THE FERGIE FILES: Peterborough United manager recalls getting the job after a hush-hush meeting, why he decided against a player-manager role, early concerns, the homesick hero, from ‘bottlers’ to winners, and disappointment as a Premier League job interview was scuppered by the chairman

Posh were seeking a new manager in January, 2007 when charismatic new chairman Darragh MacAnthony dispensed with Keith Alexander after a run of seven straight League Two defeats.

The choice the club made stunned the club’s fans, the players and Darren Ferguson himself, but what an inspired decision it was.

Here Ferguson recalls the first two-and-a-half years of his reign at London Road during a conversation with Posh press officer Phil Adlam

‘WE HAVE A HELL OF A JOB ON’

“Out of the blue Barry Fry gave me a call. I was still playing for Wrexham at the time and Barry had tried to sign me on a few occasions in the past.

“But he wanted me to be interviewed for the Peterborough manager’s job this time, which threw me a little.

“He told me the club had a new chairman who wanted a younger manager and more youthful players.

“Obviously I knew little about the chairman, but I did know he’d just made a £1 million bid for Izale Macleod so he was clearly going to have a go.

“In a way the call was perfectly timed as I was disappointed at not getting the Wrexham manager’s job. I’d done my coaching badges. I wanted to take that next step.

“Barry told me to come down to the ground for an interview with him and (chief executive) Bob Symns and the chairman would speak to me on the phone from America where he was on holiday.

“Peterborough were playing at Plymouth the night before and had stayed over so Barry said come down in the afternoon when the players had gone and we’d have a hush-hush meeting.

“I was excited, but nervous as I’d never been interviewed before. We chatted and I gave them my views on the current squad, what I’d expect from them and how we would play and then Darragh came on the phone and his first question was why I didn’t get the Wrexham job!

“We didn’t speak for that long and I went away thinking he wouldn’t offer me the job, but if he did I wouldn’t take it without meeting him face to face as it just didn’t feel right. I told Darragh this and I think it took him by surprise.

“Anyway Barry told me they wanted me to take the job before the next game and even though I hadn’t had my face-to-face meeting I had to take the job as it was my big chance.

“I came back down to Peterborough and watched them lose 3-0 at home to Stockport and it was such a mess it could have been six!

“I spoke to Kevin Russell who would be my assistant and told him we had a right job on here!”

THE BEST MIDFIELDER IN LEAGUE ONE HAS RETIRED

Barry Fry was adamant he wanted me to play as well as manage when I first joined. We both felt I could cope with the level.

“My first game in charge was a big derby at Lincoln and I decided we would play with three centre-backs and I would sit in front of them alongside Micah Hyde.

“I had told the club at interview we’d play 4-4-2, but I don’t know whay I said that as I hated the formation. I think I just panicked!

“But after 10 minutes of the first training session I pulled out. I just couldn’t concentrate on playing and also trying to organise everything so I decided there and then not to play again and I didn’t.

“I wanted to give management a real crack so I had to concentrate solely on that.

“I knew people were saying I had got the job because of my name, because of my dad so I felt I had a lot to prove.

“Barry wasn’t best pleased at first because he’d told the chairman he’s signed the best midfielder in League One!

‘LOTS OF PLAYERS HAD TO GO’

“My first meeting with the players went well which was important. When I joined Preston later in my career my first meeting with the players there didn’t go so well.

“I wanted to sound confident and I got the impression that, the younger players at least, brought into what I wanted to do. We immediately changed the way they trained and we changed the diet.

“I inherited some good players. Aaron Mclean had impressed me with his energy in that Stockport match, but some like Simon Yeo, Trevor Benjamin and Carl Richards would need moving on.

“I had some good lads in the group like Gavin Strachan, Mark Arber and Mark Tyler, while Micah Hyde pieced things together.

“At one point we won three games on the bounce including a 4-0 thrashing of MK Dons, but we lost after leading at Shrewsbury chasing that fourth win and we never recovered and finished 10th.

“It was over after we drew at Chester late in the season and I told a lot of players straight after that game that they’d be moving on.

“There was hope for the future though. We’d signed Craig Mackail-Smith and not many clubs would have the energy, power and goalscoring ability of him and Mclean.

BUILDING BOYD’S CONFIDENCE

“I decided we would need a couple of experienced, strong characters to get us up the following season and we pretty much sorted out Dean Keates and Chris Westwood’s arrival from Walsall before the previous season had ended.

“I decided Westwood and Craig Morgan’s ability meant we could play with four at the back and we had to play two up as we had to play Mackail-Smith and Mclean.

“George Boyd became a top player once we got his confidence up. His mobility meant we could operate a 4-3-3 system.

