A few reflections: Some very sharp negotiating behind the scenes by the Rovers team to get Savage for £2.5m plus £500K on appearances if that is the deal. I would imagine we are picking up the £150K media rights and £60K from the golden handshake unless Savage has a better deal on media rights from the Rovers than Brum were giving him (quite possible as media rights are different from merchandising rights and I would question why a club should get involved in the work a player is doing in what is essentially preparation for retirement other than agreeing it does not interfere with his football duties). The all up deal is around 80% of Brum's asking price of £3.5m. Newcastle paid 80% of Rangers' £10m asking price for Boumsong- there is the target for Rovers in setting the asking price for Ferguson. I expect Rovers to use some elegant device from the Walkers Trustees being unavailable for a Board Meeting before a week next Friday to politely declining the transfer request to force Rangers' hand in their bidding before naming a price for Ferguson. The "80% rule" means that price has to be more than £8m to drive the settlement above £6.5m. Everybody can see what Brum did to savage and us. Let that be a warning to Viola if he is thinking of cutting up rough. Finally back to Savage. This was more a personalised battle for Steve Bruce than anything to do with Brum v Rovers. He lost Bowen in very acrimonious circumstances. Now his best player has moved primarilly because he would prefer to work with Bowen and Hughes than with Bruce. This must HURT.

Tris, I completely agree. Noticed that all the talking about the transfer request was done by John Viola again this morning? I just wonder how total the extent is to which the Fergusons are being manipulated. The only circumstances in which we should play ball would be if Hughes has a bargain lined up for which we need the Ferguson transfer money for- the rumour advanced by AndyC

"In today's transfer market" Should be "in today's transfer markets" There is a bottom end market for players who are within a year of going for a Bosman- Morientes for £5m ish. There is a traditional market of willing buyers and needing to sell sellers with players mid-contract- Beattie £6m, Anelka £7m There is a top end market of players under long term contract (more than two years) who have to be prised out of the grasp of unwilling sellers- Savage £3.1m, Boumsong £8m, anybody Chelsea buy Ferguson should be priced in comparison to Savage and Boumsong. I would slap an asking price of £8.5m on the basis that his original price was £7.5m and he is a better player now than he was at Rangers.

All these comments about Barry being a disruptive influence if he stays are a bit wide of the mark. Yes, Savage would rip the place apart but wee timorous Barry? I think we can comfortably let the window close without him gone if we don't get our asking price, whatever that may be.

or Rangers wanting £10m for Boumsong.... Brum asked £3.5m for Savage, got £3.1m, made a £0.6m profit Rangers asked £10m for Boumsong, got £8m, made a £8m profit I will be disappointed if we don't get at least our £6.5m back.

Savage or Mokoena or Nelsen- all have experience as international captains.

I must confess to reading between the lines of John Williams' statement last night and conclding that it was inviting Rangers to up their offer. What we have learnt in these situations is that the club which does not want to sell loses the player but it does succeed in squeezing a huge price for the player. The reference to the Board is a smart first tactic. Rangers should hand over the £8m they got for Boumsong and consider themselves fortunate. Barry is the better player.

Sullivan is still moaning! He makes some fair points but after all the bile that has poured out of St Andrew's is anybody taking any notice any more. Hopefully he will find a club closer to home and leave Rovers and Brum in peace.

If I may join in. OK the £150K was not about valuation but there was a £150K hickup in the process. How on earth Brum expected to persuade Savage to stay, offering him equal terms to Rovers and behaving like little spoilt brats with their threats and stances if he did go. I would think Savage now has absolutely zero respect or regard for the club, its Directors, its MD and especially its "do what I say, not what I do" Manager. Lovely to see Brum so utterly paranoid about Savage that they don't want him to play on 30 April- I can understand those types of clauses when a player's new club happens to play the old one a week after the transfer but three months later! Obviously Steve Bruce is incapable of changing his tactics from one month to another.

Well at least there is nothing to discuss concerning Barry Ferguson and Rangers

Good points there. Pompey look like soon being without Quashie, Faye, Yakubu. Unless they suddenly buy half a team, they are not going to get many more points before the season end. Saints, Palace, West Brom and Norwich are so weak that I cannot see any of Pompey, Fulham and Brum getting caught by them. All three of those lower mid table clubs are going backwards at the moment and it would be better for the Prem if they were caught in a full on relegation scare to shake them up. Of the clubs deep in trouble, I have a soft spot for Southampton but they need more than just Quashie to save them. Despite having bought some players who were very promising England u-21 internationals, the likes of Prutton and Higginbottom seem to have caught whatever Tiny Taylor got and are now not much use at all. Football-wise Norwich are the best of the strugglers but they have had a miserable time with injuries to their small squad. How West Brom could blow well over £10m and be so bad is quite amazing. Meanwhilst, Dowie works miracles at Palace and they will be the team the other three will have to try to get ahead of if they to avoid the drop. There was a telling comment on the Radio report of the Ipswich game on Saturday- "This Ipswich side are far worse than the Norwich side they are likely to replace". Only Wigan of the clubs in the second division are showing any pretence of Premiership style and even they are stuffed full of players who weren't good enough for the Prem. When you think PNE and the dingles are within toching distance of a play off spot, it shows how awful that division is and how poor the prospects are for the survival of whoever comes up.

