I wanted him to stay, and I appear to be here! Although only you would try and turn such a sh!t end result into a point scoring exercise on the internet.

The reason I wanted him to stay is because, playing at their best, Savage and Ferguson would have been an awesome midfield pairing IMO.

I didn't like the fact that he'd asked for a transfer, but there's a world of difference between doing that and refusing to wear the shirt ... and it certainly wasn't "inevitable" that he'd go to those lengths to force Rovers' hand.

You want a player to stay who refused to wear the shirt by not wanting to play for Colchester.

Its irrelevant how good he is/was. He has to go because he didnt give a toss about our club and dint want to play for us and didnt care how we did.

This is born out be the fact the the club says he fused to play for us and the onlt thing he has said about us since he left is that rover v Bolton is not like Rangers v Celtic. Not a single word about the club, his teamates, playing in the premeisrhip. Just how moving was a big mistake and how he is so hapy to be bck at Rangers.

I  I genuinely didn't think he would refuse to play.

I'm still puzzled by the legal implications of this.

Why did not Rovers suspend him without pay when he refused to play ?

Any lawyers out there ?

What would they gain apart from annoying him.

At they point they probably just decided to put all their effort into getting the most from Rangers. And who says we have paid Fergsuson?

Why Barry had to go - LET

"The turning point came when we turned down Rangers' £4 million offer last week.

"Barry then made it clear he didn't want to play against Colchester on Saturday, which was a grave concern to us.

"We decided at that point it was time to let him go and we set about trying to get the best possible price we could for him.

I see that people have been changing their minds on this poll. At lunchtime more felt we were wrong to sell him. Then the LET reports he didnt want to play v Colchester and he says he was wrong to ever leave Rangers and it was a mistake joining us. [now 50 v 113]

Surprised any still feel we should have kept him.

Streakyb. - Sorry not prepared to argue with you any more. You appear to have started arguments with several others so you don't need me now.

I wasn't trying to argue with you. Just discuss what options are/were avaliable.

Yes, i wanted the club to buy a striker, but more importantly I didnt not want them to but someone because they were presuurised.

We are all quick to get on the back of the club for not buying a striker but we have no idea what efforts they made in this department.

If rumours are to be believed they were interested in several players. I would guess that none came to fruition mainly due to finacial reasons.

But what does signing a striker have to do with the fact that we were right to sell Ferguson

But is it really the case that just because a bloke, one bloke, says such and such is good, the club then start negotiations to spend 7 (or in Drogba's case 24 million quid). There must be some kind of second (or preferably, tenth or eleventh) opinion to stop managers just bringing in their mates or "easy" players??I'm not suggesting it should be all down to the chairman, as tends to happen in Spain, for instance, but surely the club should demand that the manager present a water tight (OK, OK football is football, etc) case for a new signing???

I did say that they would discuss the possible signing with the manager from this they would gauge the need for him, why the manager thinks he is a good buy and how much he is worth. But at the end of the day only one person typicaly in this country selects the team and he has to be the one to choose the players to buy.

When a board select the manager they should select someone who will be sensible on the player purchasing front. Therfore the board is not to blame for signing bad players, it is to be blamed for employing a manager who wants those players.

I realise that it's no longer the done thing (was it ever?) for anyone to take responsibility for owt at Premiership clubs, but between de Pedro (how much have we paid him in wages in the past 8 months or so) and Ferguson, someone has screwed up big time and lost the club shed-loads of money. So the chairman bleats/brags about having the biggest squad in the premiership. So stop throwing good money after bad, dimbo!! How many of the good folks who read this website could lose so much money (for sod all, don't forget) at work and expect to stay in their job?

Oh yes, and a promise that that that anchorman Bellamy will never darken the doors of Ewood Park would also be most welcome.

Souness was responsible for De Pedro and all the players he bought, as is Hughes for the players he brings in.

A club cannot going round second guessing its manager. It asks the manager who they would like and then negotaite for that player. They are respossible for the wages and trasnfer fees of the players but only, I would hope, after discussion with the manager and his telling them how important/good a player the person is.

In the past we have bough duds and possibly overpaid, but I think we have learnt now and are being more cautious. Another reason why we have not perhaps got the players in now.

de Pedro was a waste of money, but for all I criticise Ferguson, I do not feel he was a waste of money, yes we may have lost money on him but he was not a waste of money. He has played virually every game he was fit for and was normally one of the better players on the pitch.

No, they failed to do their jobs. Other teams find the men they need.

Why not Rovers..

The main reason is not signing a player for signing a players sake!

