A few weeks ago it didn’t seem possible but Davion Ferguson says he’s happy to be back at Mount Pleasant Football Academy after being reappointed as assistant coach.

On Sunday Ferguson returned to the Mount Pleasant bench, alongside Head Coach Theodore Whitmore, for their opening win of the 2024/25 Wray and Nephew Jamaica Premier League (JPL) season. It came away to Portmore United, the team he had taken charge of before an eventful summer ended with that plan being turned on its head.

After last season’s defeat to Cavalier in the final of the JPL on May 19, the St Ann-based club on June 2 opted against renewing the contracts of Whitmore, Ferguson, goalkeeper coach Warren Barrett, and physical trainers Lamar Morgan and Dwayne Peters.

Sporting Director Paul Christie, at the time, said the club’s leadership, led by owner Peter Gould was “moving in a different direction which will be more academy focused”, while also lamenting the financial burden of player salaries.

On June 3 Harold Thomas, director of football at the academy, was given the role and a new technical staff was brought in shortly after. Weeks later, Ferguson signed on to be the head coach of Portmore United.

However, Mount Pleasant’s new era lasted for only two months as Thomas, who was promoted from his lead role at the academy, was shown the door following their 0-2 defeat to Cavalier in their debut game of the Concacaf Caribbean Cup on August 20.

On August 23 Whitmore, Morgan and Peters agreed to return to Mount Pleasant, but Ferguson’s return was complicated as Portmore United were unwilling to part with him with the new JPL season on the horizon, unless a multimillion compensation package was agreed to in order to terminate his contract.

After weeks of negotiation Portmore United accepted an undisclosed fee from Mount Pleasant which paved the way for Ferguson’s return.

Although he had intentions of making Portmore champions, Ferguson says he couldn’t refuse working with Whitmore and the team again.

“Portmore is a club that I like. I came here and had two excellent months; never had any issues. I think I added value to Portmore while being there, even structure player wise and team and [for] the entire outlay. That was a positive,” he said.

“But we [Mount Pleasant] would have developed a team — myself, Whitmore, Lamar, Peters — over time. When we left Mount Pleasant we had opportunities to move to other clubs in the JPL and opportunities to move overseas and the Caribbean, but what was instructive was they wanted the team — the team we would have developed. Everybody has different roles and functions within the team, and we understand how each other works and operates, so it was easy from that standpoint in terms of the entire project and going back to Mount Pleasant,” Ferguson added.

Whitmore was also elated to have the majority of his staff back on board.

“Always happy to have Fergie. The thing about it is that we’re a team, and not very often we find a team that works together, and it’s just that. It’s a team — myself, Fergie, Lamar [Morgan], [Dwain] Peters. Unfortunately, we don’t have Warren Barrett but [Andrew] Sewell came in and joined us and that’s the team.”

Ferguson says he’s comfortable in his decision and has no qualms about giving up a head coaching role.

“I don’t think I need to answer the criticism. Steve McClaren, our national coach, came here from being an assistant at Manchester United. These things happen. As I said, it’s a team. People will speak but the details of my move is not yet fulsome; I think when the overall picture is presented to the public, they’ll understand,” he said.

Since his departure several new faces have been introduced and the long season ahead includes a JPL title chase as well as the Caribbean Cup, but Ferguson believes the technical staff will be able to manage the expectations.

“We would have been out for two months but credit must be given to the players. I think we have players now who are comfortable in possession but, more importantly, they’re very solid in defence. Our attack starts from being solid; if you look at the back line, all four are quality — along with the goalkeeper — so that affords us the platform to express ourselves a little bit more,” he said.

“It’s a different periodisation, it’s new to a lot of people, so it’s to get that periodisation right. We have some ideas: We’ve started in terms of the mix we think is necessary or is required to get the job done. It’s nine months, it’s 39 games, so 13 games potentially added — keeping the play-offs and also having regional competitions. So, it’s all about improving our recovery protocols and extending in terms of the time the players have.”

Mount Pleasant are to return to action on Sunday against Waterhouse in the JPL before travelling to Trinidad to take on Police FC in their third Concacaf Caribbean Cup group game.