Eck and Fergie

Like most people, I think when Barry Ferguson's name kept cropping up over the summer I just wasn't sure.

Neither, it appeared, was Alex McLeish.

At a BRMB forum, he wondered aloud whether Ferguson's best days had come and gone.

Answering questions about the many Ferguson links, Eck would say yes, Blues could do with a player of his ilk, but not necessarily Ferguson himself.

He never ruled him in, he never ruled him out.

Well, Ferguson is on his way to St Andrew's as McLeish decided after weighing up cost, ability, experience and the fact that he knows the guy inside out, meant it was worth proceeding with.

Ferguson, as I understand, has been desperate to come to St Andrew's, which is at least a good sign.

It was only in the last few days that McLeish gave the green light and asked Karren Brady to negotiate a fee with Rangers.

Other targets - there were eight balls being juggled, so to speak, as David Sullivan commented - perhaps were no-gos, or prohibitive financially.

Ferrie Bodde, of Swansea City, was talked about by the management. He is just recovering from serious knee damage and Bolton Wanderers have tried, and failed, to get him for £2.5 million.

And here, we should make it clear, that Patrick Vieira has always been considered a one-off case, not so much a 'special case', but the icing on top, if it were to materialise.

In going for Ferguson, McLeish doesn't just intend to draw a line under his midfield dealings.

On the contrary, he wants another player, a player with younger legs, dynamism, someone who might be busting a gut to prove himself.

A player like Villa's Craig Gardner, for example, would be tagged at about £5 million. But that's the going rate these days and you would hope that McLeish still has money in the budget.

It's not quite true to say that, with Ferguson coming, McLeish has a brilliant tactical plan to inflict death by snail pace on the opposition via his midfield.

Lee Carsley, Damien Johnson, Lee Bowyer and Ferguson are hardly going to tear it up. Their athleticism isn't what it was obviously.

Yet they are all shrewd enough to know how to play in the top-flight and there are players in the Blues team who could be meshed around whatever formation McLeish chooses for whatever games so they don't just plod about.

And Ferguson, let's face it, is - to borrow a Tony Mowbray favourite - a manipulator of the ball, a player who can see a pass, which is so important in the Premier League. You wouldn't necessarily call Danny Murphy of Xabi Alonso speed merchants now, would you?

Ferguson's fitness levels, by all accounts, are very good and he is itching to make another go of it after the Blackburn Rovers experience.

I recall Ferguson scoring the opener in a 4-0 St Andrew's drubbing but a knee injury didn't help his case at Ewood Park.

Let's hope his second coming south of the border works out for all concerned.