We've got to take this competition seriously. I am looking for a close to full strength team similar to the one we fielded in Cardiff. Man U played a team of girls and look what Exeter did to them at OT. Quite right too.

I am picking up mention of two causes for delay: - Brum insisting on getting their quality replacement (if they'll take Diao, surely de Pedro is a natural for Gronkjaer's slot?) - Brum holding out for an extra £150K valuation. It seems there is no doubt about the deal being done and I guess we are OK with Brum paying Savage's wages until the registration deadline for the Bolton game. If it comes to it, we must have learnt a trick or two to play on Rangers but gracefully and with style.

That coach cannot go very fast with all those taffies on the roof! The official site is saying that the extra day of recovery time for next Monday's Bolton match will hopefully allow Ferguson and Bothroyd to come into the reckoning for that game which presumably means they are both ruled out of the replay with injuries. I'd like to see Matty given a run out against Cardiff- he did pretty well when he came on at Pompey from the highlights I saw. More of the same (if not even better) from MGP and Mokoena please. Try Thommo and Reid in the centre midfield or Thommo and Flitty? I would stick with Nissa at left back because the Bluebirds must have Matteo marked out as the Rovers' weak link. It would be nice not only to survive but to win by more than one goal, and in normal time as well! Rovers 3 Cardiff 1 High hopes deflated if Rovers do not prevail in this one. However, one of the Prem sides in this weeks replays and rearranged game will go out- odds on.

The orchestrated talk campaign by the gobby gers continues this morning. Another "failed in England"- Alex Rae today. They obviously think they need to keep working on Barry. A little speculation for you. We all know Souness and Murray are close. I wonder if Souness did a deal not to go for Barry in this window as part of the prising away of Boumsong? It is quite probable Souness told Murray a sob story of how cash was tight at Rovers and he couldn't have the transfer funds he needed. I have been trying to work out how on earth Murray thought he could conceivably succeed with a £440K cash offer and the only possible explanation would be inside information causing him to believe the Rovers would struggle to pay the £2.56m balance this week. In a nightmare scenario, he could be right Alternatively, probably the Rovers board cut Souness' spending powers having lost faith in him and as a result, started to budget spending between £2m and £3m to get rid of him. Instead that money was saved and Fat Freddie gave us some £0.5m for the pleasure of parting!

The Rovers were fined £25,000 for having six players yellow carded on Saturday- apparently its an automatic penalty and nothing to do with the hefty penalty we are almost certain to face at the end of the season when we are hauled up before the FA for our poor disciplinary record. In fact, at the same time as our results were improving, the number of yellow cards were going down over recent weeks. Until D'Urso. So after that ludicrous penalty at Southampton, D'Urso c'ost u's a'gain.

Rangers have set up some paid hack to recycle ancient history for them on SSN. Next headline, Hadrian to build Wall.

Cuidado, a bit of sports psychology for you: - Hughes was a player for Rovers only two and a half years ago. He HAD to establish his authority by creating distance from ALL the plavers, not just Morten. - It is the oldest trick in the game- good guy personal coach, bad guy team coach. Come on Morten, together we'll show Hughes how good you really are. That said I am so pleased to hear that Rovers have such an exceptional coach as Eddie on the staff. PS We were not AGAINST MGP. We all wanted him to come good but we were **** scared of our league position and we had faith in Mark Hughes' judgement.

It seems the Observer read this thread and kindly provided the answer. You're all correct about Scots! There are many different types- from the homesick wee bairns to the buccaneers who populate every Irish bar around the World! The Fergie story has gone quiet today from what I can see. Here's hoping that John Williams quote "that's the end of it", is prophetic. PS Somebody send this match report from a Rangers Fans site to Barry Ferguson.

I am really glad the Prem are doing this and recognising the problem. My view is they got the TV contract balance right until some misguided fool at the EU Commission intervened. Then they did nothing when a far more monopolistic deal was done for French football "because nobody complained".

Just seen the Lua Lua sending off. I have to say I hate seeing one professional footballer getting another dismissed from the field of play. But Lua Lua bought Andy's feint towards him hook, line and sinker!

You are joking! We got £250K for Yorke!!!!

Unfortunately he probably wants to go out on a high and add a chunk onto the transfer fee boosting his cut. Macabi Tel Aviv get 50%!!! of the sell-on fee and have a written requirement that the player HAS to be sold if an offer of more than £6m is received.

Sorry, try this- switch the sound off the advert!

Excellent comments by Mark Hughes- very well-judged in today's LET. If Ferguson does go, then Rovers can pride themselves in not putting a foot wrong. As it is, let's hope they are winning the game of hearts and minds.