A star is rising on the south coast and it is becoming increasingly hard not to be excited.
With each goal that 18-year-old Evan Ferguson scores for Brighton, he shows another side of his game and with it come comparisons to striking greats through the generations.
The media in Ferguson’s native Republic of Ireland have described him as the Irish Erling Haaland. Former Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa boss Tim Sherwood compared Ferguson to “Alan Shearer in his pomp”. A one-time youth coach said Ferguson “always had a touch of Marco van Basten” about him. “Going to be the next Duncan Edwards” was the opinion of Mark Beard, Ferguson’s manager with Brighton Under 18s.
Brendan Rodgers settled for “a fantastic player” after Ferguson crashed an 88th minute header past Leicester City to earn the Seagulls a 2-2 draw at the King Power Stadium. That took Ferguson onto three goals and two assists in five Premier League appearances. He is averaging a goal every 66 minutes in a Brighton team who not-so-long ago were the butt of every xG joke going.
Ferguson initially emerged on the first team scene last season with an exciting cameo from the bench in an extra time FA Cup third round win at West Bromwich Albion. Most Seagulls supporters were keen to treat his arrival and obvious potential with cautious optimism, for Brighton have been here many times in the past when it comes to young strikers being overhyped and then failing to deliver.
Whereas the Albion youth and development system has proven a conveyor belt of defensive talent from Tommy Elphick to Lewis Dunk to Steve Cook to Ben White, it is more than 40 years since Brighton last produced a centre forward good enough to become an established and prolonged success. The closest being Jake Robinson with 22 goals from 148 appearances, including finishing the 2006/07 League One season as top scorer with 12 in all competitions.
Aaron Connolly probably best sums up the Albion academy’s striker woes; a brace on his full debut against Spurs, hailed as the next big thing, awarded a contract which made him a millionaire by the age of 21, now on loan at Hull City via disappointing temporary stays at Venezia and Middlesbrough having been involved in more tabloid headlines over the past three years than he has managed goals.
So when Ferguson impressed at the Hawthorns last January and…
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