He won’t admit as much in public. But, then again, he doesn’t really need to.
It’s ripping out of his every sinew and fibre. Be in no doubt, Barry Ferguson is absolutely bursting to become the next Rangers manager on a full-time basis. And you know what? Over the course of the next six days and against all of the odds he will be given a once in a lifetime opportunity to earn it.
Thursday night’s jawdropping Europa League win over Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce was the moment the former Ibrox skipper announced himself as a genuine bona fide candidate for the position which he’s currently holding down in the capacity of caretaker. That the American health insurance tycoon who is about to become the club’s new owner was there in Istanbul to witness Ferguson’s landmark victory for himself will, at the very least, have given the incoming consortium a serious curve ball on which to ponder.
Andrew Cavenagh’s presence at the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium will have been noted by Ferguson and his backroom team even if they had other more pressing matters on their minds as they pitted their collective wits against one of the modern game’s managerial behemoths.
And if Cavenagh should choose to return to Glasgow for the second leg on Thursday night then he will see and feel for himself how Ferguson’s work during his short time in charge has repaired and restored the relationship between the club and its supporters. The money man from Philadelphia was a guest in the directors’ box on January 12 when Philippe Clement’s side huffed and puffed its way to a 3-1 win over St Johnstone against the backdrop of a bad-tempered fan revolt.
The militant wing of the Rangers support staged an organised walk out to protest against the same beleaguered regime that Cavenagh and his cohorts from the San Francisco 49ers intend to overhaul. So he saw for himself how fractured and broken down this relationship had become at a time when things were hurtling towards rock bottom.
On the contrary on Thursday night, should he return to Glasgow’s south side to see if Ferguson can finish off the job, Cavenagh will get a look at this place at its best and most intoxicating. Ibrox has a tendency to come alive on nights such as these and now that Ferguson has reconnected the supporters with his team and given them hope of salvaging something remarkable from the wreckage of Clement’s car crash campaign, the old place is bound to be bouncing when Mourinho comes to town.
That’s something Cavenagh may want to experience for himself now that he’s on the verge of getting his hands on the keys to the front door with his multi-million pound takeover proposals now being given the fine tooth comb treatment by teams of lawyers.
If Ferguson can finish what he started last week, find a way through Fenerbahce’s defences for a second time and claim a place in the quarter finals of this season’s Europa League he’ll have nailed down his credentials as a potential serious candidate.
And if he can follow that up with a genuinely competitive performance against Celtic in Sunday’s Old Firm showdown on the other side of the city, then he really will have to be considered for the position on a more permanent basis.
Not that he’ll admit it of course. Ferguson has never been the presumptuous type and he most certainly won’t allow himself to indulge in fantasies about what may or may not be in the future.
For him and his right hand men, Neil McCann, Billy Dodds and Allan McGregor, it’s all very much about what they can achieve in the here and the now. It’s reasonable to assume they will have been shocked by much of what they have seen since returning to the inside of a club they knew so well as players.
The accepted standards of behaviour and professionalism which they once took for granted around Auchenhowie have long since been eroded. The general working environment had become gloomy and tired even before Clement arrived at the club. And the Belgian took over a bad situation before making it even worse.
That’s what’s been driving Ferguson and his staff since they first walked back in through the doors. In his own mind, Ferguson has a little less than three months to do something about changing it for the better.
The short term plan is to breathe fresh energy and life into a club which has become stale and almost morbidly depressed. To restore the kind of work ethic and winning culture which has been lost along the way, along with so much of the club’s DNA.
He’ll very probably see that as a worthy legacy to leave behind even if he’s not going to be back inside calling the shots for the long haul. In many ways, however, it does feel as if Ferguson and his hand picked coaching team might just be the right men in the right place and that they have arrived in the nick of time.
There’s not a bit of textbook coaching school jargon or a powerpoint presentation between them. Rather, there’s a gritty sense of honesty and an unpolished authenticity which is precisely what this club has been crying out for after being hopelessly misled by a succession of fly by night chancers and managerial imposters.
Of course, there’s absolutely nothing they can do between now and May to change the duff hand they have been dealt in terms of the playing squad they have inherited. And yet Ferguson took it to the table in Turkey the other night and still managed to get the better of one of the greatest poker players in the game.
A repeat performance on Thursday night, or something very similar, will get Ferguson and Rangers across the line and into the last eight. Where they go from that point will be down to the decisions made by Cavenagh, 49ers big hitter Paraag Marathe and their new look incoming regime.
But, for the time being, Ferguson and his men have a chance to make their minds up for them. Given what they did to Mourinho in the first leg, it might seem unwise to underestimate them.