Barry Ferguson - the player

DD1872 said:
Barry Ferguson is a bit like the FA cup. If you need to continually debate, defend and tell everyone how great it/he is, then it kind of underlines the fact that it/he wasn't really that great.
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If you can't see how good a player Barry Ferguson was then maybe take up another sport.
He made a bad choice in joining Blackburn as Man Utd and Liverpool were heavily linked with him but in saying that more often than not he was Blackburns man of the match most games. Ferguson was a superb player who probably underachieved during his career.
 
Johansen said:
If you can't see how good a player Barry Ferguson was then maybe take up another sport.
He made a bad choice in joining Blackburn as Man Utd and Liverpool were heavily linked with him but in saying that more often than not he was Blackburns man of the match most games. Ferguson was a superb player who probably underachieved during his career.
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Heard loads of people say he flopped down south. As you say, he was man of the match in about half their games
 
Apart from his obvious talent and skill set, he really was a heart on his sleeve team player. In that 2007/2008 season and particularly in the run to Manchester Walter consistently picked a midfield 5 with perhaps Novo on the right and McCulloch on the left with Hemdani, Thomson and Ferguson. You would not pick one of that trio as a natural attacking midfielder, yet it was Ferguson who got forward more often than not when injuries had long since taken that from his natural game.
 
He was some player that’s for sure. Seen him play some top European talent off the park. He was scary good at a young age too, speaks volumes that a manager like Advocaat saw fit to make him the captain at such a young age.

Just a shame he’s a bit daft and was stripped of it twice too. But it’s definitely better to remember what a talent he was, and when it came to actually playing, he was a proper leader.
 
gersandproud said:
Looking back over his career after all this time - I have to use the term
' underachievement '

There were times it was reasonable to think - this guy is destined for the very top

I recognise that Blackburn & Birmingham were always going to be limited in the amount of exposure they might attract - & if the truth be told neither team at the time would have developed him much further IMO

But the thing is - there were times at both these clubs when Barry wasn't much more than average -
Consequently the bigger clubs weren't ever tempted to risk bids

I've often wondered if the likes of an Italian, Spanish or German club had signed him before Blackburn - how things might have turned out ?

We'll obviously never know now
But I can still only arrive at the 'underachievement' tag
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W
He was brilliant at Blackburn. That injury stuffed him up.
 
DD1872 said:
A player whose ability gets vastly inflated with every passing year since retirement, much like his ego...

He was an excellent player in his first spell. In his second, he was overly risk averse and played it safe too often. His shooting was, generally powederpuff, like Glen Kamara (queue someone posting a link to him scoring a rare 30 yard screamer as if it proves me wrong...).

Someone says above that he could have "played at any team in the world" - ability wise? Maybe, just like Paul Lambert played in a champions league winning Dortmund side or Scot McTominay playing for Man U. Ferguson would be there to perform a very set role: retain possession and give the ball to better players who could create opportunities. He wouldn't be dominating games like Pirlo, Modric, Gerrard or Lampard.

Mentality wise I don't think he could have played in "any side in the world". He had to be a big fish in a wee pond, he was a nobody down south. A bog standard, run of the mill player that nobody outside of Scotland would remember or speak about. That's the truth.
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I think you are confusing Barry Ferguson with Paul McStay.

Your post has to be one of the worst football opinions that I have read on here.
 
DerHammer88 said:
Who has ever said he was as good as them? They are some of the best players of all time for god sakes.
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Ok then come down a few tiers, compare him to guys like Schwinsteiger, Essien, Rodri, Phillip Cocu, even Gio. He doesn't belong with them either.

As I said before, a big fish, with a big ego in a small pond. Very good player in his early days, some cracking performances against Leverkusen etc in 1999. But in the grand scheme of things, outside of Rangers, nobody knows or cares about him. Another in a long list on Scottish players who liked to play safe sideways passes - McStay, Lambert, Gilmour etc..

When you're clinging to MOTM awards at Blackburn Rovers and newspaper speculation about moves to Man U as yer evidence of his wider value, then you're struggling.
 

[Archived] Barry Ferguson

1 hr ago 'I knew it was a mistake within a week': Barry Ferguson on leaving Rangers for Blackburn Alasdair Mackenzie @aksmackenzieOnline Sports Editor From Glasgow Evening Post. My response---"so did we!" He blames the fans, apparently we didn't boo when we lost!
www.brfcs.com www.brfcs.com

Have a read through a Blackburn forum and see what they thought of the guy that was "winning Man of the Match awards nearly every game".

"The guy was just full of excuses after realising he wasn't up to it, to be expected after spending a decade strollling about against St Mirren and the like"

"So that's why he was a lazy talentless b***ard." Is my response.
Back then we were used to far better players Barry"

"We paid £7m for him. He was a flop. Simple as that."

"A (very) poor man's N'Zonzi."

Found another forum poll from the time he rejoined Rangers and 75% wanted him gone, even taking the financial loss.
 
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I think I’m in a parallel universe. I remember the tanking he used to get for passing it sideways and backwards, which he did a lot.
Sensational, remarkable, brilliant, unbelievable?…utter nonsense. He was a very good player for us. He had a few outstanding games but in no way was he anything other than very good. Says it all that Birmingham, Blackburn and Blackpool were his level in England.
 
DD1872 said:
Ok then come down a few tiers, compare him to guys like Schwinsteiger, Essien, Rodri, Phillip Cocu, even Gio. He doesn't belong with them either.

As I said before, a big fish, with a big ego in a small pond. Very good player in his early days, some cracking performances against Leverkusen etc in 1999. But in the grand scheme of things, outside of Rangers, nobody knows or cares about him. Another in a long list on Scottish players who liked to play safe sideways passes - McStay, Lambert, Gilmour etc..

When you're clinging to MOTM awards at Blackburn Rovers and newspaper speculation about moves to Man U as yer evidence of his wider value, then you're struggling.
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That's some weird and random tiers of players you're creating there.

Ferguson was better than Cocu for a start. And he was also a better midfielder than Gio who actually played almost all of his post Rangers career as a left back.

Probably better if you ask guys like Ronald de Boer, Gattuso, Advocaat what they think of Ferguson. You know- guys who know what they are talking about.

Every player who has played with Ferguson talks about his ability and his mentality as well.

Post more of your tiers of players. I like how random and conpletely made up they are.
 
Unfulfilled potential.

A phenomenal player as a youngster but just didn’t build on that. Was unlucky with injuries and Blackburn was a terrible choice but let’s face it, the only people retrospectively celebrating the career of Barry Ferguson are Rangers supporters.

We’re very good at labelling some of our old players as world class despite them achieving little outside Glasgow.
 
cooprfc said:
That's some weird and random tiers of players you're creating there.

Ferguson was better than Cocu for a start. And he was also a better midfielder than Gio who actually played almost all of his post Rangers career as a left back.

Probably better if you ask guys like Ronald de Boer, Gattuso, Advocaat what they think of Ferguson. You know- guys who know what they are talking about.

Every player who has played with Ferguson talks about his ability and his mentality as well.

Post more of your tiers of players. I like how random and conpletely made up they are.
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Cocu played over 200 times for Barca, around the same time wee Barry was playing in his pomp. You not think if he was better than Cocu, they'd maybe like to improve their side by taking him?
 
DD1872 said:

[Archived] Barry Ferguson

1 hr ago 'I knew it was a mistake within a week': Barry Ferguson on leaving Rangers for Blackburn Alasdair Mackenzie @aksmackenzieOnline Sports Editor From Glasgow Evening Post. My response---"so did we!" He blames the fans, apparently we didn't boo when we lost!
www.brfcs.com www.brfcs.com

Have a read through a Blackburn forum and see what they thought of the guy that was "winning Man of the Match awards nearly every game".

"The guy was just full of excuses after realising he wasn't up to it, to be expected after spending a decade strollling about against St Mirren and the like"

"So that's why he was a lazy talentless b***ard." Is my response.
Back then we were used to far better players Barry"

"We paid £7m for him. He was a flop. Simple as that."

"A (very) poor man's N'Zonzi."

Found another forum poll from the time he rejoined Rangers and 75% wanted him gone, even taking the financial loss.
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Who do you rate in the last 25 years who played for Rangers?
 
Bristol_bnose3 said:
Unfulfilled potential.

A phenomenal player as a youngster but just didn’t build on that. Was unlucky with injuries and Blackburn was a terrible choice but let’s face it, the only people retrospectively celebrating the career of Barry Ferguson are Rangers supporters.

We’re very good at labelling some of our old players as world class despite them achieving little outside Glasgow.
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You could say the same about Laudrup the average football fan will have forgotten Denmark won the EC let alone the fact he played in that team.

You can downplay anything….. who outside of Rangers remembers Greig or Baxter
 
Melbbear said:
W
He was brilliant at Blackburn. That injury stuffed him up.
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I wouldn't disagree
He did have some great performances at both Blackburn & Birmingham
& injuries did halt his career for spells
But he also had what commentators described as a 'quiet game' at both these clubs & that put his consistency under scrutiny

I think that contributed to other / bigger clubs not taking a chance on him
If he was all that wonderful at Blackburn - then you'd expect a better club than Birmingham to grab him (even considering Birmingham were in a much better position then - than they have been since)

I'm not trying to criticise / diminish / overlook his playing career for the sake of it - & I fully realise how much of a talent he was - but I still think overall he under-acheived considering his early promise / potential
 
DD1872 said:
Barry Ferguson is a bit like the FA cup. If you need to continually debate, defend and tell everyone how great it/he is, then it kind of underlines the fact that it/he wasn't really that great.
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Utterly clueless

Ferguson was an outstanding player and dominated many many games from a very early age

My best memory of how good he was in the Lovenkrands final, Celtic side had Lennon, Petrov, Lambert,Thomson in middle of the park and they were run ragged by Ferguson

So many instances of games he showed up in against top us lots opposition , “really wasn’t that great”, laughable
 
DD1872 said:
Cocu played over 200 times for Barca, around the same time wee Barry was playing in his pomp. You not think if he was better than Cocu, they'd maybe like to improve their side by taking him?
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Ronald and Frank de Boer and Gio played for Barca too. You telling me they looked a completely different level to Barry when here?

Gattuso couldn't get a game ahead of Ferguson yet went on to play 200 times for Milan and win everything in the game.

Guys like Martin Braithwaite have played for Barca.

You can't just say because someone played for Barcelona they are better than every single Rangers player. That's not the case.

Thomas Graveson played for Madrid. Couldn't get near Ferguson.
 
wee bud's pit boots said:
Barry Ferguson was a wonderful footballer. Grit that was allied to his skill, too.

I still think back to his big brother as well. Barry always appeared more mobile. Derek at his best was calm and assured.

We just didn't get enough of Derek, unfortunately.
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Two fantastic footballers with high levels of technical ability.

The irony is that the latest from the Ferguson stable has, so far, perhaps made the best career choice by moving abroad to widen his horizons - something his father and especially, his uncle would've benefitted hugely from.

Can't believe some of the trash being spoken about Barry's abilities on this thread. However, like his big brother, maturity in terms of career choices will probably be among his regrets; although that being said, he did his gifts justice to a far greater extent than Derek ever did.

I get the impression that Lewis is benefitting from his old man's and his uncle's experience where life choices are concerned. It'll be interesting to see how he fares in the next season or two.

Barry skippered Rangers to a treble. Enough said in my book.
 
cooprfc said:
Ronald and Frank de Boer and Gio played for Barca too. You telling me they looked a completely different level to Barry when here?

Gattuso couldn't get a game ahead of Ferguson yet went on to play 200 times for Milan and win everything in the game.

Guys like Martin Braithwaite have played for Barca.

You can't just say because someone played for Barcelona they are better than every single Rangers player. That's not the case.

Thomas Graveson played for Madrid. Couldn't get near Ferguson.
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Exactly it's such a stupid argument. Riquelme 'flopped' at Barca, doesn't make him a bad player does it?
 
He was a great player, although was often one of the first to take criticism from FF when things weren’t going well.

His performances the year we won the treble, week in week out while carrying an injury (which probably hampered the rest of his career) still live in the memory. His partnership with Ronald de Boer was magical that season.

A bad end to his Rangers career; people were still a bit bitter over the PLG saga and most were happy to see the back of him after the issues on Scotland duty - which I think were massively overblown but when a guy like Walter Smith tells you to keep your head down and you ignore it, it’s hard to come back from that.
 
Snoopproddiedogg said:
England v Scotland 1999. Barry was only 21 and he totally ran the show that night. Played their midfield off the park. Outstanding player.
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I was working in a bar that night down here. They were all ribbing me that we were going to get battered. I told them “just take a pencil and paper, because Ferguson is about to give yous a lesson!” At full time the majority agreed Barry ran the game at Wembley!
 
Absolutely fantastic player and easily one of the best I’ve seen play for us in my 45 years. As someone said, he was ahead of his time and would be worth a fortune nowadays.

Some of his individual European performances were incredible; single-handedly dominating some world-class players like Lothar Matthäus for example.

He was a moany so-and-so as a captain, playing through injury and demanding of others, which is a dying breed now but if he was in the current squad in his prime, we’d have already won the league by now.

Only Ally McCoist is ahead of Barry in terms of my favourite ever players to pull on the famous blue jersey.
 
DD1872 said:
Ok then come down a few tiers, compare him to guys like Schwinsteiger, Essien, Rodri, Phillip Cocu, even Gio. He doesn't belong with them either.

As I said before, a big fish, with a big ego in a small pond. Very good player in his early days, some cracking performances against Leverkusen etc in 1999. But in the grand scheme of things, outside of Rangers, nobody knows or cares about him. Another in a long list on Scottish players who liked to play safe sideways passes - McStay, Lambert, Gilmour etc..

When you're clinging to MOTM awards at Blackburn Rovers and newspaper speculation about moves to Man U as yer evidence of his wider value, then you're struggling.
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Describing Ferguson as somebody who liked to play safe sideways passes is absolutely ridiculous

Did you genuinely even watch him?
 
He is my favourite Rangers midfielder and despite his often daft media takes I still enjoy listening to him.

What he must have made of the chancers who filled the void between his time and Gerrard's resurrection of the team is anyone's guess.

His Coaching career is something of a dreadful failure when stacked alongside his playing days but he was so good youd think there is a role somewhere at Rangers to pass on that experience now.
 
superallys_lovechild said:
Absolutely fantastic player and easily one of the best I’ve seen play for us in my 45 years. As someone said, he was ahead of his time and would be worth a fortune nowadays.

Some of his individual European performances were incredible; single-handedly dominating some world-class players like Lothar Matthäus for example.

He was a moany so-and-so as a captain, playing through injury and demanding of others, which is a dying breed now but if he was in the current squad in his prime, we’d have already won the league by now.

Only Ally McCoist is ahead of Barry in terms of my favourite ever players to pull on the famous blue jersey.
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The turn in the middle of the park away to Leverkusen to assist JJ was a thing of absolute beauty. Took about three Leverkusen players out the game.
 
SDF said:
Said it before but the Ferguson of 2002-2003 I wouldn't have swapped for anyone else.

That 2002 Cup Final performance is as good an individual performance as you'll see. Barry wasn't letting us lose that day.
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That is when he was consistently our best player and during the period he was turning in performances which had people reaching for hyperbolic terms like 'approaching world class'.

For me his performances in Europe, where the perceived weaknesses of the Scottish league can't be cast up, possibly trump his 'Barry v the crush' season and a bit.

And let's not forget regularly schooling a Celtic midfield which had taken care of 'esteemed' English opposition en route to the Uefa Cup final.
 
Interesting reading, I'm somewhat conflicted

He could be sensational but also pretty normal

Did injuries affect his career ceiling, maybe but I'm not sure he was good enough for a Man Utd or the likes

I'd want him in my team for every old firm that's for sure, but is he rated higher on here as he's a home grown talent?

He was a born winner but also had questionable professionalism

He could be excellent in front of goal and also woeful. I think it was 1 season only really he had 18 or something but never hit those heights again

Apart from Allan Macgregor he's been our next best Scot this century, but on the other hand I would have Steven Davis ahead of him I think for sheer consistency
 
stooler said:
Interesting reading, I'm somewhat conflicted

He could be sensational but also pretty normal

Did injuries affect his career ceiling, maybe but I'm not sure he was good enough for a Man Utd or the likes

I'd want him in my team for every old firm that's for sure, but is he rated higher on here as he's a home grown talent?

He was a born winner but also had questionable professionalism

He could be excellent in front of goal and also woeful. I think it was 1 season only really he had 18 or something but never hit those heights again

Apart from Allan Macgregor he's been our next best Scot this century, but on the other hand I would have Steven Davis ahead of him I think for sheer consistency
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Nicky Butt and Phil Neville got a game for Man Utd. As underrated as those two were, Barry Ferguson could easily hold his own in that company, and then some.

Steve Davis was a class player who adapted his talent and thrived for a middling EPL side under Koeman. As good as he was and ended up, for me, he couldn't match a peak Barry Ferguson.
 
LoyalAndBlue82 said:
Describing Ferguson as somebody who liked to play safe sideways passes is absolutely ridiculous

Did you genuinely even watch him?
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Receive the ball from centre back.
Gesticulate as if to give the impression you're considering an incisive forward pass.
Spend so long on the ball an opposing midfielder has closed you down.
Do a 360 turn to retain possession.
Pass sideways or backwards
Blame the forward players for not creating movement as if you're operating on a different plane...

Once every 90 minutes go down with a knock.
Get treatment
Pull a few grimaces as if you're really hurt and struggling
Stand up and vow to continue as if you're some kind of warrior.

Aye mate, I saw him repeat the above on a weekly basis.
 
TQ3 said:
I was working in a bar that night down here. They were all ribbing me that we were going to get battered. I told them “just take a pencil and paper, because Ferguson is about to give yous a lesson!” At full time the majority agreed Barry ran the game at Wembley!
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Who went on to the Euros?
 
DD1872 said:
Receive the ball from centre back.
Gesticulate as if to give the impression you're considering an incisive forward pass.
Spend so long on the ball an opposing midfielder has closed you down.
Do a 360 turn to retain possession.
Pass sideways or backwards
Blame the forward players for not creating movement as if you're operating on a different plane...

Once every 90 minutes go down with a knock.
Get treatment
Pull a few grimaces as if you're really hurt and struggling
Stand up and vow to continue as if you're some kind of warrior.

Aye mate, I saw him repeat the above on a weekly basis.
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Weekly basis :D :D :D
 
Confirmation bias from a party of one.

Fcuk me, the comment about the poster who worked down by and Euros qualification takes some beating.

I too lived in London at the time and was at the match in question. Everyone I knew in my Highbury local (Arsenal diehards) in the ensuing days raved about Ferguson's performance.

But hey, someone knows better despite having the obvious right to an opinion.

Don't back doon when you can double doon eh? Holee fook! :D
 
DD1872 said:
Barry Ferguson is a bit like the FA cup. If you need to continually debate, defend and tell everyone how great it/he is, then it kind of underlines the fact that it/he wasn't really that great.
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Scotlands-Barry-Ferguson--001.jpg
 
GSRFC said:
Absolute bollocks.

Barry Ferguson was a fantastic player, I honestly think you must be at the wind up.
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Seen him go toe to toe with top European opposition and come out on top a number of times. This isn’t some Paul McStay type “coulda/woulda/shoulda”. Barry was brilliant, even as an ageing player he was excellent anchoring the midfield of a pretty naff Birmingham side.
 
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