Source: Team_Talk
Blues seal deal for Gers battler Barry
Ferguson has accepted a two-year contract with Blues, with the option of another 12 months, after passing a medical at St Andrews.
The 31-year-old midfielder had been widely expected to leave Ibrox over the summer after losing the Gers captaincy following the infamous alcohol-related incident on Scotland duty in the spring.
He has now taken on the challenge of a second stab at English football having previously spent a largely unsuccessful 18 months with Blackburn Rovers.
The midfielder also becomes the latest in a long line of new recruits for Birmingham following the club's promotion from the Championship.
Blues boss Alex McLeish has been strengthening all areas of his squad and had particularly been keen to bring in an experienced midfielder in the Ferguson mould.
Ferguson's former Gers team-mate Nacho Novo has paid tribute to the player, who made over 400 appearances during his two stints at the club.
Novo told the club's official website: "Well he's a legend, isn't he? He is one of the best players I have ever been lucky enough to play with.
"Barry is a big personality and he's a worker. He has always helped everybody here and he's a person I've always got on very well with.
"We will miss him here. I am sure that he will do well there."
Ferguson joins compatriots McLeish, Garry O'Connor and James McFadden at St Andrews.
"For me, Barry is a midfielder at his peak," McLeish told the club's website.
"I don't think 31 is too old for a central midfielder of great experience.
"Players like Gordon Strachan and Gary McAllister continued playing into their late 30s and these were guys who were not afraid of the ball.
"I think Barry can play on for a good few years yet.
"He's a guy that always turned up for work. By that I mean that his appearances over the years have always been fantastic.
"Barry has got the culture of the true-grit Brit, who will go through brick walls to play football. He has a winning mentality, and that is proven by all the winners' medals he has won."
McLeish told the Rangers website: "Barry has played at a very high level for Rangers, in big games.
"Maybe the Scottish league is not the strongest, certainly not anywhere near the Premier League, but he's played a good level of games, in the Champions League, the Celtic fixture and cup finals.
"I think he has got unfinished business in England.
"He started with a bad injury at Blackburn, then fought his way back to fitness, and the reports I got at that time, before he came back to Rangers, was that he was playing extremely well.
"But maybe he didn't stay long enough for people to make a full assessment of him. So I think in that respect Barry will want to come down with something to prove."
McLeish added: "They have barely started pre-season training but again, from the reports I've had, he's been up there in the fitness testing they have done. He's always been a pretty fit guy."
