DURING the course of a football season there will be things uttered by people within the game that will trigger a whole range of different emotions within the football fan.

There's the humour from people such as Ian Holloway and Gordon Strachan, the surreal from Iain 'bouncebackability' Dowie, the nasty from Messrs Ferguson and Wenger, and the arrogance of Jose Mourinho.

None of the reactions I've experienced when reading quotes attributed to any of the aforementioned can remotely compare to what I felt when I read a quote from David Murray of Glasgow Rangers last week though.

When he backed up his measly offer for Barry Ferguson by saying that his value 'decreases by £1million a year' I nearly fell off my chair!

How does he come to that conclusion?

A player that he sold just over 12 months ago for the best part of £7 million goes to a superior league to play against better players week in week out and becomes a worse player for the experience.

Not only worse, but worse to the tune of three and a half million pounds!

Can someone tell me if he was quoted from the comfort of a padded cell while wearing a strait jacket because that's the only logical solution I can find.

It would appear that Mr Murray is only happy when he's receiving the cheques, especially those written by Graeme Souness, but he's a little more reluctant to write them himself. The bid was a joke and rightly dismissed out of hand, but I'm pretty sure we haven't heard the last of it.

The meeting with John Williams, Ferguson and his agent hints that all is most certainly not well with the player.

The fact that John Williams saw fit to arrange such a meeting following the speculation says a lot, but not as much as the silence from the Ferguson camp which has been positively deafening.

This coming from a player who only a few short weeks ago declared himself settled in the area and happy under the new management team.

Something seems to have turned his head and it would appear that his days at Ewood are now numbered.

As I said last week, when a player wants to leave there's precious little any club can do about it. The players rule the roost these days and contracts are basically not worth the paper they're written on.

So, if as I expect, Ferguson does leave, how will this affect the team?

Even though he is currently our best midfielder, he has never lived up to the hype of when he arrived. We were led to believe he would be our Keane or Vieira, but he has fallen short of that.

Maybe it's unfair to use that comparison, but for the money spent he has never really stood out and took hold of games as I believe he should have.

The defining thing for me though is that he's willing to go back to the totally uncompetitive Scottish league. He'll forever be labelled as a player who couldn't make the transition to a higher level.

If it's to be goodbye Barry, then good luck. You'll need it in your titanic battles with Inverness Caley Thistle.