How Duncan Ferguson became the great constant in Everton's chaotic managerial churn

Everton
(Image credit: Getty)

A unique figure could be a unifying figure this weekend. Sometimes managerial appointments are reactions to what went before. And, apart from sitting next to him for much of the last six months, Duncan Ferguson is Everton’s anti-Rafa Benitez. The charismatic caretaker’s reign may last a solitary game but supporters who went into open revolt have an icon to rally around.

If Benitez is indelibly associated with Liverpool, Ferguson has become Everton’s great loyalist and improbable constant. Howard Kendall’s second spell at Goodison, which ended at 1993, is the last not to feature the Scot as player or coach and Kendall, who first joined Everton in 1967, was his mentor. 

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Richard Jolly

Richard Jolly also writes for the National, the Guardian, the Observer, the Straits Times, the Independent, Sporting Life, Football 365 and the Blizzard. He has written for the FourFourTwo website since 2018 and for the magazine in the 1990s and the 2020s, but not in between. He has covered 1500+ games and remembers a disturbing number of the 0-0 draws.