‘An honourable departure from an honourable man’

Alan Swann gives his verdict on the resignation of Posh’s most successful manager

There was no shock in an honourable man making an honourable departure from Peterborough United.

Manager Darren Ferguson was as secure in his post as it’s possible to be when your team has won just five of 31 league matches. The coowners had described him as ‘bullet proof. The chairman Darragh MacAnthony said he’d sack the players rather than the most successful manager in Posh history.

Ferguson took that decision out of his hands. MacAnthony has now lost the only successful manager he’s ever appointed in 15 years at the London Road helm.

Ferguson doesn’t use social media so, although he was aware of his weekly ‘slaughtering’ - as he put it -, he was immune to the nastiness of those with a onetrack mind full of venom and vitriol.

There was a maximum pay-off written into a new three-year contract, but a man who earned far less than some players who had been letting him down on a regular basis, decided he’d rather leave now with no compensation and at least give the new man a shot (a long one) at escaping the drop.

But Ferguson’s legacy shouldn’t be tainted by a terrible final five months.

Three times Posh appointed Darren Ferguson as first-team manager and each time he delivered a promotion. In one spell, his first after a left-field call-up by MacAnthony in January, 2007, he delivered two.

But he was also sacked twice, once when Posh had slumped to the bottom of the Championship in 2009 and once after a hopeless performance in a 3-0 League One defeat at MK Dons in 2015. This is the first time he’s resigned. At least, in what is surely his last stint as Posh boss, he got to leave on his own terms. A club legend deserved that.

Some will say Ferguson should have left a while ago. Some will even say he should have left as soon as that club

record fourth promotion was confirmed last May such is his poor record at Championship level.

But is that really fair? Ignore the arrogant bluster of last summer. Posh are always punching above their financial weight at Championship level, although not to the extent of picking up 21 points in 31 matches, while failing to score in 18 of them.

Ferguson has underperformed this season. He will admit that. Little he has tried this season has worked. Recruitment failed, playing systems flopped and players either struggled to live up to reputations or weren’t good enough in the first place. Ferguson will share some of that blame.

There were fleeting performances of promise this season. Millwall, QPR and Birmingham were all beaten at London Road with style, but away trips quickly became a horror show. Was motivation an issue? Ironically Posh have just delivered three successive full-on committed displays in a row which suggested Ferguson hadn’t lost the dressing room. No goals and just one point in those games suggested he had simply lost his managerial mojo.

That clearly wasn’t the case when he returned to replace Steve Evans as Posh manager in January 2019. He took that team to within a point of the playoffs after a slow start with a squad that had been enduring a steady decline, albeit one still in sixth place when he took over.

The following season a golden opportunity of automatic promotion was wrecked by Covid and EFL incompetence when Ivan Toney was in rampant form.

Toney became a formidable forward under Ferguson and will doubtless join the likes of Craig Mackail-Smith, Aaron Mclean and George Boyd in thanking a former Posh boss for accelerating their careers.

Last season of course brought that fourth promotion.

Ironically it was also the beginning of the end of the boss as the gulf in financial clout between his club and some big-hitters became too much, although the continued success of Blackpool and Luton counters that particular argument.

The pressure is now on MacAnthony to find someone capable of filling some pretty big shoes. And he needs to do it quickly.