Big Dunc: Wayne’s a fighter... he punched me in the head once!
THERE is a grimace as Duncan Ferguson remembers the moment a young Wayne Rooney made a lasting impression on him. Ferguson, the Everton icon who will play in his Goodison Park testimonial alongside Rooney tomorrow, enjoys reflecting on how the teenage Rooney would bamboozle defenders with his dancing feet and swaggering talent. But there is another story he wants to tell.
Ferguson had a fearsome reputation during his playing career and it was common knowledge on Merseyside that the powerful striker would spend a significant amount of time at Bellefield, Everton’s old training ground, pummelling a punch bag in a style that suggested he was not to be messed with.
On the particular day that Ferguson revisits, however, Rooney had other ideas.
‘I’m always in the gym and remember us putting on the gloves one day and having a spar,’ Ferguson begins. ‘We had been lifting weights. It was an off-the- cuff thing and I have to say Wayne was a handy fighter. I remember getting punched right in the forehead by him.
‘He was wearing the right glove and I was the one hiding away. We only did it once — I never wanted to do it again! Like I say, he was handy. He was clever, very quiet, humble and shy. But underneath he was a tough lad and you could see that it was all in there. He was the whole package.’
It is a tale that does not fail to spark a smile but the fact that Ferguson relays it is something unique. During his time wearing Everton’s fabled No 9 shirt, which came over two spells between 1994 and 2006, he was a man of mystery, someone who would rarely share a moment with the press.
That secrecy did not stop Ferguson being idolised by Evertonians and there was a spell at the beginning of this century when they hoped he and Rooney would be the dream striking partnership to propel the club out of the doldrums under David Moyes.
Things never quite materialised as Everton hoped, with Ferguson, who is now 43 and a part of Roberto Martinez’s coaching staff, being betrayed by injuries and Rooney leaving for Manchester United less than two years after making his debut for his boyhood club.
Yet they link up for one last time tomorrow, against Villarreal. Ferguson, by his own admission, is not in the sharpest form, while Rooney won’t over- exert himself with the new Barclays Premier League campaign looming, but to see them play together will provide glimpses of what might have been. Rooney left for Old Trafford under a cloud but there is still a feeling that, one day, he might choose to see out his career back where it all began and Ferguson does nothing to dissuade the view that England’s captain remains as Blue as he was when growing up in Croxteth. ‘I did consider asking one or two others (old team-mates to play) but Wayne is still playing and I wanted him back for that personal touch,’ Ferguson explained. ‘I’ve played with a number of great players but I never asked anyone else other than Wayne. ‘ When I asked him, he was delighted. I’ve known him for a long time. We never lived in each other’s pockets but there was a level of respect between us. I wanted him to play in this game and I am chuffed to bits that he accepted. Plus it’s Villarreal, too, there’s an added reason for winning!’ Another smile but this time a rueful one. Villarreal, after all, are a club with whom Ferguson and Everton have history. How different would Everton’s fortunes have been had Pierluigi Collina, the Italian referee, not disallowed what appeared to be a legitimate Ferguson header in the second leg of a Champions League qualifier? Ten years on, it is a topic that enrages Evertonians. It could have been the moment to define an often controversial career. Instead, he stomped out of El Madrigal that night and he remains reluctant to go over old ground. What he will discuss, though, is the emotion he feels for a club and a fan base that welcomed him with open arms at a time when he was in danger of becoming a pariah. If he was initially indifferent about moving south, there is no disguising his emotions now.
‘The fans were waiting for something and I was maybe that something that they were looking for, a player with a wee bit of aggression and a focal point for the team,’ says Ferguson, who scored 73 goals in 273 appearances in all competitions after initially arriving on loan from Rangers. ‘Some of those Scousers I first met became my mates and they’re still my mates now.
‘Those guys were infectious and made me want to be around them and the club. The club really gets a grip of you. I’m close to the fans which I hope will always continue because they mean everything. When you think about them you get emotional. I’m a big softie at heart.’