Ferry to become McClean’s minder

Derry City reserve goalkeeper Eugene Ferry is to be dispatched to Sunderland to help the Black Cats and Republic of Ireland winger to finally settle down on Wearside.

Though he has the FAI Ford Cup final against St Patrick’s Athletic on Sunday week to prepare for as understudy to Gerard Doherty, Ferry travelled to Sunderland earlier this week to finalise arrangements for his “minder” role to former team-mate McClean once the season here is over.

The unusual pact, suggested and brought about by McClean’s agent, ex-Ireland striker Graham Barrett, will basically see Ferry, at 24, a year older than McClean, move to live with McClean as his immediate adviser and confident.

Though his career under Martin O’Neill has gone well, McClean has struggled to settle in the north-east of England and spends much of his free time back in Derry. He has also got himself into trouble by his use of Twitter.

“We’re good pals and he wasn’t really settling down,” explained Ferry.

“People started mentioning all that stuff in the media and his agent wanted him to settle down as he was going off the rails a wee bit.

“They mentioned to me if me and my girlfriend would be interested in moving over there at the end of the season. So I was over there (Tuesday) and had a meeting with one of the player liaison officers which went all right.

“It was Graham’s idea. They mentioned it to James and James agreed that it would help him settle down a bit more if one of his mates moved over.”