Duncan Ferguson first began to turn heads as a teenager for Dundee United in the early 1990s.
After making his first-team debut as a teenager, the striker would quickly establish himself in The Tangerines’ first team, netting 17 goals during the 1991/92 campaign and scoring 15 times the following season.
This early promise saw Rangers pull the trigger on a British record £4million move in 1993 and Ferguson now had a new challenge to deal with, as expectations were high as he looked to integrate himself into a successful side.
Ferguson on his early Rangers struggles
Ferguson admits that this weighed heavily on him, with his two-year spell at Ibrox seeing him play just 21 times and netting five goals, either side of a 44-day prison spell following a conviction of assault after he headbutted Raith Rovers’ John McStay during a match in April 1994.
“Yes. It was something I couldn’t handle,” he admits to FourFourTwo. I never gave myself a chance – that’s one of my biggest regrets.
“A wee bit of that was my lifestyle. I was getting a lot of injuries at the time. I was a young guy, I had a few quid in my pocket, and I followed Ally McCoist and Durranty [Ian Durrant] around like a wee poodle.
“They were established players; I was just a kid learning the trade. You get caught up in it all. You’ve made it before you’ve really made it.
“You’re in the big time but, actually, I never performed on the pitch because I never had an opportunity to perform – I was never fit.
“It probably came a couple of years too early for me.”
Ferguson left Ibrox for Everton in October 1994, initially on loan before his move was later made permanent. The Scot would play a key role in saving the Toffees from relegation that term, while also helping them win the 1995 FA Cup.
Ferguson would play 11 seasons for Everton, punctuated by an 18-month spell at Newcastle United and would go down as one of the Toffees’ most popular players of recent times.
Big Dunc: The Upfront Autobiography, written with Henry Winter, is available now in hardback, eBook and audiobook
