Rangers admit defeat in Ferguson bid

Rangers today admitted defeat in their bid to re-sign former captain Barry Ferguson.

Having seen an initial £3m (€4.3m) bid knocked back last week, Rangers chairman David Murray waited until today before making a revised offer.

That would have guaranteed Blackburn Rovers £3.5m (€5.1m) plus another £500,000 (€723,800) once the 26-year-old played a set number of appearances.

But Blackburn, who insist the player will not be allowed to leave for less than their £6m (€8.7m) valuation, rejected it.

That prompted Rangers to finally call off the chase.

A club statement read: “Rangers Football Club can confirm that a further increased offer was made today to Blackburn to acquire the registration of Barry Ferguson.

“Our £4m (€5.8m) offer was rejected and negotiations will proceed no further after Blackburn made it clear they would only accept a transfer fee of £6m (€8.7m).

“Rangers Football Club are disappointed as we believe this offer to be substantial.”

Ferguson, the Scotland captain who controversially left Ibrox for Ewood Park in a £6.5m (€9.4m) deal in August 2003, had been desperate to move his family back to Scotland.

He made it clear Rangers were the only team there he would consider joining and in a bid to to speed up the move had handed in a transfer request earlier in the month.

Rovers took their time over answering it but eventually allowed him to leave - on the condition £6m (€8.7m) was paid.

Rangers had remained hopeful that player power would sway the deal in their favour, especially as Rovers still owe £2.5m (€3.6m) from the initial deal.

But the Premiership side stood firm and although Rangers badly needed Ferguson’s creative input to challenge Celtic for the Bank of Scotland Premier League title they today decided they could go no further.

Rangers had earlier tried to sweeten the pot by offering players in part-exchange, with former England defender Michael Ball believed to be one option, but Rovers rebuffed that too.

Today’s news is a setback for Rangers manager Alex McLeish, who has at least been able to strengthen other areas of his squad with the money banked from the sale of defender Jean-Alain Boumsong, who left for Newcastle for £8m (€11.6m) earlier in the month.

Belgium international play-maker Thomas Buffel, who joined from Feyenoord in a £2.3m (€3.3m) deal, and midfielder Bojan Djordjic, who left Manchester United on a free transfer, have already slotted into the starting line-up.

New signing Sotirios Kyrgiakos, the Greece international centre-back, is ready to do the same on Saturday in a debut at home to bottom club Livingston.

The £1.8m (€2.6m) signing from Panathinaikos missed Sunday’s 2-1 win at Aberdeen because he was in Athens looking after his sick father.

Kyrgiakos has been given the number 16 jersey vacated by Paolo Vanoli, who has returned to Italy, and that was the number he wore for Pana this season.

The 25-year-old declared he was ready for the new challenge.

He told the club’s official website, www.rangers.co.uk: “It has been a busy time for me but I have been made very welcome and I feel as though I am settling in at Rangers.

“It will be great to play in the match on Saturday and experience the Rangers crowd.”

Meanwhile, Georgian striker Sandro Iashvili has begun a trial spell at the club.