“We let Ben Futcher, Guy Branston, Richards and Benjamin and a couple of others go. We also let Peter Gain go, although I liked him a lot, but with Keates and Hyde we didn’t really need him. Peter was a good footballer, but he was very ill disciplined as far as positional play was concerned. I called him in once and showed him a video of him popping up everywhere on the pitch. He said he just wanted to get on the ball all the time. He got better and it was a close call whether or not to keep him.

“Chris Whelpdale also came in and did better than we dared expect and Jamie Day was outstanding for us that season. Chris barely lost a header in two seasons and was a useful out ball for us.

“We had a good balance in that team, but we didn’t start great. We lost 3-2 at home to Chesterfield early on after we had been battered 3-0 at Rotherham, but it became a theme with my promotions that my team didn’t start great.

“I was confident without being over confident though and by Christmas I really fancied our chances.

“We went to Hereford for the penultimate game knowing a win would get us up and thanks to a great cross from Whelpdale and a great header from Keates we managed it.

“It was a fantastic day for the players, the club and the supporters and I can remember celebrating in the pouring rain in front of the travelling fans. I rang the chairman and he was quite subdued. He told me he still wanted to win the league which we didn’t manage!

“At the end of the season I told the players not to celebrate for too long as I wanted this to be just the start. I wanted promotion again next season.”

DOUBLE-PROMOTION WINNER ALMOST QUIT THE CLUB

“I told the chairman in the summer (2008) that Keates and Chris Westwood would get us up. They would run the dressing room and so it proved.

“But Dean struggled at first. His family couldn’t settle in Peterborough and we even had a conversation about him returning to Walsall.

“I left Dean out for a big game at home to MK Dons which we lost 2-1 and I realised how much we needed him. It bothered him as well as from that moment his form really improved and he became a top player for us.

“Our relationship had become strained, but me and Dean are great friends now. We speak often.

“That dresssing room was full of great characters though. Mclean was bubby and Charlie Lee loved to chat.

“Some like Hyde had to be reined in now and again, but they really were a terrific bunch.”

FROM ‘BOTTLERS’ TO HEROES

“We kept the core of the squad for the following season. I was confident we had signed players for League Two who would also be strong in League One and crucially the players believed it as well.

“We had a wobble at the start losing three of our first four, but we also beat Leeds and when we travelled to Leicester at Christmas we were right up there and going well.

“And this was a game to show our potential. It was a great game for our fans at a big stadium against a big club, but we just didn’t turn up and lost 4-0.

“It turned out to be a big turning point as I basically accused the players of bottling it and if they repeated it they had no chance of achieving what they were capable of achieving.

“It did the trick and by the time we played Leicester at home we were flying again and beating them 2-0 at London Road convinced us we would not only get promoted, but we could win the league.

“We won at Oldham the following week when Leicester lost to a late goal and Boydy turned to me and said ‘we’re going to win this thing’.

“Unfortunately we suffered a couple of slip-ups and finished second to Leicester, but the day we clinched promotion at Colchester was one of the best of my career.

“Before the game we were a bit unsure as to where their best player Mark Yeates would play and Charlie Lee said I hope it’s up against me as I’ll run all over him!

“That was typical Charlie and he was true to his word. Yeates was talented, but didn’t like running back and Charlie just destroyed him. He was absolutely brilliant that day and won the game with a great goal, but there was confusion on the final whistle as someone - it was Barry or the chairman - told me we were up.

“We started celebrating, but we had to stop as MK Dons still had five minutes to go in their game and a goal for them would have took it to the final day. Imagine if they had scored! Luckily they missed chance after chance and when it was over Joe Lewis bundled me to the floor and the lads drenched me with champagne.

“It was another fantastic day with a great group of players and staff. It was one of the best days of my career for sure. Now we had to decide how to prepare in the Championship.”

PREMIER LEAGUE INTEREST

“I had heard rumours of interest in the past, but I took no notice and I never seriously thought about leaving.

“But one day after our promotion from League One and, while I was on my own at an airport after coming back from the Champions League Final Barry Fry came on the phone and told me Reading had made an approach.

“I was surprised. They were in the Premier League at the time so of course I was interested and I said I’d like to speak to them.

“But the chairman got involved and couldn’t understand why I was interested so blocked the approach.

“I was disappointed. It was a Premier League club so I had to be interested, but the chairman didn’t see it that way.

“It didn’t affect me though. I was under contract to a club that had given me my big chance and we had enjoyed great success together.

“It was early in the summer and my attention was soon on making sure we could compete in the Championship and I was confident we would.”

Fergie Files part two next week.