I might swap the high life for Fife
by Graeme MacPherson
No, it's not that warm today: only about 25C," chuckles Ian Ferguson, relaying details of the weather from his home in New South Wales.
As Britain shivers amid sub-zero temperatures, it is hard to imagine anyone wanting to trade the beach and barbie lifestyle famously enjoyed by the Australians for the not-so-great indoors back here in Blighty.
Never underestimate the unfathomable lure of Scottish football, though. Ferguson has expressed his current contentment with life as head coach at Central Coast Mariners, the current Hyundai A-League leaders, but would consider a return to these shores should a suitable opportunity arise.
Ferguson, goal-scoring hero of St Mirren's 1987 Scottish Cup-winning team and an integral fixture in the Rangers side during the nine-in-a-row era, has been linked with the current managerial vacancy at Dunfermline Athletic, another of his former clubs.
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The speculation is news to Ferguson, though. "I had no idea I had been linked with that job," he admits. "Normally my mates text me if there's anything about me in the papers back home." Had John Yorkston, the Dunfermline chairman, put in a long-distance call to Australia to gauge Ferguson's level of interest then he would have come across a young coach full of burning ambition and ready to move on to the next stage of an already eventful career.
Ferguson has been deputy to Lawrie McKinna at Central Coast since the inception of the A-League in 2005 but, now aged 40, is ready to progress and become his own man.
"I'm enjoying the coaching side of things, although it's something I never thought I would do when I was a player," he told The Herald. "I came over here mainly just to see out my last couple of seasons and was fortunate enough to get a job with the then Northern Spirit manager, Lawrie McKinna, as his assistant and I've never looked back.
"I'm happy where I am just now and I'm learning my trade but there will obviously come a time when I will want to move on and become a manager in my own right.
"I'm ambitious and don't want to be a No.2 all my days as I know I wouldn't be happy with that. But we will need to see what happens.
"The lifestyle here is fantastic. The Australian culture is to be out in your back garden enjoying the sunshine whereas back home you spent 95% of the time in the house with the central heating on.
"I could never say, though, that I would never come back to Scotland. There was a time last year when Dunfermline came in for me. I would have gone back in a heartbeat but it never happened; they picked Stephen Kenny and that was it.
"If the right offer came in again I would certainly consider it. There are only maybe three of four jobs that would probably interest me back in Scotland and the rest I probably wouldn't get near anyway.
"I would never say no' to anything until I was approached. But if someone came to me and said would you like to manage Cowdenbeath?' then the answer would be no'.
"But if someone said do you fancy managing Hearts?' then the answer would, of course, be yes'."
For now, Ferguson is happy to play his part in the rise and rise of Australian soccer. The Socceroos' swagger through Group F at last year's World Cup finals in Germany, defeating Japan and drawing with Croatia before going out to a disputed late Italian penalty in the next round, has reawakened interest in a sport that historically has lagged a distant third behind Aussie Rules and cricket in a nation's affections.
As Central Coast close in on their first national title - they are top of the table with five matches remaining- crowds nationwide are on the up.
Several of Australia's most famous footballing exports - Tony Vidmar, Craig Moore and John Aloisi to name but three - have returned home and have been joined this season by a few foreigners familiar to followers of Scottish football, including Juninho, Bobby Petta, Grant Brebner and Simon Lynch. Australia had been mooted as a possible alternative venue for the 2010 World Cup should South Africa's preparations fall behind schedule and Ferguson feels his adopted home would be ready if called upon to host such an event.
"Australian football is definitely on the rise. You only have to look at the World Cup and how well the Australians did in that. The standard in the A-League is certainly not as poor as maybe people think. Because we're so far away from Europe people don't really see any of our games and think Australians can't play football.
"But there are a few over here that can play and there are a few Australians in Europe who can play a bit, too.
"A lot of the famous ex-Socceroos are coming back. Craig Moore and Tony Vidmar are over here and we've got John Aloisi in our team.
"Cricket and Aussie Rules are obviously far ahead of us, with crowds of around 50,000, but I would say we're up there with the rugby league crowds.
"We Central Coast are a wee coastal team and we're getting 11,000 roughly at each home game. Melbourne are getting around 25,000, Sydney 15,000 and Adelaide around 12,000. So the crowds have been fantastic.
"The stadiums here are outstanding and the criteria is way beyond what we have in Scotland. If they had to step in to host the World Cup then the Australians would be more than ready for it.
"All the big stadiums here hold over 40,000 and the one in Melbourne holds around 100,000. Everything is in place for Australia if they were asked to host a World Cup."
