Niall Quinn has urged Ireland fans to be patient with 18-year-old wonderkid Evan Ferguson.
The Brighton teenager will start tonight’s friendly against Latvia, Stephen Kenny confirmed yesterday.
Ferguson comes into the game - his third senior international - having scored twice at the weekend in the Seagulls’ FA Cup quarter-final win over Grimsby Town.
READ MORE: Evan Ferguson to make first Ireland start against Latvia
With seven goals so far this season he is the top scoring teenager for a Premier League club across all competitions this season.
So there is a huge buzz around his appearance this evening at the Aviva Stadium.
However, Quinn knows that it can take time to find your feet at international level. He played alongside John Aldridge, who was prolific at club level but took 20 caps to register his first goal for Ireland.
“I hope he’s not built up too much,” Quinn told the Irish Daily Star.
“I don’t really want to jump in and over-play the significance of what he’s done. I recognise it and fair play to him, he is giving us all great hope and there is great pride that we have a player like him doing what he is doing.
“He is at the right place. I love the way Brighton have almost revolutionised how a football club in England should operate.
“They have done an incredible job, their recruitment is top-class, the environment that they have created for young players to thrive is second-to-none.
“Their culture as a football club won’t allow for billy-big-timers. He is in the perfect place and his career is going brilliantly. Good luck to him.
“There will be good days ahead, great days ahead and difficult days ahead, and it’s how he copes with the difficult days that will determine how well he does.
“But for now I am really enjoying seeing him do what he’s doing. There is no doubt that he is a very good player. He has got all the right moves.
“But let’s give him time and let’s forgive him if he does an Aldo and takes his time scoring for Ireland!”
If Ferguson does get up and running over the next two games, however, it might be worth revisiting the subject with Quinn, who scored 21 goals across 92 caps.
After all, he was correct to predict that Robbie Keane would smash his own Irish top scoring record.
“I had seen Robbie Keane coming through and I was laughed at by the pundits on RTE when I suggested after his first goal that he would rewrite the record books,” Quinn recalled.
“I was ridiculed for giving such an answer. I said he would double the record. I got it wrong - he trebled it.
“Looking back, there were other people - Tony, Aldo, Frank and I - with 80-odd goals between us (79). And Robbie ended up with 68 by himself.
“I’d like to think Cascarino, Aldridge, Stapleton and Quinn, that there was a decent return there between the four of us.
“We were all pretty happy at the time. But then look what Robbie achieved.
“79 goals between the four of us versus 68 for Robbie. That’s frightening.
“Between us we had the guts of 320 caps. 79 goals in 320 games. And he ended up with 68 in 140-odd games.”
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