Just over two years ago Evan Ferguson was a recently turned 18-year-old playing for Brighton and Hove Albion in an FA Cup-tie at Middlesbrough. Sitting in the stands at the Riverside Stadium that afternoon almost required sitting on your hands, such was the temptation to handclap every movement and pass from the Irish teenager. Ferguson was so impressive.
At that stage he had completed one full 90 minutes of senior club football, a League Cup tie at Forest Green Rovers. He scored. It was his first senior goal. He was 17. Graham Potter was Brighton’s manager. He gave Kaoru Mitoma a Brighton debut as well that night.
Four months on from it, Ferguson had made two appearances for Brighton in the Premier League. Potter was gone, lured to Chelsea, and Roberto De Zerbi was his replacement. De Zerbi did not interrupt Ferguson’s progress and a third league outing came against Arsenal, Ferguson going on as a second-half substitute for Leandro Trossard.
Ferguson scored. Four days later he was selected to start at Everton, his first Premier League start. He scored again.
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The statisticians were on hand to tell us that he was the youngest player to score in consecutive Premier League appearances since Federico Macheda in 2009.
Ferguson’s next match was that one at Middlesbrough in the FA Cup. While he did not score in a smooth 5-1 away win, his performance was intelligent and slick.
“It was a mature performance by Evan,” De Zerbi said. “He has big potential.”
De Zerbi had made “big” claims after Everton, but as was pointed out, the adventurous Italian manager was speaking in his second language and nuance can be lost. Had De Zerbi heard the extravagant comparisons with previous great strikers being made about Ferguson, he might have advised us to bite our lip.
And he would have been correct to do so.
Here we are two years and two months on from that game and on Monday night Ferguson came off the bench for West Ham United against Newcastle United. He is 20 now and this was a fourth appearance for the Hammers since Ferguson’s deadline-day loan move shortly after Brighton lost 7-0 at Nottingham Forest.
Ferguson got 17 minutes at the City Ground, which tells us something but not a whole lot; and like a lot of statistics, four West Ham appearances deceives. It gives the impression of a level of involvement when actually it is 91 minutes of disjointed action across four matches, none of which were started by Ferguson. It does not amount to “a run in the team”.
Potter is once again Ferguson’s coach and said when the player arrived in east London that talk of a permanent transfer can wait, what’s important is the here and now. “We should think about how we can help Evan enjoy his football,” Potter said. “Let’s just focus on that. Let’s focus on having the best 14 matches we can.”
It’s 10 now. But it was typically solid Potter patter.
At the same time, he has become manager of West Ham in a season when they are fifth-bottom, though comfortable given the struggles of last season’s three promoted clubs. But Potter needs to win matches, his audience is demanding; the restoration of Evan Ferguson, which is how some people seem to see the situation, is one of quite a few priorities. Monday night’s game showed that rather too obviously.
Ferguson’s first touch on Monday was as it had been for Brighton at Middlesbrough two years ago – soft, accurate. It offered encouragement. But the similarities with January 2023 were soon outdone by the differences.
West Ham had just gone 1-0 down when Ferguson was introduced, asked to make an impact in 21 minutes. It was disconcerting to hear on Sky TV Alan Smith, hardly a rent-a-gob, say Ferguson’s career has “gone backwards” and that it “needs a relaunch”.
Whereas Brighton were so structured, West Ham appeared to have the innovative idea of playing without a midfield, so Ferguson, like the team’s other forwards, saw so little of the ball, he was quickly dropping back to the halfway line simply to be involved. He was at left back in the 83rd minute blocking a Kieran Trippier cross.
There was an overhit forward pass and when Ferguson did try a late shot from distance – optimistic – the commentator’s remark was that he had “barely had a touch” since coming on. The whistle blew and Ferguson was part of a beaten team that had not created a chance for him.
This was not De Zerbi or early Potter football. It cannot have been satisfying; Newcastle were the team Ferguson scored a hat-trick against last season for Brighton, though it’s 18 months ago.
There was a zooming in on Ferguson following those three goals. The first, a reaction to a goalkeeping spill, was about the teenager’s snap. The second was a fine, opportunistic shot against a disappearing central defence and the third was deflected.
Perhaps we all got ahead of ourselves, which was the anxiety expressed leaving Middlesbrough. It was the reason to mention Mitoma, who was in his mid-20s when thrust into the Premier League. Mitoma is 28 in May and looks utterly at ease, but he might not have looked that at 18, 19, 20.
And sure enough, the assumed Ferguson diagonal line to the top has not transpired. An ankle injury ate into his trajectory. Last season ended in March, surgery followed and his return to the Brighton team this season was not until September. Although he played in 13 games, only one was for 90 minutes.
Fabian Hurzeler also became Ferguson’s third Brighton manager. He, too, has matches to win and he has two strikers in Joao Pedro and Georginio Rutter who were not on the premises when Ferguson was running out at Forest Green. Pedro cost £30 million, Rutter cost £40 million. Brighton are a cleverly run club who forward plan.
Can the same be said of West Ham? Well, not quite so convincingly. But the good news for Ferguson is that in Potter he has a coach who knows him, trusts him and, hopefully, will play him. Because that is what feels like Ferguson needs in the spring of 2025 – the rhythm of playing.
[ Graham Potter happy to take slow road to get Evan Ferguson back up to speedOpens in new window ]
He was named in the Irish squad on Thursday and will hope to start these matches against Bulgaria rather than appear from the bench.
We need to be patient. Ferguson has had attention since he was 14. This is a dip, but he is 20. He will still be 20 when the season ends; in fact he will still be 20 when next season starts and 20 when World Cup games come around in September. Let’s put our foot on the ball.
