Premier League icon working for free at cash-strapped club in incredible gesture

Premier League icon Duncan Ferguson is working for free at cash-strapped club Inverness Caledonian Thistle in an incredible gesture to help save them.

Inverness are in huge financial trouble and have slipped down to Scottish League One with Everton legend Ferguson currently in charge as the team’s manager.

Former striker Ferguson played a total of 263 games for the Toffees – where he won the 1995 FA Cup and produced 69 goals and 11 assists – while he also enjoyed a two-year spell at Newcastle United.

The 52-year-old twice worked as Everton’s interim manager in 2019 and 2022 before he was handed his first full-time managerial role at Forest Green Rovers.

Ferguson managed Forest Green from January to July last year and moved north of the border to take charge of Inverness in September 2023.

Inverness won the Scottish Cup and remarkably finished third in the Scottish Premiership in 2015 – but less than 10 years later – they are facing the threat of administration in the third-tier.

With Inverness needing to raise £200,000 this month to avoid the threat of relegation, Ferguson has decided to work totally for free to help the club out.

That comes after he already agreed to a 40 per cent on his £3,000 weekly wages and was previously managing the club on £1,200-a-week.

‘I’ve given up my wage to try and help the club,’ Ferguson said. ‘I’m now working for nothing. That’s by the by, it’s my own decision to try and help the club get through all this.

‘The players are worried, yes. They have contracts to fall upon, but it is the people around about the stadium, the staff, everyone’s jobs are on the line.

‘I think you know since I’ve been here I’ve taken cuts and reductions. Now, when I realised the position the club is in, in needing to raise £200,000 this month, I decided I don’t need to get paid my wage.

‘’ll work for nothing just now to try and help them through this. The plight of the staff was in my mind. It always is.

‘I like to think I’m a caring person and I like to look after my staff and people around about me. At the moment, I’ll get through as best I can and try to keep putting petrol in my car and food on the table.’