Disagree. Hughes said today: "Rangers have not come in with anything like a realistic bid and it is very difficult to say which way we can go with it. We will be speaking to Barry and his representatives on Monday and maybe then we will have a clearer picture." My reading of the situation is that Rovers are waiting only for a better offer, probably this weekend, and Ferguson will be on his way. Williams, for all his faults, knows that keeping an unhappy player at the club against his wishes is in no one's interest.

Harry Harris is one of the few who really knows what he's talking about. He got his first big break on the Mirror when he got hold of Robert Maxwell's personal home number and (that only about 3 people knew) asked him for a job. ..... What happened was Maxwell was so impressed that Harry had got his number he offered him a job on the spot - at (for the time) a ludicrous salary of course. Harry is one of Fleet Street finest, the author of such literary gems as ...."Bethlehem, birthplace of the legendary Jesus Christ" .... and "from my hotel room overlooking Mount Everest".

Dear den, I really am struggling with your words "decent striker" and players such as Paul McKinnon, Sean Curry and Paul Round in the same sentence. Would reiterate a previous message about David Speedie; without him we would not have achieved promotion in 1991-92. Watch the video of the season - he was truly phenomenal. Suppose it has to be Shearer because he would probably be a candidate for an all-time England XI. The way he left the club was still disgraceful however. And Garner to play alongside him because he had the virtue that the likes of Shearer, Ferguson and Savage all lack - loyalty.

This week's prize award for the daftest comment. With the millions in funding available to them from a variety of sources, this lot are on easy street compared with the boards of the 1970s and 1980s. Poor old Bobby Saxton wasn't allowed to use the club telephone until the afternoon when the GPO charged lower rates. And Jim Smith used to bring his own (soft) bog roll to work because the club had the shiny paper (and cheaper) Izal stuff !

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.

..... because they've unsettled our player ? Some would say that is what we did to Birmingham over Savage.

Lovely stuff Scotty. Journalistic talent there - obviously wasted at whatever you do for a living. Diouf is starting to show what a good player he is so we need to keep him spitting distance from the danger area on the right from where he delivers a very good cross. Big job for Matteo presuming he plays. Bolton will have regained alot of their lost confidence from the victory over Arsenal so I expect a hard game. 1-1.

All the above is irrelevant. Ferguson's wife is unhappy away from the extended family in Scotland and, as we all know, if you want peace and harmony at home you have to go along with the wishes of 'er indoors. The club should let him go before the end of the month for as high a fee as possible. As I said previously, if Rangers really do want him they will come up with the money.

Arrrrgggghhh ! Two different players entirely. How can Thompson - the original headless chicken - perform a holding role in midfield ?

Stupid comment. There's nothing to be gained in keeping an unhappy player at the club. Witness Savage at Birmingham. Rangers just need to tweak the price upwards a little (taking into account the money we still owe Rangers) and he will be gone. It's sad because a Ferguson/Savage midfield would have been excellent. The club must move on though and seek a replacement for Ferguson (which Savage is not).

Your first sensible post in weeks. Congratulations.

Right yet again. It was obvious from the start.

Spellcheck resigns and seeks alternative employment.

They're knocking Blackburn the town again. Bojan Djordjic, Rangers’ new Swedish recruit from Manchester United, speaking after the 3-0 victory over Dunfermline Athletic yesterday and backing Ferguson to return to Ibrox: “Have you seen Blackburn? It’s not New York. I could never understood why Ferguson went from Ibrox to Ewood Park. I hope he comes back - we can win the championship with someone like that.”

You're missing the point. Everton accepted that Gravesen wanted to leave and Rovers will have to do the same because Ferguson has told the board he wants to go. The only issue to be resolved is the transfer fee. Rangers will find the money.

Everton chief executive Keith Wyness, commenting on Thomas Gravesen's departure to Real Madrid, said tonight: "No one at Everton wanted to lose Thomas Gravesen. We did everything we could to keep him. But once it became clear Thomas had set his heart on a move to Real we fought hard for the best possible deal.” Which is what I believe Rovers are doing over Ferguson at this moment.

