Derby County finally named Wayne Rooney's permanent successor earlier this week.
After an interim spell in charge for Liam Rosenior, the Rams appointed Paul Warne as permanent boss, with the new coach departing Rotherham for Pride Park.
It now appears that, naturally, Warne was not the only name being considered by the Rams, with another manager's name having emerged.
As per Alan Nixon via Patreon, former Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson was the 'unlucky loser' in the race for the Pride Park vacancy.
Nixon reports that Ferguson was Derby's alternative to Warne when they decided they wanted an experienced manager that had won promotion previously.
The 50-year-old was said to be 'firmly in the frame' for the position prior to Warne being snapped up.
Ferguson is an experienced manager at this stage of his career.
In 2007 he became player-manager at Peterborough United, leading the club to back to back promotions from League Two to the Championship.
He then joined Preston North End in 2010, managing 49 matches before being sacked by the Deepdale outfit.
In January 2011, he would return to Peterborough with the club sitting outside of the play0ff positions, going on to lead them to promotion to the Championship once again via the League One playoffs that season.
He would eventually depart Posh once again in 2015, this time for Doncaster Rovers. Ferguson experienced an initial relegation but got the club back up to League One the next campaign.
In 2019, a third spell at Peterborough beckoned, and once again, the 50-year-old guided the club to the Championship.
Ferguson resigned as Posh boss back in February.
The verdict
Whilst it is irrelevant now as Paul Warne is boss, it's interesting to hear that Darren Ferguson was in the frame for the Derby County job.
It's clear to see why though.
You only have to look at his track record in League's One and Two in terms of achieving promotion to see why he'd be an attractive proposition for the Rams.
And, crucially, he also kept Peterborough up for a couple of years when he got them promoted back in 2011.
Ferguson likely would have been a decent appointment for the Rams, then, but they certainly won't mind having missed out on him given they ended up getting Paul Warne.