Saturday 23 June 2012

37. Darren Ferguson




Signed from: Youth team
Debut: 2-1 defeat vs Sheffield United (as sub), February 26th 1991
League Record: 20 games (+7 as sub)
Sold to: Wolverhampton Wanderers (£250,000) January 1994

He’s the son of Fergie, and he’s never going to get away from that. With that out of the way, we can say as a footballer he was never anywhere near United standard. Not awful, of course, but not the kind to ever stamp his mark in the top flight. His best tool was a good left foot, though he never managed to use it to get the ball in the back of the net.

That all being said, he still managed to win a Premiership medal in 1992/93 after playing plenty of games early in the season due to injuries: his best moment was taking the free kick that led to us getting our first win that season (in the fourth game) down at Southampton. When Lee Sharpe returned from injury, however, it was back to the stiffs for young Darren and when Brian McClair moved back to midfield later in the season, he rarely troubled the first XI again.

I doubt anyone was particularly bothered when he dropped down a division to sign for Wolves. Later, he dropped further down the leagues with Wrexham, where he seemed to discover his best form, finally adding a decent scoring return to this game.

He’ll play a part in the stories of players much further down this line as a manager of teams they went out on loan to. This had led to predictable (though not necessarily untrue) comments that Fergie Snr was again helping his son’s football career. Currently in a second spell in the managerial chair at Peterborough, after a less successful time at Preston saw him get the old tin tack.

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