The board and management most likely knew weeks ago that Ferguson was going. They knew they would get at least 3.5mil for him from Rangers. Therfore they knew they would have this to spend. The question is what players that were avlailiable and would sign for us were there? Hughes stated he only wanted players who would command for a first team place. He didnt just want to enlarge the squad. So what strikers were there about? Not many and even less who would join us. Simple fact of life, you cant but what isnt there.

I think the answer to that is Hughes did not believe he was comiited. Ferguson has basically admiited that by saying he wanted to leave and rejoin rangers as soon as he knew they wanted him. All we were doing was holding ot for as long as we could to get as much as we could.

As Longsider has already pointed out, we will get the Cricket Field stand - the same one that all away fans get in the cup matches. Its as near to 25% as possible but segregation issues are always a priority and with it being such a high profile game, they will want to police us in through the one entrance. It will be as early a start as they can get away with, the last thing they want is 20000+ fans visiting the local hostelries and getting lagered up beforehand like at the Turf last time. And how many does the cricket field stand hold? The stand now called the David Fishwick Stand holds 4125 http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/park/yfh...20Ground%20Like?

But if he still wants to leave in the Summers, hasnt played a game for us and Rangers dont up their offer (which they porbably wouldnt) what will we have gained?

Most likely some rubbish game no-one would want to watch. Something like Bolton v Derby/Fulham

But it wont be if he stays. We will then get who will be club captain, what should we do with him, should we play him, has he the right attitdue, will he go in the summer etc..............................

Any more info? Source?

Love the fact 4 people managed to post exactly the same thing at the same time. I guess it means there will be talks about Fergsuon.

Who is he?

We have no idea whther the current bid is a) a real or b ) a joke bid All total speculation and not a single media source reporting any defintive news on this. The real joke bid was 7.5 mil for him in the first place, how Rangers must have laughed.

Oh yes, i forgot he turned them down last time. He is so loyal, he didnt leave Huddersfield or Palce at all in the lurch

Cunning move by Bellamy. Souness is not doing as well as wanted, may get sacked. Steve Bruce has shown he likes Bellamy as a player. Steve Bruce most likely replacement for Souness. Therfore once Souey goes, Bellamy is back playing.

Or was it accepted Daily Record

Isnt Parker still injured? broken foot and all.Sure Chelsea will love for us to pay for him through his rehabiltation and get him ready for them for next season.

Well its a poor show if we arent prepared for his leaving. We have known it was lilkely most of the month. Also if his moral is low his performance, such as they were, may not ne any good anyway. We are in a v poor state if losing a playing like Ferguson leads us to relgation (and if Hughes, the board and co felt the same as you, they wouldnt be selling him) .

Apparently it just been on Rock FM that we have accepted a £5mil bid for him.

True, but it may have been "You cant ride a motorbike". Since it was a moped it may have slipped through the "though must nots". Not contract is ever watertight.

And your source is? And werent you the one who said we could not take it for granted that if Ferguson went to Rangers that the 2.5mil we still have to owe may not be available. Yet you are willing to jump to guesses over contracts. Yes you may be right but I also expect a premeiship contract is a complicated document that may have a loophole that a v good lawyer could find to make us still pay him. Finally, the club still proably felt they owed him for helping us regain premiership status. Do agree though, unless he shines till the end of the season we should not offer him a new contract.

Have you read a premiersip contract then? It would make sense to have it in but mistakes are made and stupid things can be left out. If Jansen had breached contract I would expect that we would still have paid him but at a severly reduced level.

Yes, he has to take responsibilty. But no-one here knows whether he was in brach on his contract as non of us now what he was and what he wasnt allowed to do under the terms of his contract. If he wasnt in breach of contract when the accident occured then we should have had insurance that would covered some, if not all, of the costs the club incurred.

Perhaps he played well. As you said, that the first time you watched him so from last night performance you assume he is poor yet he was in a team of the week and got good reports in the papers. Its totaly unfai to judge him on last night match, yet people will. One bad match -> Must be a badplayer 10 good matches -> Undecided, waiting for his bad match so I can call him a bad player.

I was waiting for someone else to aim the first barb at this player but I agree: on the evidence so far I have not been impressed. I was also waiting for people to launch into an attack on Mokeona. Not certain how fair it is to criticise him when th eother 10 players on his side were as poor as they were. He must have done well against Portsmouth as Yakubu and LualLua are a pacy and good attacking force that did nothing all game (apart from head butt Todd). Last night was not a night when you can at all fairly criticise a new player still aclimitising to the team and the country. If he looke bad and the rest of the team was ok, fair enough criticise him. But is show ittle patience or willingness to accept him if you launch into criticisms of his performance last night. Rant over.

We can only not pay his wages if he refuses to play, which he wont. He can sit in reserves, rot there and not play knowing that his value is plumeting yest Rangers will still want him because they know what they are getting. So if he really wants to go he can play ######, we will shunt him into reserves pay him over half a million in salary, see his price go down and sell him to the club he wished to go to. There is no stick that we can use. Only carrot. For those who really want us to keep him the only option is to talk to him and persuade him to retarct his transfer request and do all we can to make his life what he wants it to be. For those who think we should hold out for £6mil plus. All I can ay is "Get real". Not a hope on earth we will get that. Personally i will be happy as soon as he leaves as hes disrupting the cub just as things are turning round. Get rid of him for a bit less than hes really worth as he could/will cost us more if we keep hold of a player who doessnot want to be here. Yes we should ask for more than hes worth but only as a standard negotiationg point. The talk of starting at £8mil+ is farcical, £5.5 Mil tops is more like it.

Murray confirmed in an interview that it was a TOTAL BID of £3m. ie £440,00o cash plus writing off the £2.56million due in the summer. But Murray was probably lying in that interview as Williams has come out and said that it is less than £2.5 mill that we have left to pay. I am more inclined to belive our chief exec than theirs.

So if you want no write off then you are happy for us to pay them the remaining sum due in the summer? Also Ferguson is not, in my eyes, a good enough or key enough playet for us to pay him £0.75 mil to sit around and bugger off in the summer. Yes we can sit him down and try and talk him out of leaving, but if he wants to go we should get rid of him a fast as we can AS LONG AS we get a fair price for him. Why would it be the right thing for us to reject his transfer requst and not talk to him till the Summer. Look at where that got Birmingham. He is going whether you like it or not. It a case of maximising returns now.