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Ferguson's Scotland decision was a personal one

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Chris Jardine | 18:07 UK time, Wednesday, 29 September 2010

I didn't want my blog to be all about this week but, well, there hasn't been too much happening down at Annan since my last one.

I don't know about you but I hope the Ferguson and Scotland saga is over and done with now and everyone can move on.

I doubt it very much, though, as we'll have the usual pundits having their say in the build-up to the next qualifiers, and quite possibly afterwards as well, depending on results.

I'm a little undecided as to whether it would have been a good thing or not. The Ferguson who is playing superbly for would be fantastic to have in the Scotland side at the minute; let's make no mistake about it.

Former Scotland captain Barry Ferguson warms up at Hampden

Former Scotland captain Barry Ferguson warms up at Hampden. Photo: SNS.

It would ease some of the pressure on , who at times I think is expected to carry the team on his own.

Fletcher has been brilliant for Manchester United but he has a completely different role there than he has with the national team. With Ferguson in beside him, he would be able to concentrate on his own game and relax a bit more and I've no doubt we would get more from him.

I think Ferguson is in a similar situation with Scotland to the one he was in at Rangers. Is he doing anything different at Birmingham every week than he was at Ibrox before he left for the second time? I don't think so.

He's possibly injury free now, as well as getting the rest he needs in between games that his previous injuries require. But he is playing the same game and it suits him and Birmingham perfectly.

It's more a personal decision than a professional one for Ferguson, in my opinion. I think he knows he could still perform at international level but it appears everything in his life is going well and if things didn't go right for him with Scotland it's quite probable that everything else becomes affected.

Could you imagine if he had been playing against a few weeks ago when we went a goal down?

A lot has gone on in the past and Ferguson has clearly made some bad decisions as a Scotland player, but he is still someone I would have playing in central midfield for the country.

That being said, I'm glad the decision has finally been made and we can move on, at least until the next bit of controversy.

Although I said there hasn't been much happening at Galabank since last weekend, we have squeezed two games in and had a Spanish trialist baring his backside at his first training session!

I've said it to a few people since but I still struggle to believe that we managed to pull off a win in that one.

Queen's Park must have been absolutely pig sick to not even walk away with one point. I can't remember us having a shot in the match until Bryan Gilfillan had his usual 40-yard near-wonder strike in the last few minutes. A few of the boys have said that was winning ugly, but I don't think you can even call it that; I would just say it was undeserved.

We're not kidding ourselves on at all. We know the performance wasn't good enough and I'd be surprised to see us getting away with another one but we'll take the result all day, thank you very much. As I said last week, it's now set up very nicely for the Third Division match of the day at Berwick Rangers.

For the fifth game in a row I did not make it off the bench and things are getting increasingly frustrating for me. In the past I'd maybe have reacted differently but I'm being patient right now and as far as the manager is concerned I'm doing all the right things, so I don't feel there's much else I can do.

I'm still doing extra work away from the club and another game for the reserves up at Dumbarton on Tuesday will have done me no harm. I'm just waiting on my chance now.

We lost the reserve game 3-0 but that wasn't really a fair reflection on the performance. We had five of our under-19s with us and their performances are always encouraging.

I enjoyed the game until the latter stages when I felt I was at fault for a couple of the goals and it was maybe my tiredness that affected me in that part of the game. The results aren't important at reserve level but I certainly didn't enjoy the result.

Finally we'll move on to our Spanish trialist Javier, who was with us last week. You would think we would change things when a stranger comes in to the ranks, especially when he hardly speaks a word of our language, but we didn't.

Unfortunately for Javier, he paired himself with Jordan Halsman who doesn't have the best record at possession and they ended up the worst pairing during the first game.

Jordan knows the score so off he went and we just had to point Javier in his direction. His face was a picture, but fair play to him. He eventually realised what was going on and dropped his shorts!

I'm not too sure if we'll see him back, though.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    so chris, i din't want you blog this week to be about barry ferguson... or arsenal, or the champions league or the world cup, or whatever the flavour of the week is... that's already been written about a million ways elsewhere!
    i want to read about life in the scottish division 3, just like it says on the tin.
    i don't care what you think about alec ferguson or lionel messi! tell us about your training sessions or the turnover in the clubhouse or erchie the groondsman that's been there for 40 years and never missed a day's work! you could even proofread the bit about javier that makes no sense at all... the first game? dropped his shorts? what?! that could have been an interesting story if the first 400 words hadn't been about barry ferguson.
    sorry to be harsh.

  • Comment number 2.

    camp6ell - no need to apologise, I recognise that I'm never going to please everyone with regards to the content.
    I'll just touch on the part you say makes no sense at all. Perhaps I've assumed the people reading this week will have been following the blog for the last few weeks as this would have made the story about Javier clearer.
    The first game you ask about is referring to the game of possession we play at the start of every training session. Again, if this isn't clear from the sentence I wrote then it would have been from the last few blogs.
    My apologies.

  • Comment number 3.

    I take Camp6ell's point, I'm fed up hearing about the guy too. Fair play for responding straight away though, Chris!

    I would be interested to hear about the dilemna you could be faced with shortly, namely what you do if you can't break your way into the Annan side.

    How can you work your way into the team?

    How long do you leave it before you look for a move?

    Where a potential move could take you?

  • Comment number 4.

    Why did he drop his shorts?

    I appreciate it's some sort of forfeit, but then what happens?

    Does he just drop his shorts and everyone points at his willie, or does he drop his shorts and have to run round the park or something?

    I agree with the other guy, by the way. If you could have offered some genuine insight into Barry Ferguson's decision, then great. Let's hear it. Perhaps you've played alongside him and are good friends. But if it's simply guesswork and conjecture, then, yeah, let's leave it for the professional journalists. Because, you didn't really tell us anything there did you?

    The after thought about the Spanish trialist was the real story here. What's his pedigree? Where has he played in Spain? How on earth did he end up on trial at Annan, and what did he make of the club??

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