Duncan Ferguson's dream of a move back to his beloved Everton almost certainly collapsed last night after he appeared to place his wish for financial security before his desire to return to Goodison Park.

This morning Ferguson should have been enjoying an emotional reunion with those team-mates from whom he was reluctantly parted 20 months ago; instead, he is staring an uncertain future in the face because of his failure to make one brief phone call.

Ferguson was scheduled to arrive in the north-west at noon yesterday to undergo a medical before completing his transfer back to Goodison from Newcastle United.

But, to the astonishment of Everton officials and the disgust of the club's manager Walter Smith, the 28-year-old Scot failed to show up.

Even more damaging was the player's failure to ring either Smith or the Everton chief executive, Michael Dunford, to proffer an explanation.

Smith immediately indicated that his two-month pursuit of Ferguson was at an end - news which will hardly have been welcomed on Tyneside.

As Everton's medical team awaited his arrival, Ferguson was at St James' Park making one last attempt to persuade Newcastle that his brief stay at the club merited the payment of a loyalty bonus - believed to be about £750,000 sterling.

Ferguson is believed to have stayed in the north-east on Monday night before training with his Newcastle team-mates yesterday morning. His plan was to then hold one final round of talks with members of his club's hierarchy in the belief that he could convince them he should be given a cash settlement to help speed his departure back to Everton.

Ever since Everton's interest in him first surfaced last month, Ferguson has argued that as he has never indicated a desire to leave Newcastle he should be entitled to the payment, in full, of bonuses which would have accrued had he stayed to see out the remaining three years of his contract.

Newcastle's board of directors - seemingly to a man - were unmoved by Ferguson's plea for a handout, insisting he had spent insufficient time on Tyneside to warrant any bonus.

When he was controversially sold to Newcastle in November 1998 for £8 million, Ferguson collected about £1 million in bonus and signing-on fees.

During what has been a rather unproductive 21-month spell in the north-east during which he has made only 24 Premiership starts, Ferguson has been paid more than £35,000 a week, making him one of the highest-paid players in British football.

However, despite Smith's sense of outrage, Everton's desperation for a striker of proven ability is such that the deal may yet be resurrected.

If Ferguson was this morning to abandon his attempts to squeeze more money out of his current employer, and then apologise to his prospective future employer, he might still find himself lining up in a blue shirt when Everton's season opens against Leeds United at Elland Road on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Frank Leboeuf's future at Chelsea is in doubt after he was branded "totally unprofessional and out of order" by the club for his swingeing criticism of Gianluca Vialli earlier in the day.

The France defender destroyed the feel-good factor established by Sunday's victory over Manchester United by claiming Vialli was at loggerheads with his squad and had tried to force him out when he was most in need of the manager's support.

"Vialli has problems with everybody, with Albert Ferrer and many others," Leboeuf claimed. "It's normal for a coach to get along with his lads, but not him.

"Last year he didn't back me up when I had problems with the referee during a game against Leeds (for stamping on Harry Kewell). He even tried to get me out of the club. But when (Arsenal's) Patrick Vieira had discipline problems, Arsene Wenger supported him."