Duncan Ferguson never stopped to consider the significance of his return to Scottish football when he seized the chance to take over as Inverness manager.
The former Dundee United and Rangers striker is back in his homeland 29 years after leaving Ibrox for Everton.
The 51-year-old had a swift return to Glasgow in 1995, a year after his move to Merseyside, when he spent 44 days in Barlinnie Prison following a failed appeal against his conviction for assault against John McStay during a game against Raith Rovers at Ibrox.
He never played in Scotland again as he ended his international career in 1997 amid lingering resentment over the Scottish Football Association’s attempts to impose a 12-match suspension – both before his initial court case and after his jail term. The protracted dispute was ultimately resolved in the player’s favour after another court case.
When asked how he was feeling about his return to Scottish football, the former Newcastle striker told MFR Radio: “I’m feeling good, I’m feeling great. I suppose I never thought about that really.
“Fitba’s fitba, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter where it is, it can be in England, it can be in Scotland.
“Obviously it’s nice to come back up to Scotland, my home, but that’s not the reason why I took the job. The reason I took the job is because I think this club can move in the right direction.
“But it is great to be back. I obviously come and visit, so I have not been totally down south forever. I have got family up here. But it is lovely to be back.”
The job is Ferguson’s second in management after a brief spell at Forest Green last season. Rovers won only one of the 18 games he took charge of and were relegated from Sky Bet League One.
Stirling-born Ferguson, who has signed a three-year contract, said: “It’s a great opportunity for myself. It’s great to be back being a manager, the thing that I love, coaching, managing, and really excited about the project ahead.
“The club have got a really big ambition to go back to the Premiership. Unfortunately that’s not the case at the moment but they have certainly got a lot of good ideas of how to get there.
“The main reason I came was the ambition of the club and the ambition of myself, and it’s a great opportunity.”
Ferguson spent 14 years as a coach at Everton, most of them working with the first team, and believes he can get Caley Thistle off the foot of the cinch Championship and up the table.
Previous manager Billy Dodds was sacked months after leading the club to the Scottish Cup final, and Caley Thistle sit bottom with one point from six matches.
Ferguson, whose first game will be against Dick Campbell’s Arbroath at Gayfield on Saturday, said: “We need to get some goals, we need to start creating some chances, we need to make sure we are in the opposition box.
“There’s not a lot of points on the board so we need to make sure we change that and change that quickly.”
Kane gunning for Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record
Harry Kane has his eyes set on Robert Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record after scoring twice in Bayern Munich's 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, though he knows he needs "to get a move on".
Kane scored in both halves on Saturday to take his tally to 42 goals this season across all competitions, also reaching the 400-goal mark at senior level for clubs and country.
The striker scored 280 of those goals for Tottenham, holding the honour of being the club's all-time leading scorer, while he is also the most prolific player in England history with 62 goals for the Three Lions.
With 35 goals in 31 Bundesliga appearances this season, Kane now has his eyes set on another piece of history.
Former Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski holds the record for the most goals scored in a single Bundesliga campaign, netting 41 times in 2020-21.
Asked about the possibility of breaking that record with just three games remaining in Bayern's league campaign, Kane said: "It's possible, but obviously I have to get a move on!
"I've got to maybe score a few goals next week. It's there, it's in touching distance.
"It depends on the last few games of course, but it was nice to add to it today and score a couple of goals to help the team."
Bayern next host Real Madrid in the first leg of a Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday, before travelling to face Stuttgart on Saturday.
Pochettino says VAR 'damaging' English football as Chelsea denied Villa win
Mauricio Pochettino claimed VAR is "damaging" English football after Chelsea saw a potential winning goal chalked off at the end of their 2-2 Premier League draw with Aston Villa.
Despite a bright performance, Chelsea found themselves 2-0 down at half-time on Saturday with Marc Cucurella putting through his own net before Morgan Rogers added Villa's second.
Goals from Noni Madueke and Conor Gallagher dragged Chelsea level as they penned Villa back after the break, but the Blues were enraged in stoppage time when Axel Disasi saw a potential winner ruled out.
Disasi headed home in the fifth minute of stoppage time to spark wild celebrations among the visiting Chelsea fans, only for referee Craig Pawson to disallow the goal following a pitchside VAR review, ruling Benoit Badiashile pushed Diego Carlos in the build-up.
With that incident coming just one week after Chelsea were denied a penalty in their FA Cup semi-final loss to Manchester City despite Jack Grealish appearing to handle Cole Palmer's free-kick, Pochettino has had enough.
"Everyone that was watching the game will feel disappointed. The referee said it was a foul and disallowed the goal after going to the VAR to confirm," he told TNT Sports.
"The referee is unbelievable and it's ridiculous. It is difficult to accept these types of things. In the semi-final it was handball and it was no penalty, the referee didn't check it.
"It is painful as it has damaged English football and I think Villa players and their fans didn't understand why the goal was disallowed.
"They said it was a foul and if you see the challenge… if we go into every single challenge like this and it is going to be a foul, we wouldn't finish the game with 11 players.
"We can talk about the performance or the decision – it is damaging the game."
Pochettino had no complaints about Chelsea's performance, though, as they avoided defeat for just the fourth time in 51 Premier League games when trailing by two or more goals at half-time.
The Blues previously achieved that feat in a 3-3 draw with Sheffield Wednesday in 1992, a memorable 2-2 draw with Tottenham in 2016 and another 3-3 draw with West Brom in 2020.
Chelsea racked up 21 shots to Villa's nine and put up 1.57 expected goals (xG) to the hosts' 1.1, with Nicolas Jackson and Palmer spurning glorious chances in either half.
"The performance was very good," Pochettino said. "We played really well and it is true in the first half we conceded too easily.
"To play Villa, who are fighting for the top four, I am pleased with the team. Now, we have to move on and the headlines will be about the disallowed goal."
New England Revolution 1-4 Inter Miami: Messi at the double as Herons run riot
Lionel Messi scored twice and laid on a goal for Luis Suarez as Inter Miami retained their three-point lead at the Eastern Conference summit with a 4-1 win over the New England Revolution.
A franchise-record crowd of 65,612 people witnessed a flying start from the Revs as they took the lead within just 37 seconds at Gillette Stadium. Carles Gil pounced on some sloppy play from Miami to tee up Tomas Chancalay, who lobbed Drake Callender for the opener.
However, Miami roared back with Messi leading from the front. They had a deserved equaliser just after the half-hour mark, Messi slotting home after latching onto Robert Taylor's throughball.
Messi had his second after 67 minutes, producing another composed finish after former Barcelona team-mate Sergio Busquets split the New England backline.
Messi was involved in another two goals as Miami added some gloss to the scoreline late on; his first-time shot was saved by Henrich Ravas but Benjamin Cremaschi was on hand to score on the rebound after 83 minutes, then the Argentine teed up Suarez for a curled finish five minutes later.
Miami stay three points clear of Supporters' Shield holders FC Cincinnati at the top of the East, with the Orange and Blue keeping pace by beating the Colorado Rapids 2-1 on Saturday.
Data Debrief: Messi rolls back the years
Ahead of Saturday's game, some feared Miami boss Gerardo Martino would opt to rest Messi after speaking of the risks of fielding the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner on New England's artificial pitch.
However, Messi came through 90 minutes with another mesmerising performance. He has now recorded a goal involvement in 10 straight club matches for the seventh time in his glittering career, last doing so for Barcelona between September and December in 2018.
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