Nicky Campbell: Clueless Prick

The history of Duncan Ferguson is being written, and it's in the hands of troglodytes. The mainstream press are proving precisely why Big Dunc never spoke to them, with a few innacurate and vindictive articles being written. Prime example is "The Good, the Bad and the Downright Ugly of Big Dunc", by Nicky Campbell in the Guardian. The first puzzle is why on earth does he incorporate Theo Walcott? It's telling, because the contrast between the two demonstrates where the hostility to Ferguson comes from. Walcott plays the media game: he's nice to the press, his bird is involved, and he helps to sell papers. By contrast when Duncan Ferguson arrived on the scene (don't forget, he set a British trasnfer record) he just said "I don't talk to the scum gutter press".

The media refuse to accept that anyone can be a hero without their permission. It erodes their authority, and hence the attempts now to attack the man.

The content of Campbell's article is full of factual errors and demonstrates an awesomely bad understanding of the Big Man's career. Apparantly:

He has played his last game of professional football. Never again will he be out with injury and/or suspension. There will be no more fines to add to the quarter of a million pounds paid to Everton over the years and no more opportunities to reach double figures in a season. He managed that once, at Dundee United

Err, he hasn't actually retired, he reached double figures twice for Dundee United (and he only played for them for two full seasons), and he has reached duble figures for us.

The meat of Campbell's piece comes from anonymous sources, a "a former international who played in the dark blue with Ferguson" and a "A former Everton team-mate, a model pro" (might they be the same person???) Some balance was supposedly given by Howard Kendall, but I can't see how the body of evidence suggests Ferguson wasn't respected and well-liked by his team mates. According to Campbell, however, "we are left to surmise from prejudices and infer from facts" therefore eschewing responsibility of being a good journalist. Despite the millions of stories about Ferguson that have emerged following his departure on fansites and messageboards, there's been plenty of things in the official media. Mikel Arteta recently said

He has been someone special at the club, a special character. We will find it difficult in the training room because he is a strong character and he always has nice words for each of us

But it's not good enough for a journalist to think that a man's refusal to make their life easy, permits them to use prejudice and inference. If you don't know the facts, then don't write the article. Natasha Wood's "The Crying Game" (in the Sunday Herald), does the same thing:

It would be fascinating to listen to Ferguson’s views on such matters now, but then he doesn’t speak to the media. I’m not sure that stance has done him any favours either.

For all I know, he is nice to his granny and does loads of charity work. But the facts I do know are contained in the statistics of his career – too much money for too few goals.

Surely if a journalist admits that they don't know much about their subject they should research it until they do? What really gets to me is this attitude that by default they have the responsibility to leave their opinion, and if the subject won't coperate than they have the right to just guess. Ferguson does do a lot for charity. It's scandalous that a journalist should write on the matter without making a toek attempt to understand it.

A poster on TPF recently summed it up best:

You'll never understand him from reading the press. If you want to know what he thinks about something then just turn up early for the match becasue noone spends more time with the fans.

I was at the Birmingham match and bumped into him at the Directors car park outside the Park End. He signed everything that was put in front of him, posed for every picture requested. The simple truth is that Duncan Ferguson is an Evertonian (not a footballer) and there's not necessarily a logic to becoming a hero. Throughout lean periods for our football club he provided the light - some phenomenal memories. Off the pitch he spends more time with the fans and has greater generosity than any other footballer I'm aware of. You won't read about it in the press, and the journalists clearly have no intention of researching it. For them he's his own man and they abhor that.

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