Premier League cult icon working for FREE as manager of cash-strapped crisis club as they face threat of administration
A PREMIER LEAGUE cult icon is currently working for free as manager of a cash-strapped club.
The crisis outfit are facing the threat of administration as their future continues to look bleak.
However, they have been handed a boost by their manager after he sacrificed his wages for the cause.
He had already taken a 40 per cent cut to his salary to help save the club.
Scottish side Inverness need to raise £200,000 this month to avoid the threat of relegation.
Manager Duncan Ferguson is now working for free in order to help, having already reduced his weekly wages from £3,000 to £1,200.
He explained: “I’ve given up my wage to try and help the club. I’m now working for nothing.
“That’s by the by, it’s my own decision to try and help the club get through all this.
“The players are worried, yes. They have contracts to fall upon, but it is the people around about the stadium, the staff, everyone’s jobs are on the line.
“I think you know since I’ve been here I’ve taken cuts and reductions.
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“Now, when I realised the position the club is in, in needing to raise £200,000 this month, I decided I don’t need to get paid my wage.
“I’ll work for nothing just now to try and help them through this. The plight of the staff was in my mind. It always is.
“I like to think I’m a caring person and I like to look after my staff and people around about me.
“At the moment, I’ll get through as best I can and try to keep putting petrol in my car and food on the table.”
Ferguson was appointed by Caley Thistle in September last year, penning a three-year deal through to the summer of 2026.
However, he was unable to avoid relegation from the Scottish Championship last season.
Instead, Inverness dropped into the third tier for the first time since 1999, where they currently sit sixth in the table.
They have won just one of their eight matches, drawing six and losing the other, to give Ferguson 15 victories from his 49 matches as boss.
The former striker became a cult hero in England during his playing days after scoring 68 goals in 239 Premier League appearances for Everton and Newcastle.
He is particularly beloved by fans of the Toffees, where he won the FA Cup in 1995.
Ferguson later returned to spend 11 years on the coaching staff, working with the under-18s before becoming first-team assistant and caretaker manager.