401: Les Ferdinand, Queen’s Park Rangers, Merlin’s Premier League 95 Sticker Collection

In September 2004 Les Ferdinand scored his 149th, and last, Premier League goal. It came in the ninetieth minute for Bolton Wanderers against Manchester United and, having replaced everyone’s favourite “prick in the mixer” Kevin Davies, the veteran striker looked to have secured the Trotters a famous victory. Ferdinand had actually been brought on to fill in at centre-half as Big Sam looked to shut up shop and ultimately failed to do his job as a ‘Fergie time’ finish from none other than David Bellion secured a point for the Red Devils. If you want to get a better understanding of the English top flight in 2004 then just re-read this paragraph. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.

Ten years earlier Les Ferdinand was the spearhead of a Queen’s Park Rangers team that had finished in the top half of the table in the first two Premier League seasons. Ferdinand was instrumental to this success contributing an impressive 36 goals in 73 games and attracting the attentions of reigning champions Manchester United. During this same period he had marked his England debut with a goal in a 6-0 rout of San Marino and demonstrated his appeal as a target man to the extent that Graham Taylor encouraged the likes of Carlton Palmer to “hit Les” in the Three Lions’ ultimately unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the 1994 World Cup. Nonetheless Ferdinand signed a two-year contract with QPR and set about leading their line in the 1994/95 season.

Despite the departure of long-serving manager Gerry Francis, and his excellent hair, to Tottenham Hotspur and a dismal nine-game winless streak between August and October QPR finished in a more than respectable eighth position with Ferdinand banging in 24 goals. Clearly the practice he got against Tenor Fly in a West London park that season for the latter’s ‘Always Look On The Bright Side of Life’ video paid off. For those unfamiliar with said video here it is – Crap 90s Football before Twitter even existed. Suitably impressed by Ferdinand’s finishing Newcastle United offered £6m to QPR and the striker was on his way to join Kevin Keegan’s entertainers. As part of the deal his former club Hayes pocketed a cool £600,000 and invested in a snazzy new function suite which they duly named after Ferdinand.

On Tyneside the already prolific Ferdinand bettered his 1994/95 efforts by one goal as Newcastle came so close to securing their first Premier League title. The arrival of Alan Shearer for a world record £15m ahead of the 1996/97 season gave the Toon a strikeforce that was the envy of world football and the pair scored 49 goals across all competitions. However, the shock departure of manager Keegan in January 1997 brought Kenny Dalglish to St James’s Park and the Scot’s recruitment of the likes of John Barnes, Ian Rush and chip off the old block Paul Dalglish made it clear that Ferdinand might find his first team opportunities limited. After two seasons and 50 goals, and despite his long term desire to finish his career at Newcastle, Ferdinand was on his way to Tottenham Hotspur for £6m ahead of the 1997/98 season.

Ferdinand’s five and a half seasons at Spurs were blighted by injury yet he still managed to find the net 39 times in all competitions picking up a League Cup winner’s medal in the process. It was also during his time at White Hart Lane that he scored the 10,000th goal in the Premier League during a win over Fulham. Again the arrival of another striker, this time a young Robbie Keane rather than an ageing ex-Liverpool player, urged him to seek employment elsewhere and Ferdinand moved on to West Ham United in the middle of the 2002/03 season. He managed two goals in his 14 appearances for the Hammers but was unable to prevent them from being relegated from the Premier League. Newly promoted Leicester City managed to take Ferdinand back up to the top flight with them but despite the striker’s twelve goals the Foxes were relegated in a season blighted by off-field scandal.

At the age of 37 Ferdinand had one last tilt at Premier League football which is where we started today’s story. After twelve games at Bolton he was on his way to Reading in the Championship where he netted his last professional goal during a fourteen game stay. He signed non-contract terms with Watford ahead of the 2005/06 season but didn’t make it on to the pitch as the Hornets reached the Premier League via the play-offs and, just before his fortieth birthday, Ferdinand called it quits.

A League Cup winner’s medal to go with a Turkish Cup gong achieved while on loan at Besiktas in his early career don’t really do justice for a man who scored 215 goals in 523 appearances and earned the PFA Player’s Player of the Year award in 1996. Similarly a meagre 17 England caps, during which he scored five goals, seems far too few for a man of Ferdinand’s enduring class and talent. He now serves as the Director of Football at QPR and can be relied on for a sensible comment on the modern game be it a discussion of tactics or the sport’s more troubling issues of racism. Despite only spending two seasons on Tyneside he was inducted into the Newcastle United Foundation Hall of Fame in 2017 by the fans who first dubbed him ‘Sir Les’. As things stand he has had to settle for an MBE but don’t be surprised to see the knighthood bestowed upon this thoroughly decent man and understated giant of the beautiful game in years to come.