Barry Ferguson has today confirmed Rangers’ comical error in failing to even make a move for then-Aberdeen midfielder Lewis Ferguson, who is currently tearing up Serie A in Italy with Bologna, and is currently interesting league giants AC Milan, Juventus, and Premier League sides Everton and Leicester.
The former Rangers legend, 44, is of course uncle to Lewis, and is utterly bewildered as to why the club didn’t make any overtures in Ferguson’s direction, and despite his naturally being a bit biased, time has proven him clearly correct, and Ferguson is in the direction now of becoming one of the best Scottish players our game has produced in recent times.
And Rangers were not interested.
He said:
“Don’t get me started. People say it’s because he’s your nephew, blah blah. I’ll tell you this – he had the mentality and personality to play with Rangers. I was very surprised that there was not even a sniff of an interest which, listen, happens, they had their reasons. He’s went over there – don’t be surprised if he moves in the summer for double, treble that (£3million fee). I’ve watched a few of his games and I can see the difference. He’s learned over there. He’s learned a lot of the game, whereas back here he was running all over the place, which is part of his job. You can see as an all round footballer, he’s definitely improved since he went over to Italy. As I said, there’s nothing more I would like than to see him get a bigger and better move. Going back to the summer, I was just surprised and didn’t know the reason why (Rangers didn’t make a move). Even Celtic, for that matter.”
We don’t care about Celtic, but we do care about Rangers, and Uncle Ferguson is absolutely spot on. Lewis has all the potential to go anywhere he wants in the game, and at 23 has the best years of his career coming up. Already in Serie A, at his young age, he has an average rating of a very respectable 6.67, manages almost one and a half tackles a match, one clearance, and one interception. He also has 3 goals.
Let’s face it, this was another bum note from Rangers’ scouting, which frequently ignores popular and well-fitting choices in favour of another random from League One who will cost twice the amount and came through Watford’s youth academy.
In fairness, we do now have Cantwell and Raskin, but Ferguson would have helped the Scottish contingent and home-grown rules.
Still, another one that got away.