Lewis Ferguson was "willing" to join Rangers this summer before a bumper transfer fee brought talks to an end, according to his dad Derek, who has also moved to clamp down on suggestions that his son was stripped of the Bologna captaincy by new boss Domenico Tedesco.
The Glasgow giants approached the Italian side over a deal, with the prospect of a player-plus-cash deal floated amid Bologna's interest in Connor Barron alongside a mega £17million deal. But after talks over sums, interest cooled, with Ferguson Sr previously branding the pursuit by the Scottish Premiership side a "waste of f****** time".
Talks with Rangers revealed
Charlie Miller pressed Ferguson on talks with Rangers on the All About The Gers podcast, and he revealed that the 26-year-old was "willing" to join Derek McInnes at Ibrox this summer.
He said: "There was a conversation going on there, but I don't think there was a bid. That is what I am aware of. He was willing to come, I'll say it. I have said it before, he is a big boy, he deals with it himself, he will come to me at times. He looks after his own business, but he does bounce things off me. I did know about that, but I'm not privy to everything. I don't think I should be."
Captaincy change explained
Speculation ramped up again this week after Riccardo Orsolini was named captain and led the Serie A side out on the opening day of the season. Winger Orsolini has replaced the Scotland international as skipper, with veteran defender Lorenzo De Silvestri acting as club captain.
But speaking to All About The Gers, Ferguson insisted that his son had given the green light to hand his teammate the armband - as he dismissed Bologna's new skipper. He said: "He's not been stripped of the captaincy. Riccardo Orsolini, who has been there for seven/eight years and has just signed a six year contract - so he is probably going to finish his career at Bologna - so him and De Silvestri, who is the club captain and looks after all the stuff off the pitch."
"So, Lewis has been the captain the last two/three years, and they approached him. They asked him if he would be willing to give up the captaincy to Riccardo, and the team player that Lewis is - because that is the type of player he is, he wants to make sure everybody is alright and looks after everybody - he says 'no problem, that is no problem'. I wish he maybe would have consulted me or his brothers, because I will be honest, I didn't want him to give the captaincy up - because that is something that he earned when he went over there."
"They had a look at him, and what he brings to the party - he is a real leader on the park. I said to him 'you shouldn't have given up the captaincy' and I look at Riccardo and I think he is not a leader, for me, he is a winger. You need to be a certain type, in my opinion. In my mind I have what a captain should be, and you don't look after yourself you make sure everyone else is right. When the chips are down you go after people, and I don't think Riccardo has got that in his locker. The thing is, Lewis has agreed to it."
"We are not too happy as a family, we are a bit upset - we hoped we would get a call to say 'what do you think of this?', but we never even got the call. He is dead relaxed about it."