Sure it would have made us all alot happier if we had got a striker, but if hughes had rushed and gone for somebody quickly and he failed you would be even more unhappy because we have lost the money!

Football is swings & roundabouts, Good things come to those who..........WAIT!

Yes, Wait until we are relegated then try for good things like promotion.

So we should have just bought any old player like Bothroyd or De Pedro.

Buying a good striker is not like going to you local supermarket to buy a litre of milk.

yes we could have done with a striker and another midfielder and a LB etc but I am sure we tried to find some of enough talent to improve our squad, at a price and wage we could afford and who would realistically want to join us.

We wuld be even worse of now if we had bough a spur of the moment player just to keep people happy and still got relegated.

playing with a bunch of players incapable of passing the ball back to him didn't help either.

So what he doing at Rangers

You have the player you wanted now.

Ferguson underpermormed for us. Yes he had good games, yes he may not have been surrounded by the best players in the world but I really dont think there is any point at you making remarks that make even my ranting seem sensible.

Just face facts, you desperatly needed him back as your midfield did not have the required quality and you were worried that Celtic would be pulling away from you.

Very exciting if it's true, but I haven't seen anyone else running that story, so it could well just be speculation.

Bobby G said on the previous page that the Independent was reporting the same story.

No matter what they said in the media - I beleive that the deal only went though because they doubted how Ferguson would play.

And possibly the fact he, according to the LET, refused to play v Colchester.

Better just to ignore him. I know he is provoking but if nobody argues with him he will hopefully go away.

Sorry, I dont come her to provoke people into debates/arguments/quarrels. So I wont go away if people ignore me. I shall still state and jsutify my opinions.

I come here to discuss Blackburn Rovers. I come to put my point across and justify my opinions.

I am just trying to debate why I feel the player who according to todays LET refused to play v colchester is better out the door and not playing for us anymore.

Klos is injured so he will probably be the captain 'til Stefan returns.

He has said that Alex Rae will be as he doesnt want it.

Streakyb - if you continue with this kind of approach, to members who have been around this board for much longer than yourself, and are well respected members - you will find yourself getting a lot of grief from people such as the moderators.

Well i think I may be forced to leave and find a forum that allows debate and discussion without being threatened by a Mod. i know you will all be then happy as no-one will then try and stiumlate debate

Have I broken any forums rules? If so plese inform me so I can prevent it from occuring again.

Becuase I am not a respected member of this forum I cannot argue with those that are? I see it one way, other see it another and both sides try convince the other they are right. I think that is the great thing about the democracy we live in

I have enjoyed my discussions here and do value and respect everyones opinion and hope that it can continue.

No, they failed to do their jobs. Other teams find the men they need.

Why not Rovers.

You are an argumentative soul aren't you. Not many posts yet but every one I've seen seems to be trying to provoke an argument.

Anyway several of us have risen to the bait so you must be good at it.

Other teams had more money or else signed dross.

And yes, i do like arguments, even playing devils advocate. I like structured agruments, not just, i am right, you are wrong (although I am right and uou are wrong :-) ). i love a good debate. i am not a sheep who will just accept whatever I am told and never accept anything at face value.

So what srikers should we have bought/loaned then oh great one, since I am sure ou feel you could do a better job than the board.

No we do not know how many times we tried to sign a striker. The point is we failed. We had half a season to look for a striker not just a month and we failed. If I had failed at work I would have been sacked.

It is not the boards fault they failled.

You would not have been sacked at work if you worked in a purchasing department and told to buy a new new chair that was better than you current chairs but half the price as long as you could show that the chair the desired does not exist.

We tend to blame the board for things that are not in their control. And the avaliabilty of strikers is not in theri control. Simple fact.

It really annoys me hearing some rovers fans go on, Barry was class, At least with him when he played badly you knew he could do better, When Tugay and flitcroft play you know to expect nothing but miss placed passes and poor takles. Ok now we got savage but how long till he gets suspended then we'll look so weak. Also why sell when there's no chance what so ever to bring anyone else in??? makes me think that money won't be made available for new players.

I think you'll probaly find that the great alimighy and wonderful Barry goets nearly as many yellows and more reds than Savage.

Barry was ok. Never as good as the amount we paid for him though. Really annoy me when fans think he was a Gerrard/Lampard and that he was v amazing

Why sell? Becuase he didnt care about Rovers and wanted out, why keep? Get what we can now. We would only have got the same this summer.

Finally, yes, when Barry played bdly you knew he could do better. Thing is he never played for us at his best. I allways felt he could do better. Now I know why, he was allways a Ranger, never a Rover.

