When he received the job offer as manager of Inverness, claims he was just seconds away from undergoing a torturous root canal procedure.
This week, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, who are now last in the Scottish Championship, named the 51-year-old as their new manager.
In an interview with Alan Brazil and Ally McCoist for talkSPORT Breakfast, Ferguson described how he unexpectedly learned about his new job offer.
When questioned about his location at the time of the call, he replied, “I was actually headed into the dentist’s chair – actually, I’m talking about the genuine dentist.
And as I was about to receive a root canal, I received a call from him, who ended up rescuing me from the chair.
Actually, my plan was to ultimately sit down and have dental care.
“So he called me and asked, ‘Would you be interested to come up and chat with us?'”
“I responded, ‘Absolutely, of course I will – I’m out of a job!'”
“So that’s how quickly it happened – I jumped out of the dentist’s chair as fast as I could, got in the car, and drove off.”
Brazil responded in jesting fashion, saying, “Get out of a root canal for the Caledonian canal!”
Before joining Rangers in 1993 for what was then a British record sum of £4 million, Ferguson began his career at Dundee United, where he made 77 appearances.
Over the course of his 16-year playing career, Ferguson appeared in over 200 games for Everton and 30 games for Newcastle.
Prior to disqualifying himself from international service in 1997 as a result of a disagreement with the Scottish Football Association, he also made seven appearances for Scotland.
Ferguson continues to hold the record for the most Premier League goals scored by a Scottish player, with 84.
Ferguson took his first managerial post at Forest Green Rovers earlier this year after serving as the club’s interim manager for a brief period at Everton.
But he departed the position following a terrible stretch in which he only managed to win one out of 18 games.
The 51-year-old will now lead Inverness as he makes his comeback to Scottish football.
With only one point from their first six games, Inverness is currently last in Scottish football’s second division, but Ferguson is certain that he can turn their season around.
“They’ve had a bad run of results, but they’re not far away,” he said, “and that was really one of the reasons as well why I took the job.”
We’re getting there, Ferguson continued. We have a strong team, talented players, and they are here for a purpose, but we need to make sure we turn this form around as quickly as we can.
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