Read this comment piece from one of tomorrow's Scottish broadsheets. Not nice about Blackburn - or Burnley. FERGUSON OWES IT TO HIS CAREER TO STAY IN ENGLAND By Phil Gordon NEW YORK boasts that it is so good they named it twice. That’s not even in the same league as Hamilton. The inspiration behind four other namesakes scattered across the globe is what is tugging at Barry Ferguson’s heart right now. Not the Hamilton with the eyecatching beachfront in Bermuda, nor the stunning city nestled alongside the Waikato River in New Zealand. The one in Australia, then? Or what about the high-rise Hamilton in Ontario, a short drive from Toronto? No, Ferguson yearns to be back in the original Hamilton, the Lanarkshire town he grew up and lived in until his transfer to Blackburn Rovers 17 months ago. The Scotland captain is homesick and would like a move back to Rangers. To borrow Frank Sinatra’s take on the whole business of uprooting, the little town blues are not melting away for Ferguson but that’s because he’s substituted it for a place that has an even smaller mentality. Despite the makeover given to Blackburn Rovers by Jack Walker’s millions, there can be no disguising the geographical dislocation of the northern Lancashire town. A former colleague once told me that neighbouring Burnley was “God’s own country” but anyone who has ever been there will know that that man upstairs must have been ready to clock off after six days hard of creating the world, when he suddenly remembered he had to finish off places like Burnley and Blackburn. Lanarkshire has them too. However, it also has the shopping and sights of Glasgow just 20 minutes down the motorway. That’s what made Hamilton such a perfect location for Giovanni van Bronckhorst when he set up home there after moving to Rangers from Feyenoord seven years ago. Henrik Larsson was another who could be spotted locally. Both, though, have moved on. Ferguson needs to do the same. Leaving aside the theory that going back to the scene of your first great success is often a dangerous thing in football, the midfield player’s belief that returning to Rangers would offer greater satisfaction than remaining in one of the most appealing football environments in the world, is flawed. It’s not that long ago when Ferguson and van Bronckhorst were the glittering talents in a Rangers side that dominated Scottish football. The Holland player also opted for the Barclays Premiership, yet even when Arsene Wenger’s ceaseless cast of stars and a dreadful knee injury seemed to conspire against him, van Bronckhorst re-invented himself on loan at Barcelona as a left-back and is now regarded as a cult hero in the Nou Camp after his goal in the win over Real Madrid. Van Bronckhorst could be in the Champions League final in May. Ferguson being in Govan at the same time, would be a mockery of his undoubted ability. Ferguson was peerless in Rangers’ Treble success in 2003 — he provided the drive, the penetrating passes and even, unusually, the goals. His haul of 20 that term are in stark contrast to the two he has managed this season at Blackburn, but any player who was deprived of nine months, asFerguson was by a shattered knee, requires time to return to his true capabilities. What Ferguson needs right now is to possess the broader horizon of van Bronckhorst, or Larsson. Scotland probably need it too. Ferguson is one of the few players operating at a high level that Walter Smith can call upon. He could go higher, but that is up to Ferguson. There is little doubt that his moderate Scotland performances have failed to match those at club level — yet Blackburn ought to be his stepping stone to a bigger stage, not somewhere to launch his idea of back to the future at Ibrox. When Ferguson moved to Ewood Park, he cited a hunger to play against midfield players he admired, such as Steven Gerrard, Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira. The ambition, though, should be to play alongside them. The Barry Ferguson who held aloft the Bank of Scotland Premierleague trophy and Tennent’s Scottish Cup as Rangers captain in May 2003 is capable of augmenting any top English club’s roster. Going back to a Rangers, whose spending and footballing power has declined in his absence, is not a career move. If Ferguson wants any evidence, he only has to look at another of his erstwhile neighbours in Hamilton. Paul McStay was Celtic’s captain a decade ago when he realised he had probably paid the price of being too loyal to a club and not selfish enough about his career. McStay, like Ferguson, had a young family when he approached his football crossroads. He preferred the quiet life in Hamilton, where he had gone to school. It took him only 15 minutes to get to training at Celtic Park and he was idolised by supporters who had watched him develop from a precocious teenager into someone who would earn 76 caps for his country. In 1992, McStay was about to depart for the European Championship finals with Scotland. He had an offer to move to Udinese in Italy. Not the most glamorous of Serie A clubs, but a bit of a stepping stone, like Blackburn. McStay’s performances at Euro 92 underlined that he would easily attract bigger offers in the future but he came back from those championships in Sweden and made a U-turn on his decision to quit Celtic . Two years later, not even McStay’s remarkable loyalty to Celtic could guarantee immunity after he, as captain of an impoverished team, missed the penalty that condemned Celtic to defeat by Raith Rovers in the 1994 Scottish League Cup final. Had McStay chosen to go to Udinese, there is little doubt that he could have earned a bigger move, just as David Platt shrewdly did at the same time after just one campaign at Bari prompted Juventus to buy him. Even if Ferguson has no notion of moving abroad, he is already in a country that would turn footballers all around the world green with envy. To turn your back on that and head back here would be folly. The Scotland captain tried to disturb his family’s uprooting as much as possible by delaying their move, making the 3 hour journey down the M6 from Lanarkshire to train at Blackburn before he found a new house. Being a footballer’s wife is not all glamour, and certainly not in these circumstances. While the players are training and travelling much of the time, their partners are stuck in a house on their own in a place they cannot find any affection for. Ferguson’s wife will miss the family support she had back in her native Hamilton. It is not easy to move away from your comfort zone. I can empathise, having spent a year each in London and Darlington. The latter was undoubtedly the harder. The little town blues were harder to conquer there. Going back, though, is not always the best move either. Just ask Charlie Nicholas whose second spell at Celtic was a shadow of the one before his move to Arsenal. Or, more recently, Eoin Jess’s dismal return to Aberdeen. Even the great Joe Baker had a humbling experience back at Hibernian after his success in Italy and England. The only person who made it work for him was John Robertson, whose return to Heart of Midlothian was not blunted by an short, unhappy sojourn at Newcastle United. Ferguson owes it to his career to stick it out in the Premiership. Take Sinatra’s advice: if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