A lot  o fpeople, myslef included, will argue about Ferguson imporatnce on the pitch. Savage will replace him.

No, he won't. Savage has neither the talent nor the discipline to do the job that Ferguson was capable of doing. We will now have to rely on the increasingly erratic Tugay to pass the ball from A to B (maybe).

I didnt mean Savage as a direct replacment, more of a replacements as heart of the midfiled. Have to rely on Thommo or Tugs for creativity.

You also hit the nail squarely on the hear about Ferguson. As you said

Feguson was capable of doing

Same he didnt show his capability more. Never lived up to his potential or our expectations.

Also never undersatnd this complaint abuot Savage and discipline when Ferguson got as many reds for us as Savage has done in his entire career

The loss of our best player with no replacement and no one in the squad who can put the ball in the net is a catylyst for relegation. Williams has screwed up big time. We need the millions out there on the pitch not in the bank.

Buying in the summer could well be too late.

Fergsuon was not such a great player that his loss will doom us to relegation, Asgood as he may have been, his happiness at rejoining rangers shows that his eart would not have been in preventing us from being relegated.

And for the upteenth time.

WE DO NOT KNOW IF THE CLUB TRIED TO SIGN A STIKER OR NOT. WE DO NOT KNOW IF THEY HAD BIDS THAT FAILED.

remember that we are a club that traditionally keep all transfer news quiet untill the deal is done, unless the other club make it public.

Some observations:

A bad day for Blackburn Rovers on and off the field.

First and foremost, we have lost a key player in the fight against relegation. There is now a gaping hole in midfield that neither Savage nor Flitcroft are capable of filling.

Like the loss of Dunn, Duff and Cole, the departure of another leading player also sends a further bad message to the Blackburn public .... and the board wonders why crowd numbers are dwindling.

With regards to the transfer itself, Williams has been made to look the fool he is (again) by Murray.

His "tough" negotiating stance was shown to be nothing more than bluster and he has been given the runaround by Murray both in the buying and selling of Ferguson at a cost to Rovers of £2 million.

An amateur versus the professional.

In addition, the outcome of this saga was obvious from the start, although not to philipl and his cohorts.

An amateur versus the professional messageboard members.

A lot o fpeople, myslef included, will argue about Ferguson imporatnce on the pitch. Savage will replace him.

Finally what more could Williams have done, he held out for as long as possible to get as much as he could for a player. This player has made it abundtantly clear that he wanted to play for Rangers and no other club. His comments since re-signing to them has made it clear that he was proabably never fully comitted to the Rovers acuse and would have been at all comiited if we kept him to the summer. Ferguson wanted out.

Even if we did keep him to the summer, paying him a fortune in wages for a non comiited player, Rangers still would not have upped the offer. The had us my the proverbials and there was very little we could do about it.

On that basis, Streakyb, who could he sign for?

Should he only play Champions league football with Real?

The prem is just about the pinnacle of club football worldwide.

To say that a premiership match is not a challange is a gross understatement.

I am not saying he wouldnt sign for us, or for Celtic. Both are possibilities, Just dont agree on the reasoning for why he would not sign for Celtic but might sign for us.

I never said the premiership wasnt a chalenge. Just that we did not have big matches. A big match is a euopean tie, a local Derby, a match in the latter stages of a cup run. A match were you feel the extra pressure, the challenge.

How many big matches do we play a season? How many have we played this season?

Bellamy wont sign for a team that has 4-5 big games a year, no challenge except for one other team.

Plus it is unlikely that they will succeed in Europe.

Thankyou, You have just proved my point.

Bellamy wont sign for a team that has 4-5 big games a year

So why would he sign for us then? A premiersip match is not a big game.

I said lower level LEAGUE!

But why not? As I said, he is as likely to play for them as he is for us.

A crap as the SPL is, the lure of European football is HUGE. I think people not use to European footbal forget that fact.

As for the striker situation, like all managers say. Its hard to find a striker that will make a difference in the January window.

Fully agree. What strikers were there that moved? Which ones woudl have joined us?

We should only get players that will improve the squad, not dross like Souness would have felt pressured into buying due to fans pressure (i.e we must have a left winger, ok, here is De Pedro)

Also,I bet you anything Bellamy WILL NOT remain at Celtic.He wont play at a lower level league for sure!

You contradict yourself. You say he would sign for us but wont play at a lower level with a club who will get Champions League football.

As much as I may love Rovers. Celtic are not at a lower level than us. We are very unlikely to get European football and Celtic should have good UEFA cup runs. That offset with the Premiership V SPL would say that we are levellish in terms of attractiveness.