As a player, man-marking Duncan Ferguson was my Merseyside derby rite of passage. Three decades on, it is the Everton idol’s devoted fans who are still shadowing his every move.
We are less than five minutes into this interview and Duncan has already granted multiple photograph requests. “That lady just said she still has a picture of me on her bedroom wall celebrating a goal with my top off,” he says with a laugh.
“Tell them to give you a job back at the club, Duncan!” comes the shout from the latest admirer.
These are superstar levels of hero worship. I am not exaggerating when saying there is no one in my city – especially representing the blue half – who more embodies the club they represented.
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But it is not just the Evertonians who have taken Duncan to their hearts. As we share derby memories, consider Liverpool’s last trip to Goodison Park, and marvel at the sight of Everton’s new stadium within viewing distance of our meeting place at the Titanic Hotel near the old docks, the depth of Ferguson’s love for his adopted home resonates.
“I would do anything I can for the people in this city, Everton or Liverpool,” he says. “I want them all to do well. I’m not a Scouser, but to me, it is like looking after your own. And it’s because I know they would do the same for me.”
This is not just talk. We will get to the anecdotes about bullying Liverpool players in the mid-Nineties and Anfield’s most feared derby opponent of my era soon enough, but I can talk personally about the real Duncan Ferguson.
A year ago, my son James was looking for a club to kick-start his professional career after a bad injury. It was Duncan, then managing Inverness Caledonian Thistle, who reached out, offering a contract and promising the games he craved.
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“I’ve got to be honest, Duncan. I told James that after a few minutes on the phone to you, I wanted to put my boots on again. It was brilliant what you did. James told me about how you were paying for the hotels so the team could travel to away games.”
Duncan is sheepish about acknowledging his generosity. “To me, you were doing me a favour bringing your son to Inverness,” he replies. “It showed how much he wanted to make a career of it. You couldn’t get much further away from Liverpool, could you? How much further north? He was good for me. Strong, aggressive and quick – a bit quicker than his old man!
“And once I signed him I had to make sure he was in the team whenever you came to watch, didn’t I? You weren’t going to make that trip to see him on the bench! I could imagine the screams.”
Ferguson managing Carragher jnr was a long way from our introduction when I was a rookie defender, in an era when no derby preview existed without the word “nemesis” alongside that of Everton’s terrifying No 9.
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For a prolonged period in the 1990s and early 2000s, Liverpool knew they had to nullify Ferguson to beat Everton. Between his goalscoring introduction to the fixture in 1994 and sale to Newcastle United four years later, he never lost a derby.
“Liverpool had a reputation for being a bit soft in derbies then. There was a fear of you,” I tell Duncan.
“We always wanted to turn it into a battle,” he replies. “I was that type of player. Liverpool had the better players so I never sensed any fear from them, but we never feared them, either.
“I felt against most teams I could use my physical strengths and whatever reputation I had to my advantage. You know how it works. You have a few good games and before you know it people are making out you’re the hardest person to walk the planet. I wasn’t, but as long as people believed that, there was a psychological advantage.
“My first goal in Joe Royle’s first game sticks out. Once you score against the enemy, that’s it, isn’t it? Everyone will always remember the Liverpool goals and Manchester United goals. Fans talk about the big moments and the first thing we always looked for was that Liverpool game. I certainly did. I’m not sure how many we won in that time, but I know it was a long time before we lost any.”
Trying to beat Duncan in the air was pointless, so by the time of my derby bow we had to come up with a different plan, one of which involved Michael Owen and I trying to sandwich the striker when Everton had a corner – the aim being to make life as uncomfortable as possible.
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As the ball was delivered, out came Duncan’s elbow, straight into me in a manner which effectively said: “Welcome to the Merseyside derby!”
Duncan is smiling and half-remembering the incident as we share memories ahead of Everton welcoming Liverpool to Goodison Park for the last time on Wednesday night.
“I bet you didn’t go down, eh?” he says. “You could look after yourself, too. I bet you left a few on me as well.”
Another abiding memory of my debut derby, thrown into the deep end to mark Duncan in 1998, was him tossing Liverpool’s captain, Paul Ince, to the ground.
