Duncan Ferguson will once again wear a watch that belonged to the great Howard Kendall when he takes caretaker charge of Everton.
Ferguson was given the watch by Lilly Kendall on the morning of the Blues' game with Chelsea in December 2019, as Big Dunc prepared the team after the sacking of Marco Silva.
On his left wrist, Ferguson wore his trademark sweatband and, on his right, was a gift from Kendall's window Lilly.
And Ferguson, who leads his second stint as caretaker boss today when Aston Villa visit Goodison, has confirmed he will be wearing it again.
“I will do," he said, with a broad smile.
"It is mine now, absolutely That’s mine forever.”
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Ferguson has made no secret that he has told the squad some "home truths" at training this week after a run of one win in 13 league games got Rafa Benitez the sack.
But Big Dunc says the players have responded in training and he firmly believes he will get a reaction from them today.
“Absolutely. Absolutely I trust the players," he insisted.
"One hundred percent I trust them. Because I work with them and I know they are good players in there. It is like anything. When you have a lack of confidence and you are losing games, you start to get down about yourself.
"Getting into them a wee bit and digging them out a little bit, I believe I have them on board and that is why I trust them.”
Ferguson has promised changes to the starting XI for today's game and hopes he can quickly imprint his coaching identity on the team, in the same way he did against Chelsea in December 2019.
Everton, who played in a 4-4-2 formation that day, won 3-1 to move out of the bottom three.
"Yes. Definitely. I will give my identity," he said, yesterday afternoon.
"I did it last time, I will do it again. My style is maybe different to other managers. I've had my identity as a player, I've got my identity as a coach, the players know what to expect from me so they will know what I want and hopefully they will deliver it. They delivered it the last time [he was caretaker] and let's hope they deliver it [today]."
Ferguson has revealed he received a phone call from Carlo Ancelotti this week but laughed off the idea he would have asked for any Real Madrid players on loan.
"We haven't got any money for players on loan!" he said.
"He phoned me two or three days ago when he heard the news. So that was it.
"We had a good chat, we talked about football, we talked about me as a coach, my journey, these types of things, where I want to go and some messages I need to get out there to the players. Be myself sort of thing."
