They always stress how important it is to make the first touch count, and he did. It was sharp and accurate. So was his second, a first-time lay-off and a spin into space to offer another option. Here was a confident start.
On it continued – in the eighth minute, his control and aware pass set up the first goal; in the 39th there was a strong headed clearance at the near post when defending a corner.
Other defensive headers followed – appreciated by teammates and coaches – and with each clean contribution, Evan Ferguson built a personal performance that was part of a broad Brighton approach which led to an impressive 5-1 victory 300 miles from home at Middlesbrough in the FA Cup.
Brighton were easy on the eye – and made it look relatively easy on the pitch, which it rarely is – and Ferguson was, too. His was not the headline-grabbing display it had been four days earlier at Everton when, on his first Premier League start, he scored his second Premier League goal (after the one against Arsenal as a substitute), created another and had TV pundits purring.
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No, this was the return to club action of World Cup-winner Alexis Mac Allister, and his two goals as a second-half substitute rather dominated attention. Ferguson’s effort ended after 64 minutes, when he was replaced by Danny Welbeck, noteworthy in itself. The score was 3-1; the contest was over.
But the hour or so was another step in the development of Evan Ferguson and walking away from the Riverside, it was with the excited knowledge that our steps must also be taken with care.
There was something so routine about Ferguson’s error-free craft that we need to remember he was still 17 in October. We also need to remember he has played only 130 minutes of Premier League football. We need to remember his one 90-minute first-team appearance came in the League Cup at Forest Green Rovers in August.
And yet.
And yet there is something so convincing about this teenager you bent into the wet, windy Teesside evening worried, not about Ferguson’s future, but your own sense of proportion.
You found your tongue running away with itself, forming words such as ‘certainty’; you became conscious of the need to employ restraint; automatically you reached for comparisons and names flowed in.
You did not say them out loud for fear of premature exaggeration. They’re there, though.
Three days later you’re on the phone checking with an experienced former Premier League manager about what you have seen. He, too, was at Middlesbrough and at Everton; he, too, was so impressed he made breathy comparisons.
We cannot go there, not while our evidence is limited. But the soft first touch, the sureness of pass, the antennae, strength, speed over 10 yards, the ability and willingness to play with his back to goal – Ferguson possesses all of these. He’s a natural.
Some have known for years. Reading the mature assessments of Keith Long takes us back to July 2019 when, at 14, he played Ferguson for Bohemians against Chelsea in a friendly at Dalymount Park. Long was in no doubt about either Ferguson’s ability or his suitability, whereas plenty of us shared a wider concern about a 14-year-old boy being involved in a men’s dressing room.
Long and others knew that in Ferguson’s case, age is just a number. His selection has been validated.
“Evan could become a great striker because he has all the qualities, both physical and technical,” Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi said after the Everton game. “He has big potential.”
De Zerbi’s use of “great” and “big” have to be understood in the context of his language. He is a 43-year-old who has spent almost all of his playing and coaching career in Italy. He listens to press questions in English and when he can, answers in English. Occasionally he leans across to an interpreter accompanying him.
Were he speaking in Italian, De Zerbi’s comments would be more nuanced and more enlightening. He might not join the rush of acclamation, he might point out hazards, deficiencies. Or he might not.
This is a serious coach at a serious football club and if columns like this tip-toe too far, too soon, it is good to know Ferguson is in an environment overseen by the appropriately-named Brighton owner-chairman Tony Bloom.
Under Bloom, a mathematician who understands numbers and odds intuitively and who has made multi-millions through that nous, Brighton have gone from League One in 2011 to today, a sixth consecutive season in the Premier League.
Here are some Brighton numbers from the last 18 months – Ben White to Arsenal, £50 million; Marc Cucurella to Chelsea, £63 million; Yves Bissouma to Spurs, £30 million; Neal Maupay to Everton, £17 million.
£160 millino+ of sales and Brighton have got better.
The future does not just happen there – as opposed to some clubs – Brighton plan for it. Thus a snug-fitting coach of Graham Potter’s talent can be replaced and barely anyone blinks.
If anything, Brighton’s thoughtful and patterned style has quickened and when they host Liverpool on Saturday afternoon, it may not be as equals, but it is eighth versus seventh. It is with the recent experience of a 3-3 draw at Anfield.
It came on October 1st and was De Zerbi’s first match as Potter’s successor. Leandro Trossard scored a hat-trick at Anfield. But by mid-November, Ferguson was on Brighton’s bench as an unused sub and when the next trip to Merseyside came, against Everton, Trossard was dropped and it was Ferguson starting.
That is not a minor decision for a coach new to a club, preferring an unproven teenager over a 28-year-old Belgium international who has just been to a World Cup.
But De Zerbi made the call and the result, Everton 1-4 Brighton, plus Ferguson’s input, brought justification. The young Irishman was up against James Tarkowski (30) and Conor Coady (29), but if anyone felt intimidated, it was not Ferguson.
That he had been to Everton and Liverpool regularly as a boy must have stung some, but we cannot say he lost out – the phrase “in a good place” applies to Ferguson literally. He is at a model club, a club with a model. There is assurance and reassurance.
A man with horses with Willie Mullins, Bloom is not unfamiliar with the concept of certainty, and while it is borderline sensationalist to claim that about any teenage footballer, even with restricted views coupled with a determination to be measured, it is possible to feel this about Evan Ferguson. And to say so out loud.
