---
title: "Alan Hutton Urges Benitez to Keep Duncan Ferguson at Everton"
canonical: "https://readeverton.com/alan-hutton-urges-benitez-to-keep-duncan-ferguson-at-everton/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Alex Jones"
section: "Everton News"
published: "2021-06-26T06:27:00Z"
modified: "2021-06-26T06:27:00Z"
---

# Alan Hutton Urges Benitez to Keep Duncan Ferguson at Everton

With Everton [looking close](https://talksport.com/football/901743/rafael-benitez-close-next-everton-manager-job-fan-backlash-liverpool/) to appointing Rafa Benitez as the club’s new manager, Alan Hutton has outlined one way in which Benitez could move to win the fans over.

The Scottish ex-Spurs and Rangers defender has claimed that Benitez keeping on his compatriot Duncan Ferguson in a senior coaching role could be an olive branch to enraged fans.

Ferguson served under Carlo Ancelotti as an assistant manager, along with his son Davide, following a spell in charge on an interim basis.

He featured 7 times for his country, but Blues will fondly remember Ferguson as a fiery hitman who scored [68 times and featured in 257 games](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/duncan-ferguson/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/3239) for the Toffees.

Benitez was the[target of banners](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-9699151/Angry-Everton-fans-protest-potential-Rafael-Benitez-appointment-banners-outside-Goodison-Park.html) bearing offensive messages that were recently strewn outside Goodison Park in protest at the prospect of a Benitez tenure in charge of the Toffees.

For that reason, Hutton feels that keeping on Ferguson in a senior post could be a minor but necessary first step in smoothing over fan concerns at [Everton](https://readeverton.com/2021/06/25/virals-fabrizio-romano-confirms-everton-target-turns-down-job/):

> “I think you need somebody within there who knows the club front and back,” Hutton told [Football Insider.](https://www.footballinsider247.com/everton-fans-will-throw-their-weight-behind-benitez-as-ferguson-plan-revealed-pundit/)

> “He knows the fans, he can relate to the fans. If he backs the manager then he’ll maybe bring them with him. I think you need somebody in your backroom staff like that.

> “These guys that are in clubs, they need to stay there. They need to be involved in some capacity because it’s experience and you need it.

> “As a new manager in a club you need that face. You need to bounce back off the players and stuff. I think that would be a good appointment if they could keep him in some sort of role.”

### Read Everton Verdict

As far as moves in club politics go, keeping on Ferguson as a critical part of the backroom staff could be a shrewd move by both Benitez and the board.

It will not be lost on Toffees chiefs that the[seemingly imminent appointment](https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/everton-rafael-benitez-liverpool-usmanov-moshiri-b1872649.html) is a controversial one, and pressure will be mounting to ensure he can deliver from day one.