Ste B He really is. He's a wee Glasgow ned who admitted that had he not been a footballer he'd have liked to have left school as soon as possible to go into the same business as his dad (roofing I think) (That's not to say that all roofers are thick- just that that was the summit of his ambitions) I'd think exactly the same of any ex-celt. With Champagne Charlie Nicholas I thought that (and of course he had to get away from the London temptations which were destroying him as a person)- I also thought we shouldn't have taken him back. Ditto Mo Johnson before that move was hijacked by Mr Souness. It's usually a mistake to go back (although if Mt Larsson were fit and wanted to, that MIGHT be a different matter)

My problem is that I don't believe he left us with a team in a better shape than when he arrived. Sure we were in Division 1 then and going backwards, but we were absolutly abysmal when he left and could easily have been beaten by almost anybody. (Indeed the "second string"- who Hughesy tried out were beaten by BOURNEMOUTH and the first string managed a home draw with West Brom and a loss to Southampton and we now know how poor they are) I think the PLAYERS, by and large are better than the team that were there when he arrived (although I'd take Dunn, Duff and a fit Jansen above anything that we currently have), but they were unfit and poorly trained- see what Hughes has got out of them and judge the difference. I honestly foresaw a fall to below where we were before had he stayed (without being able to spend £7m on Andy Cole's equivalent to bail him out). The fact that we had good times in between was great, but he should have gone when it became obvious he'd started losing people's support. (around the time of his spat with Dunn) Anyway Toddy for Captain - or Flitty if not him

Mr Viola and Mr Murray are currently helping him copy the statement they've written that he'll release into his own handprinting.

I believe outright

Souness. I appreciate the point about being run very well, but as Souness colludes with Murray all the time (allegedly of course) I suspect he's let him know that Blackburn MIGHT just bite to get out of the payment. And although it's not in the same context- Leeds had to sell a player for a large sum each quarter to make their debt repayments- so financial husbandry is not always sound (Although I think ours probably is). Also if what Tris is said is true, and the payment is due in August (cannot comment on this)- Murray and Viola may just have thought originally that they could get this bargain because the board were worried about possible relegation. Of course they reckoned then without Mark Hughes getting much more out of the squad that Souness did, so Murray told Viola to play the trump card- the transfer request.

Of COURSE Ferguson is being manipulated. He's never been the sharpest tack in the drawer. Unlike Savage- who knows EXACTLY what he's doing, Ferguson has to be told at each stage what to say, where to stand, what to think etc. I believe he DOES want to go home. I also believe that if "that nice Mr Viola" tells him that he's do really well at Everton or Newcastle (because the nice Mr Viola gets more of a wodge for him from them) then that's what he'll think too.

You know blue/white, if I had said that first I'd have been lambasted. but Abso- f***ing-lutely!!!!

Paul My self- censored point made a connection between the two!

I like this Hughes more and more. He's clearly on my wavelength!!

Bryan I prescribe a long rest in a darkened room with a cold towel mate! To my knowledge there's no such thing as Scotney rhyming slang!

Again- we may be owed some cash from some of the many people we've sold to them. We may even be robbing Peter to pay Paul in that we're diverting the Ferguson payment to buy Savage. Who knows? I don't, but I'd just counsel not to automatically think that this is another £3 million to spend

A slightly naive view of company accounting. It WILL have been accounted for. This is a completely different thing than the cash being available. Possibly it is, but it could be that Rangers have been warned that we would be unable to make the payment, and so think they can do this deal at a price we'd be forced to accept.

Sorry- inappropriate comment from me

Oh for goodness sake remove the veil from your eyes. He became international captain because Paul Lambert retired. It was a choice between him and Christian Dailly (check the SFA website and you'll see that they each captained a couple of games when Lambert wasn't playing). "The most highly rated footballer outside the Premiership"? That's a Souness. What about Larsson, Sutton (for two) and then there're the "few" good players in France, Italy, Spain etc. "Had played many games in Europe when he was the best player in the park". Have you LOOKED at Rangers recent European record? Their results with Barry were never great and I don't even think his mammy would make the claim that on many he was the best player on the park. Some, probably (against Estonians and Luxemburgers) but many? I don't think so. He was Souness's pet, and was bought for about twice as much as we should have spent. He didn't perform at the price of a top-class midfielder for us, and I'm afraid that's just a fact.

