What the Ferg is going on at Peterborough?
Friday 13 November 2009 10:30
FFT.com's Championship correspondent Emyr Price looks at a Hull of a weird week...
Strange goings-on at London Road this week.
Attempting to untangle the logic of just what's happened over the course of a turbulent few days for the Posh can become a bit confusing, but here goes.
OK, so Darren Ferguson has left the club. That's clear. But why?
Two seasons, two successive promotions. Yes, they spent a bit of cash, and yes, they are currently bottom of the Championship, but it's not as if they have been cast adrift.
In two games' time they could be out of the relegation zone altogether.
It's now emerged that he has been sacked – although the official line is 'mutual consent'.
But this wasn't made clear straight away either. In fact, the club did its best to avoid making an announcement on his departure. It was almost as if they were ashamed to announce they had given him the boot initially.
Three days after Saturday's defeat to Newcastle, and still no official confirmation. A little bizarre.
Throw in the was-he-wasn't-he tapped up row – Barry Fry says so, the man himself insists not – and it's all a bit of a mess.
Yet the men who rarely get things wrong, the bookies, have Ferguson priced at 2/1 on to be Hull City's next manager.
Even this seems a little unusual. But it might be what was meant to happen after all.
Imagine this set of events (what follows over the next few paragraphs is entirely hypothetical - The Lawyers).
Hull's new chairman Adam Pearson rings Ferguson and says "Come and work for us." Ferguson agrees. Peterborough find out. They sack him, but then refuse to confirm it for a few days.
Meanwhile, Pearson has publicly (if somewhat equivocally) backed current Tigers' boss Phil Brown; Hull's win against Stoke means he can't oust the headpiece-wearing smoothie, or he'll look like a bit of a fool.
So, as Pearson waits patiently for Hull to lose another game (still hypothetically - Nervous Lawyers) – disastrously timed given the international break – so he can confirm the Scotsman's appointment, Barry Fry comes out and says Ferguson has been tapped up.
And this before the club makes any official confirmation regarding his departure.
Ferguson, in limbo now that he isn't in the Hull hot seat as expected, flatly denies he's been contacted by Hull, or anyone else.
A load of old posh? Watch this space.
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About Emyr Price
When he's not snowed under at work unofficially helping punters make a quick buck, Emyr enjoys nothing more than making a pilgrimage to the Cardiff City Stadium to dream of life in the promised land with his beloved Bluebirds.
On any given non-footballing day life for the man known (imaginatively) by friends as 'Pricey' revolves around: Good pubs (that's pubs, not bars),Yorkshire Tea, a not too healthy diet and mediocre five-a-side run-outs.
Gascoigne over Pele, Springsteen over anyone, and Joey Ramone nailed it when he said "Oh New York City really has it all. Oh Yeah-eh." Correct.