AS any Blackburn Rovers supporter would attest it would have been a travesty for the world to have been denied the chance to marvel at Tugay’s enduring talents in the twilight of his playing days.

But that is exactly what the former mercurial midfielder feared would have happened had he remained in his native Turkey.

Tugay started out at Galatasaray and won 15 domestic honours in 13 years with the Istanbul giants.

But, with a desire to play on until he was 40, he made to move to Britain and Rangers in January 2000.

The move was the start of a glorious new chapter in his illustrious career.

But it was Rovers, and not Rangers, who were to be the biggest beneficiaries.

Tugay spent 18 months in Glasgow, winning a league and a cup, before he was convinced by Graeme Souness, one of his former managers at Galatasaray, to swap Ibrox for Ewood Park in a £1.3m deal which former chairman John Williams described as one of the best in the club’s history.

It was a decision Tugay would not live to regret.

During eight fondly remembered years the prodigiously gifted deep-lying playmaker made 294 appearances for Rovers, scoring 13 goals, the majority of them memorable, before hanging up his boots, two years short of his original target, at the age of 38.

“I’m grateful to Graeme Souness for bringing me here and I have to thank him a lot,” said Tugay, now 44.

“I can’t thank him enough for introducing me to such a lovely club and giving me the opportunity to play for it.

“When you sign for a club you don’t know what is going to happen. All you can do is give your best.

“The shortest time I’ve ever played for anyone was the one-and-a-half-years I had at Glasgow Rangers.

“But Souness wanted me to come here and we got really close and I stayed here for a long time.

“If I had stayed in Turkey I would have finished my career at 29 or 30 as that’s how it was back then.

“I had it in me to keep playing so that’s why I came here, to take my career further.

“I always thought I could play football until I was 40 and I nearly achieved it.”

Tugay, who is attempting to start his own managerial career, still holds the Rovers bosses he served under the longest, Souness and Mark Hughes, in the highest regard.

He said: “Both of them had great personalities and both had great bonds with the players.

“I always liked them both and I played with my heart for both of them.

“There are two things that I played for – I played for the manager, as he is the one who manages you, and I played for the club.

“Some players just play for the crowd, some of them for other reasons, but I played for my manager and for my club – because I didn’t want to let down the people who trusted me.”

After retiring at the end of the 2008-09 season Tugay moved back to Turkey to work for Galatasaray.

He had stints as assistant manager to Romanian legend Gheorghe Hagi and to Roberto Mancini, the Italian manager who led Manchester City to their first Premier League title, but he is now setting his sights on becoming a boss in his own right.

“It’s a different feeling as now I’m on other side of the line,” said Tugay, who left Galatasaray, along with Mancini, at the end of last season.

“You have to tell and say what you want the team to do so it’s a different way of being.

“I worked alongside Gheorghe Hagi and then worked alongside Roberto Mancini. They were different characters with different philosophies and obviously they come from different cultures.

“But I learned a lot from them.”