“Someone told me that he said he’d see me after the game in the players’ lounge. So I went in and I was waiting for him,” says Duncan.
“Dave Watson has come looking for me and asked me what the f--- I was doing in there. I was young and I wasn’t thinking too much. But I just thought I’ll see if he comes in. I was waiting and the Everton bus left without me. So I was standing there and the bus had gone and left me at Anfield! I thought: ‘What am I going to do now?’ Eventually, Paul came in smiling, it was all fine and we just had a few pints.”
The night continued as Duncan and I ended up in the same city centre bar. “Aye, on Bold Street,” says Duncan, an apt name given our willingness to hit the town straight after a derby.
“That was the last game before I had a suspension and I’d scored and had a decent game, so it was OK for me to go out.”
After returning from Newcastle, Duncan’s first derby defeat was in 2001 when Gary McAllister’s free-kick ended a barren spell for Liverpool at Goodison. I was not aware of the mayhem in the Everton dressing room post-match.
“I was devastated how we lost that game and to lose my unbeaten record,” he says. “I’d scored and was man of the match. I very rarely argued with the lads after a game or raised my voice. But I couldn’t help myself that day.
“I said to our keeper, Paul Gerrard: ‘What the f--- were you doing?’
“He said: ‘I was coming for the cross.’
“I grabbed hold of him and said: ‘For f---’s sake, you’ve never come for a cross all f------ season!’ By then we were a bit jealous when you and Stevie came through. We wanted more of our own local lads with that fire. Warriors who could really play.”
Ferguson’s hard-man reputation has stuck with the emotional connection with those he represented. It has become part of Merseyside folklore how Duncan would arrive in pubs and tell the barman all the drinks for the customers were on him.
“I’m not sure I can afford to do that so much now,” he says, smiling.
Now he has the coaching bug, proud and a little frustrated that two spells as Everton’s caretaker manager did not get him the chance he craves.
“It was massive just to have that experience. Not many can say they managed Everton, can they?” he says.
“I felt they could have stuck with me the [second] time when they brought Frank [Lampard] in. Just to give me a chance until the end of that season because I knew the team and would also have kept us up. Then they could have looked at it at the end of the season.
“I would love to be the manager of Everton again. I know it looks a long way off, but that’s the dream. You have to keep your dreams alive, don’t you? I know what I need to do first; to get a job, have a bit of success, prove myself. But I’d still love it, even if it is five or 10 years from now. I love the club too much to give up that dream.”
The daunting posts he accepted at Forest Green and Inverness demonstrated the commitment.
“I have taken on tough jobs and I don’t know how people perceive it, but my record is good overall,” he says.
“I lost my job in Inverness because of administration. Given the situation, to lose only 16 of the 53 games there wasn’t bad. At Forest Green, Harry Houdini couldn’t have gotten them a win at that time.”
It will be a watching brief on Wednesday night, with admiration for the instant impact of David Moyes.
“It was inevitable he would come back one day,” he says.
“To me, Everton will always be about a traditional big striker, wingers getting it in the box, full-backs bombing on forward to give you width – and a team of hard workers. I know the game changes and you have coaches with their own style of play, but the Evertonians will always want that strength and aggression. You have to get at the opposition and give whoever comes to Goodison or the new stadium the biggest test they will ever have physically and psychologically. That’s Everton for me.
“I look at football sometimes and think how fantastic it must be to be a centre-back. You’ll see games with no aerial duels at all, and no balls in behind. You tell me, what do defenders want least? To have to turn towards their own goal. There’s not enough of that.”
I agree. “It’s the one club in the world where you can’t have a false nine!” I say.
So, who wins the last Goodison derby?
For me, it is the ultimate test of Arne Slot’s new “calmer Liverpool”. They have dealt with many challenges this season, but an evening game at Goodison Park is something else.
“I fancy Everton to win,” Ferguson says.
“They can do it if they set the tempo, put them under pressure, get on top of them, get the fans involved and defend for their lives. One of the defenders will have to be man of the match, but then they can nick it. An inswinging corner on top of the keeper and a headed goal would do, wouldn’t it? There is nothing wrong with winning a game like that.
“Everton can’t win the derby passing Liverpool off the park, can they!”
