Duncan Ferguson takes Rangers lessons from Walter Smith and galaxy of stars to Inverness ahead of Championship chance

Duncan Ferguson has worked under some of the game’s greatest managers.

From Walter Smith to four-time Champions League-winning boss Carlo Ancelotti, Big Dunc has learned from the best. The new Inverness man can also throw in the legendary Howard Kendall, Roberto Martinez, Rafa Benitez and Ronald Koeman from his time at Everton. But it was in his early playing career under the late, great Smith at Rangers and Everton from whom Ferguson got an education money can’t buy. And he now plans to make full use of it getting Caley Thistle back into the Premiership.

Ferguson said: “Right away, you think Scotland and the great man himself, Walter Smith, God bless him. What a fantastic guy. Everybody loved him and he was idolised. I still get emotional talking about him because he was a great fella. He was a great manager who did wonderful things for Rangers. He was a wee bit unlucky at Everton. He was a great manager and everybody loved him. He was certainly one who sticks right out in my mind.”

Kendall is Everton’s greatest modern-day manager, delivering two English titles, a European Cup Winners’ Cup and FA Cup. He also handed Ferguson the captain’s armband at Goodison Park and made a big impression on him.

Ferguson said: “Howard Kendall was basically my mentor. He made me captain of Everton which was a big thing and we just avoided relegation. Those two (Kendall and Smith) definitely stick in my mind as man-managers and people, while also being top tacticians. They were good people, you’d run through a brick wall and die for them.”

Ferguson was 15 years on the coaching staff at Everton before he left last summer. Ancelotti and Benitez have both won Champions Leagues while Koeman, Frank Lampard and current Portugal boss Martinez