Ordinarily in winter the presents come on Christmas Day.
But it was New Year’s Eve when Evan Ferguson arrived.
While there is always a danger of prematurely hyping up a kid, the more we see of this 18-year-old, the more convinced we are that this is the greatest gift Irish football has received since John Delaney was ushered out of Abbotstown.
Scorer of his first Premier League goal against Arsenal on the last day of 2022, Ferguson has begun 2023 on fire, nabbing a goal against Everton, an assist against Liverpool and another goal at the weekend against The Foxes.
The boys on Match of the Day had their say about that one, pointing to the immobility of Brendan Rodgers’ defenders. Seriously, it was the most stick anyone called Leicester has received since old jockey Piggott got done for tax evasion.
But by damning the boys in blue, Danny Murphy and Jermaine Jenas were doing a disservice to the intelligence of an 18-year-old who had just made mugs out of seasoned pros.
There were 88 minutes on the clock when he began his run; 88 minutes and five seconds when we started to list off all the Irish strikers who have been burdened with the next Robbie Keane label: Doyle, Long, Walters, Stokes, Parrott, Obafemi, Idah.
Ferguson is going to be better than any of them.
The boldness of that assertion doesn’t intend to discredit the contribution Doyle, Long and Walters made to Irish football, nor to undermine Parrot, Idah or Obafemi’s promise.
It’s more to do with what Ferguson has rather than what they lacked.
Inside the box he’s an aggressor, a forceful attacker of space, as we saw when he changed the angle of his run to score from six yards against Everton.
As well as his physical blessings of skill and strength, there’s a repertoire of tricks thieved from an old pro’s playbook - witness the way he the ball with his studs to bring it past Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsdale before scoring against Arsenal.
When space was tight against Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, Ferguson went drifting into the corridors of uncertainty that defenders - even the best ones - hate to appear in, seizing possession yards from the penalty box before delivering a perfectly weighted pass for Solly March to receive and score.
And then came Saturday’s game-saving header two minutes from the end.
The original Fergie-Time owed its name to a fiery manager whose face turned crimson whenever the clock turned red, urging his players to stay in the fight but stay calm while doing so.
That was Evan Ferguson on Saturday.
When Brighton’s full back Pervis Estupian took possession on the left, Ferguson was positioned 15 yards away from the Leicester penalty area, after drifting into that zone to pressurise Nampalys Mendy into a rash clearance.
Mendy reacted by drifting back towards his own box, forcing Ferguson to run at a north to south west angle to get away from him. And all this while Estupian was embarking on a little run of his own, finding the room to deliver a cross.
That was when Ferguson slalomed his run, sprinting left after that initial move right, reminding everyone of that old Frank Lampard line that the last player to arrive in the box is often the first to score.
Stephen Kenny had planned to see him live but switched his plans when he learned that Ferguson was on the bench. If there’s any manager who would ignore the absence of much ink on a kid’s CV and give him a chance in a big game, it’s Kenny.
That’s been his managerial style from his first job, way back with Longford Town, the club Ferguson’s father, Barry, subsequently played for.
Pops was a centre-back and would have taught his boy about how defenders often attempt to intimidate defenders but how, like most bullies, they have a tendency to panic when confronted by someone as big and as brave.
That’s Ferguson.
At 6”3, he’s well able to look after himself, yet the assumption he’s a mere target man is not just lazy but inaccurate. He’s more Harry Kane stylistically than Tony Cascarino, not shy to drift deep to link play, equally as comfortable running into space behind defenders.
An unselfish presser without the ball, he’s a clever link player with it, not quite your traditional centre forward, nor your Denis Bergkamp type playmaker, but somewhere in between, ‘a nine-and-a-half’ to steal Robin van Persie’s description of his own hybrid style.
Whatever about his style, the real question is his quality. Can he turn a few good weeks into months or years?
Brighton supporters hope so; Ireland fans need him to.
It’s been over a decade now since the flames started to flicker out on the Robbie Keane fire, his 2012 to 2016 period in an Irish shirt markedly less prolific than the first 14 years in green.
The team has struggled for a goalscorer of that consistency since.
We’ve had great finishers; Keane, Aldridge. We’ve had those with an aerial presence; Quinn, Cascarino.
We’ve had forwards with blistering pace; Long, Obafemi. We’ve had those with a bit of everything; Doyle, Stapleton.
But we’ve never had a Galactico, not in attack.
If Ferguson is deserving of that label over the course of his time, you can legitimately start dreaming of big days ahead. And yes, it’s a little overexcitable to be talking of him in those terms but one thing is real. From what we’ve seen so far, this kid is comfortably the best teenage prospect Irish football has produced since Keane and Duff. A new year has brought a new star.
READ NEXT:
Joe Brolly concerned about 'serious reputational damage to the GAA' as Glen 'extremely disappointed'
John Kavanagh 'very confident' Conor McGregor will fight in 2023 as he gives key negotiations update
Manchester United players risk Roy Keane's wrath with post-match antics
Johnny Sexton has major problem with new rugby rules around dangerous tackle
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
