ferguson, and the player wanted to return to the Glasgow area because "it's his main home here".
But he added: "We don't even know if he's coming back yet." Viola, who lives in Bothwell, is one of Scotland's top football agents and advises other Rangers players including Malcolm.
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