Agbonlahor: Benitez's backroom plan for Ferguson won't save him from Everton fans fury
Rafael Benitez may have been forced to keep Duncan Ferguson on his prospective Everton coaching staff, according to Gabby Agbonlahor.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Aston Villa and England forward insisted the move will do very little to appease the angry Everton fan base.
Football Insider learned on 17 June Ferguson is set to be handed a key role in the Spaniard's potential backroom team.
Football Insider revealed on Sunday (27 June) the Newcastle United consortium working on a takeover have been told Everton's appointment of Benitez is "99 per cent done".
The 61-year-old is said to see the value of keeping Ferguson at the club given his knowledge of the current squad.
The legendary ex-Blues striker has worked on the coaching teams of Marco Silva, Sam Allardyce, Ronald Koeman, Roberto Martinez and David Moyes.
Asked whether keeping Ferguson at Goodison Park will help smooth over Benitez's already testing relationship with the fans, Agbonlahor told Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley: "Oh no, not really.
"I don't think he's got really any choice with that, to be honest. If you got rid of Duncan Ferguson he'd be even more in trouble with the Everton fans.
"I don't think he had any choice in that one. I just think the move to appoint Benitez is lose-lose."
Ferguson spent 10 years across two spells at Goodison Park as a player and scored 68 times in 258 appearances across all competitions.
The 49-year-old had a four-game spell as temporary boss when Silva was sacked in December 2019.