Duncan Ferguson steps up to plate at Everton with Ancelotti’s backing

The demands of three knockout ties in eight days, including a Spanish Super Cup final in Saudi Arabia, sparked a rare outburst this week from Carlo Ancelotti but amid anger over the “absolute nonsense” of Real Madrid’s schedule he made time for a gratefully received phone call. The recipient was Duncan Ferguson.

“Carlo phoned me when he heard the news and said to me: ‘Be yourself. You’re ready.’ That gave me a bit of confidence,” admitted Ferguson, who has been tasked with lifting Everton spirits and relegation fears as caretaker manager once again. “I worked with Carlo for a couple of seasons and he told me to go for it, to be myself: ‘You know what you’re doing and you’ve got the experience on the training ground.’ He said: ‘You’re ready.’ That gave me a bit of a boost, to be honest, hearing it from a guy like that who has done it all.”

In caretaker terms Ferguson has been there and done it too, although there were noticeable differences in his demeanour on the eve of facing Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa to when he took on, and beat, Frank Lampard’s Chelsea the last time he managed at Goodison Park. In December 2019 Ferguson was appointed interim manager less than 48 hours before the game. He could not sleep that night and ran a bath at 2.30am. His voice cracked with emotion and his eyes welled with tears as discussed Everton’s “devastating” slide and his pride at leading the team. This time, with four days to prepare for Villa alongside Leighton Baines and John Ebbrell, it was a more relaxed, more self-aware Ferguson who addressed the media. A lesson learned from Ancelotti?

“Obviously Carlo was calm, wasn’t he?” he replied. “He has seen it all. Things like that, his calmness, tactically he was fantastic, and I picked