News

Brighton plan for future without Ferguson with huge £20 million hint

|
Image for Brighton plan for future without Ferguson with huge £20 million hint

Welcome to West Ham United, Evan Ferguson. As the squad plans for its first get together by welcoming new and old faces back again, you have to feel for the young Brighton loanee. He must feel a little lost, being ushered out of the door to West Ham whilst his club immediately sign his likely replacement.

Brighton’s first act after loaning Ferguson to West Ham was to spend £20 million on Greek starlet 19 year old striker Stefano Tzimas – anecdotally a one time Hammers target – who will stay on loan in FC Nurnburg until joining Brighton in the summer.

That has to sting a bit, if you are Ferguson, Brighton already executing plans for life without him, plans which must have been in place for some time, swiftly and smoothly executed on the last day of the transfer window before the ink was even dry on his loan contract with West Ham.

Very good news for the Hammers, though. Ferguson will either respond by working doubly hard to earn a first team place back at the Amex in the Summer- in which case he’ll be good for goals between now and May. Alternatively, he might just feel more ‘love’ from his surrogate boss Graham Potter – and feel his future lies at West Ham. If he stays fit there is certainly a bright West Ham future ahead for the Ireland international -subject to West Ham’s coffers having more cash swilling around in the summer than was evidently absent in the January window.

The problem for David Sullivan will be, with every very welcome goal that Ferguson notches in claret and blue, the asking price will rise by a couple of million from the £40 million quoted just last weekend. Plus of course the worry that with no ‘option to buy’, the Hammers could just prime him, prepare him and then see him stolen by another Premier League team – Arsenal perhaps – who decide to capitalise on the young man’s goal scoring if he’s successful.

Plenty of time to dwell on that, but just for now, let’s see Ferguson bang in a goal on his debut next week.

Share this article

From the old Bobby Moore Upper to the Billy Bonds' stand these days I've been watching since '03 and a supporter since about 1970.. 'Football is Life' oh yes. Let it raise your spirit but never darken your mood. Life's too short not to enjoy the journey with our Claret and Blue heroes n' villains.

13 comments

  • Benny the Aussie says:

    The thing that’s annoying is that Brighton pick up a player we should be going for, whilst also being clever by letting Fergie go out on loan by also keeping his ownership.
    They are a well run club, we are a circus run by clowns

    • Mr Buddy Lurve says:

      Come on, Benny – let’s not be so quick to judge, and wait to see what transpires over the coming months.

      They are a well run club indeed, but we now have two guys in Potter and Macauley who have experience working with clubs (in Brighton and Chelsea) who recruit well, so I’m confident that once we give them a chance to settle, things will change.

      Go crack open a tin and whack another shrimp on the barbie, mate.

  • D.f.butcher says:

    On the other hand it might not work out?

  • Kenny Irons says:

    Rubbish January window as usual, and so much dead wood to clear out.
    Season is over, so I expect plenty of quality ins, and a lot of outs in the Summer.
    For me, this will be a make or break window to see if the Porn Baron shows ambition and backs Potter. If he doesn’t, we might as well shut the door & turn off the light !

    • Chris W says:

      Tbf, they backed Steidten and J-Lo to the tune of £140 million, Potter can’t be getting anything like that in the Summer because FFP.

  • John Ayris says:

    The reality is that we would not sign him other than on a low risk loan and that Brighton in covering all bases means that they’re short on confidence too.

    He’s been out a lot and with a variety of different injuries for a 20 year old. We need to hope that he stays fit rather than expect that he will.

    He played twenty minutes against Forest before signing, and must have passed a medical for the intent of a short loan. We’ll see.

  • Mick Bering says:

    We are all missing the point here Brighton have quoted they want Ferguson back at end of season END OF STORY THATS THE FACTS

  • Terry says:

    I’ve no doubt the Ferguson deal will leave us with egg on our faces due to the fact that he plays well and scores the goals he’s capable of then he’s out of our price range or if he’s injured more often then not would be likely to buy him probably not

  • West Ham Fan No 32 says:

    Hope he does come good but slowly, so he doesn’t cost too much.

    I have written this season off now, we needed and probably should have had wins against Villa and Chelsea. If we can bring him on slowly and he stays fit, secure a deal for next season and then really push on, every game there is improvement under Potter, we are controlling the games better, what is clear is we need to be fitter, some of the players were out on their feet towards the end though still pushing which is a good sign going forwards. Hopefully Paqueta and Summerville will be back soon, will also be interesting to see if Potter can unlock JWP’s ability so that he is more than just a free kick specialist.

  • J says:

    Once again we’ve spent absolutely nothing in the January window. Should mean another big spend up in the summer.

  • Jaybs says:

    Penny Pinching Sullivan once more! Graham Potter knows better than anyone, what Ferguson can deliver, his word should have been the final decision, and money found, how much did we spend??

    • Esexiron42 says:

      100% agree Jaybs. Such an anti climax to our window when we have the oldest team in the Premiership ironically up against the youngest last night. Danny Ings FFS that shot that ended up near the corner flag!

      All we spent was the loan fee for Ferguson plus £600;000 in wages for the rest of the season. Plus the fees in terminating JWP’s loan and his wages back on the books. We would have got a small fee for Cornet’s 2nd loan and that’s it! Meanwhile some of the deadwood is still here.

      So dissapointing to see attempts to loan or sell Guilherme when he looked really positive in the 10 minutes he was finally given. Sullivan must be delighted!

  • Robbie stokes says:

    If.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *