BARRY FERGUSON, the former Rangers and Scotland captain, has agreed a two-year contract at npower Championship club Blackpool.
The 33-year-old midfielder had been in discussions with the club after successfully completing a medical on Tuesday. He finally agreed the move that will see him join from Birmingham City a club that, like Blackpool, had been relegated from the Barclays Premier League last season into the second tier of English football. Ferguson admitted the appeal of working with the club’s charismatic manager Ian Holloway had played a huge part in his decision.
He will now occupy the central midfield position vacated by his former team-mate at Ibrox, Charlie Adam, who departed Blackpool earlier this month for Liverpool in a transfer worth close to £9m.
“I am really looking forward to the new challenge after two good years at Birmingham,” Ferguson said. “I had lengthy talks with the manager, Ian Holloway, and he is the kind of guy who makes an immediate impact on you. The way he comes across on TV is exactly what he is like when you meet face to face.
“He is very passionate and sold the club to me. The aim is to get straight back into the Premiership and I’ll be doing everything I can to help Blackpool achieve that. It’s going to be a tough season with so many good sides in the Championship vying for the three promotion places, but we have a good squad and the manager is hungry to get back up at the first time of asking. I’ve been impressed with the club, the way the manager wants to play and it’s another new chapter for me.”
Ferguson had several offers in England and abroad, but the move to Blackpool will also allow him to commute easily to his family home just outside Lanark. His wife and children remained there throughout the duration of his time in the Midlands, and still being able to return to Scotland with relative ease was important in his decision making process.
“It’s only a couple of hours’ drive and that was also an important factor,” added Ferguson. “It’s never ideal being away from your family as a footballer, but I was always given full support from them throughout my time at Birmingham and we managed to work the situation without any problems.
“Moving to Blackpool will allow that to continue. That was always very important to me.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article