Someone said about Ferguson disrupting things if we made him stay. HIM? You've GOT to be joking. To do that he'd actually have to SAY something and have someone take notice of him if he did. Sherwood got away with disrupting things because he was respected as a player and captain. In the games I saw Ferguson play there never seemed to be a lot of respect for him or direction coming from him- indeed at Charlton especially I'd have thought Flitty was the captain as he was the one telling the others what to do. That said, I'd take the money and run. I trust Hughesy to get more for the £3m than that other chap managed for his £6.5million.

Wonder who you'd think I'd be rooting for. TODDY!!!! On so many levels that's the best choice!

Ferguson in today's market is worth about the same as he was worth when we bought him. £3- £3.5 million.

Flopsy Have changed it- I think your description is fairer than mine.

Well, I'm shocked. (NOT) From the start I said he was a bad buy, that Souness had done it as a favour to Murray, and that Barry would be homesick in a matter of months. I was right (again). (That should make me happy because it's always nice to be right when you've been lambasted by naive and trusting people but because of the abject waste of money for Rovers it doesn't) Just to make some of you laugh, I spoke to our Rangers supporting doorman. He said "there's a lot of Rangers fans don't want him back, now Amoruso would be a different kettle of fish". Maybe we can get rid of him as well in a 2 for the price of 1! Oh and by the way, with my Celtic hat on, his return to Rangers doesn't fill me with dread. He's been even poorer than I thought he'd be for Rovers!

Well, if anyone cn get anything out of the waster, he can. Personally I hope they're just recyclling the summer story

Argh We agree on something!!

Hmn Anothier person who doesn't know his facts Petrov doesn't have any wish to leave and has 2 1/2 years on his contract. The signs are that Bobo will re-sign as well. Hartson (despite the expenditure by Rangers) is leading scorer in Scotland at the moment- and I believe Camara and Sutton are also in the top 10 now). And for all the much-vaunted wonderful signings by Rangers, Celtic are still top of the league at the moment. Would Celtic want Ferguson? The man, no. They could do with another talented central midfielder, but so could most teams but they have more wide players than you could shake a stick at (Aiden McGeady - who you won't have heard of but will be fighting Duff for a place in the Irish team soon; Ross Wallace- not in the same league but still a tidy player, Thommo who is fantastic, Even Stephen Pearson isn't too bad). Also in the striking department, Maloney and Beattie are coming back to fitness which will be interesting. Celtic are not spending vast amounts on players, that's true. They don't want to have huge debt problems hanging over their heads. It's called being realistic. They don't NEED to spend big to win the league they're in, and they can't spend big enough to win the Champion's league.

At the beginning of the season I'd have said Rangers were better, but with the new lease of life Hughes has given to Rovers, I'd say they were better. Course Celtic are better than both, but that's a whole other story

Looks like the BBC agree with me, as Nelsen has made it into their team of the week (With Mokoena)! As Toddy did to Sky's team (With Emerton!!! Well done to them all.

I have watched Lucas Neill recently- he's gone from totally inadequate to adequate. You got something from Nelson yesterday you've never seen- and will never see- from Neill. Leadership skills. Even looking at the highlights- which I'm sure is what most of you giving your opinion have done, you could see him telling other players what he wanted them to do. Neill has not done this in all the games I've seen him in (which would be the majority of games he's played for Rovers). Nelson's also captain of his country, and on that evidence I can see why. (the argument isn't as strong as it could be as Ferguson's captain of my country and I've never worked out why- apart from the fact that all our good footballers aer either too young or have retired)