Duncan Ferguson wild moments – ‘almost killing’ burglar, gripping Bullard and Keane spat
Duncan Ferguson was one of the most feared players in the Premier League during his time with Everton with tales of his hardman antics still talked about to this day
When it comes to notoroius footballing hardmen few can hold the candle to Everton legend Duncan Ferguson.
Big Dunc was feared and revered amongst his peers and tales of his wild antics on and off the pitch are the stuff of legend. The 6ft 4in Scottish striker was an imposing and physical player, who’d just as soon stick something on a player as he would stick the ball in the back of the net. Ferguson’s aggressive style of play resulted in a career total of nine red cards.
He also ended up landing up with a three-month prison sentence following an on-field assault of Raith Rovers’ John McStay in 1994.
Of his rad cards eight of the were in the English Premier League, which game him the joint record for dismissals alongside Patrick Vieira and Richard Dunne.
He finally hung up his boots at the end of the 2005/06 season, and has gone onto have a rather mixed bag of success as a coach. That includes an 18 match stint at Forest Green Rovers where the team only picked up a single victory.
But here the Daily Star takes at look back at some of the reasons why he was such a fearsome character and legend during his playing days.
He once thought he’d killed a burglar
Ferguson revealed that he once thought he’d killed a burglar and had to resuscitate him. In 2001 Ferguson was home, while his wife and young child were upstairs in bed, when he heard noises and saw two shadows coming through his conservatory. Angered by the audacity of the intruders, Ferguson saw red and unleashed hell. He said: “I got a grip of one of them and that was when I got angry… I unloaded, I really did. I really followed in to the point where I thought I’d killed him, I really did.
“I had to try and resuscitate him then. So you go from a point of unloading on the fella to helping him. It happened in a matter of seconds.” Police confirmed that one of the burglars was taken to “taken to hospital for treatment” after the other fled the scene. Both of the burglars were eventually jailed.
When he stitched up a triallist
Non-league legend Gareth Seddon said Ferguson got him drunk as a skunk during his Everton trial. Speaking on the I Had Trials Once podcast, he explained how the Toffees icon Ferguson had convinced him to have a few beers, only for it to backfire on him during training the next day. Seddon revealed that when he bumped into Ferguson with Don Hutchinson they persuaded him to have a drink, against his better judgement.
He explained Ferguson told him not to worry about the training, and telling him to stick with him. Seddon said the day after the big session, he bumped into Ferguson, but just as they were heading to the jacuzzi, the then Everton manager scuppered his taking it easy plans. “Walter Smith shouts over talking to Big Dunc,” Seddon added.
“And Big Dunc’s going ‘eh, you need one more player? Get yourself on son’. And he literally like pushed me over.”
He added: “Him and Don Hutchison were walking off laughing their heads off and I went and joined with the first team just doing doggies and five-a-side and I was horrendous.”
Even Roy Keane admitted he avoided him
Fellow footballing hardman Roy Keane was notorious for his no nonsense approach to football and seemed never to back down from a confrontation. That is of course unless that confrontation was with Ferguson. Keane’s fellow pundit Micah Richards ranked him fifth in his list for the most feared player to have graced the top flight. He said the reason why he had Keane so low was because of Ferguson. Richards said: “I was watching clips of him and (Jaap) Stam and Keane walked away from a confrontation, so I was like ‘wooooow’, how hard are you really then?
“Everyone did though. He’s the ultimate hardman because nobody wants smoke with him, with Duncan Ferguson.”
Even Keane admitted as much himself. He said, via HITC : “I used to stay away from him. We’re talking about characters earlier and he’s certainly that.”
When he scared Jimmy Bullard
Footballing funnyman Jimmy Bullard is well known for being a bit of a joker when it come to most things. But when his mouth ran away with him during a feisty match between Wigan and Everton in January 2006, he quickly regretted it. Bullard revealed that Ferguson had only been on the pitch for a few minutes towards the end of the game when he took a player out and was red-carded.
He said: “As he walks off, I just get in my head ‘see you in the tunnel there Dunc, I’ll see you in the tunnel’.” He said his Scottish teammate Lee McCullough told him: “I wouldn’t have done that.”
Bullard said Ferguson chillingly informed him “No problem wee man,” and waited for him in the tunnel. He said he put off going back, but eventually faced the tormentor, who grabbed him round the neck and pinned him against the wall, before letting him off with a warning. However, Bullard said that a fortnight later he bumped into the Scotsman in a bar at Goodwood and they quickly made up.