In the end though, as Rangers and Brum have discovered, you have to let an unhappy player go. And there is no doubt that Ferguson, or rather his wife, is not happy. It will only take a small tweak in Rangers' offer for him to be on his way.

I hope I am wrong but the signs are that Ferguson has played his last match for Rovers. Alex McLeish, citing the example of Boumsong's move from Rangers to Newcastle and Savage's impending transfer to Ewood, today warned Rovers that the offer for Ferguson was final and that "player power" would secure his return to Glasgow by the end of the month. McLeish said: “All the managers are in the same boat these days. If a player digs his heels in then it can become difficult because of undermining the squad morale. “Also, you might not get the top performances out of the player that you would expect. Managers are definitely caught between a rock and a hard place these days in a situation like that.”

Amen to that. Has your source heard the rumour that Michael Gray may be Brum-bound as part of the deal ? And after Martin Taylor and Dwight Yorke and Gray, are there any more lame ducks Steve Bruce would like to take off our hands ?

Accident ? Don't rely on the Daily Mail for your information. Daniel Yorath died while playing football with his father in the garden in 1992. Unknown to everyone, he was suffering from cardiomyopathy, a hereditary disease that causes a thickening of the heart muscle. Daniel, 15, had just signed for Leeds United. Cardiomyopathy is among the biggest single cause of sudden cardiac death among young people. The Yorath tragedy was followed by the deaths of Ian Bell, 16, who had just signed for Hartlepool United, John Marshall, also 16, a junior international who died the day after he signed for Everton, and Jason Erics, 17, a member of the Tottenham Hotspur youth team. More recently, Marc-Vivien Foe, 24, the Manchester City and Cameroon player, died of the condition during a live televised international match in June 2003.

I refer you to my previous statement of the 12th, m'lud. "Whichever way you look at it, losing Ferguson would one hell of a blow to Rovers' chances of staying in the Premership."

I'm hearing more on this too. Very worrying.

Another thought-provoking article from the Guardian but I think they are wrong in this case. English referees are basically honest and isolated cases apart (the Peter Swan/Tony Kay 1960s Sheffield Wednesday scandal being the most notorious), so is English football.

Thoroughly enjoyed the Guardian article. Fair comment in my opinion.