[Albion] Ferguson to Man Utd for £120 Million?

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Not for us he hasn't - he's hardly ever on the pitch for us. Ridiculous decision by the Albion to let him join up with the ROI squad after being unfit to be in our squad for the Sheff U game. Sometimes we don't half make things difficult for ourselves.

Especially as it was a dead rubber

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

Not for us he hasn't - he's hardly ever on the pitch for us. Ridiculous decision by the Albion to let him join up with the ROI squad after being unfit to be in our squad for the Sheff U game. Sometimes we don't half make things difficult for ourselves.

That is nonsense - he’s featured in nearly every game for us this season - 14 out of 17 games. He’s gone off early in a lot of games because he’s played poorly in most of them. Overall in 2023 he’s played a hell of a lot of top level football for a mainly 18 year old.

I agree he shouldn’t have gone away with Ireland - he needs a break from both club and international football.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

That is nonsense - he’s featured in nearly every game for us this season - 14 out of 17 games. He’s gone off early in a lot of games because he’s played poorly in most of them. Overall in 2023 he’s played a hell of a lot of top level football for a mainly 18 year old.

I agree he shouldn’t have gone away with Ireland - he needs a break from both club and international football.

He's played 476 minutes in the league just over 4 (four) games. He's played f*** all for us this year in truth.

 

[Hometownglory]

A super young talent. Moving to United or any traditional big 6 team is a big risk at his age. If 100mill+ offer comes in then he's gone! I'd like to think we'd use any large transfer to actually reinforce the team...

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

He's played 476 minutes in the league just over 4 (four) games. He's played f*** all for us this year in truth.

He’s played 581 minutes for us in the league this season. He’s started more than half of our league games and started 5 of our last 7 games (and 1 of the others, City, he came on early and played nearly the whole game).

And he has played more minutes at top level football in 2023 than nearly any 18 year old ever does. You just can’t play 18 year olds too much at this level, especially with his build, they will get injured and suffer for too much football too early, later in their career.

 

[Zeberdi]

That is nonsense - he’s featured in nearly every game for us this season - 14 out of 17 games. He’s gone off early in a lot of games because he’s played poorly in most of them. Overall in 2023 he’s played a hell of a lot of top level football for a mainly 18 year old.

That’s not strictly true either - notwithstanding my post above where I laid out the minutes he actually has played:


In 8 out of 14 games played he wasn’t ‘taken off’ but came off the bench or did the whole 90mins. Otherwise where he came off, he was rotated with Fati on 4 matches which was to be expected given the need for Fati to have match time and the need to rest Ferguson- and in 1 match he came off after scoring a hat trick - which leaves arguably only one or two games where he was switched out for not making much impact.

Overall he is not at his best performance, we can all see that and that is normal for a development player - but to suggest that out of the 14 games he’s played this season he has been taken off early in a lot of the games because he had ‘played poorly in most of them’ is disingenuous imo as it ignores the rotation that RDZ has had to use anyway and the need for Ferguson not to be overplayed - it also ignores the fact we have another top class player on loan competing for Ferguson’s place along with Pedro also competing strongly for minutes.

As RDZ said after Ajax - “He’s not in a good moment, but he is another top player for us and we can win a lot of games if these three ( Fati, Pedro ,Ferguson) players improve and get better’.

Part of that is rotating them into play …

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

Has he though? When it’s broken down it doesn’t look so bad;

Since August 12 when we began our season with Luton at home he has played only 14 out of 17 matches - only 2 of those were 90 mins and only 5 were full halves - the other 7 matches all comparatively short minutes :

15 mins v Luton on 12 August

33 mins v Wolves on 19 August

90 mins v West Ham 26 Aug

90 mins v Newcastle 2 September

15 mins v Man U 16 September

Missed Athens on 21 September

45 mins v Bournemouth on 24 September

Missed Chelsea on 27 September

45 mins v AV on 30 September

18 mins v Marseille on 5 October

60 mins v Liverpool on 8 October

16 mins v Man City on 21 October

15 mins v Ajax on 26 October

78 mins v Fulham on 29 October

67 mins v Everton on 4 November

25 mins v Ajax on 9 November

Missed Sheffield on 12 November

Doesn’t seem overly onerous for a 19 year old international who’s a year into his second contract with us.

Ferguson has looked a bit off form for most of the season imo but it isn’t unusual for a young player to go through performance dips and muscle strains can be quite common as they develop but yes, football for many reasons is developing into a game where hamstring injuries in particular have become an epidemic of sorts. It perhaps doesn’t help that matches themselves are faster and more intense at top level than they used to be and we have so many ridiculous long VAR breaks now, players end up cooling down before resuming play, increasing their risk of injury when play resumes - that and so much added time etc. International football competition is getting ridiculously overcrowded too with qualifiers and group matches - Additional group games from next season’s Champions League will compound the problem even further.

It’s a new type of fixture-crowded season for us too but if nothing else at Brighton, we do know how to develop young players so I am not overly worried about the length of minutes Ferguson has played but for sure it is something that needs to be managed carefully - Mitoma is another player I have been concerned about for some time.

Personally I am more concerned with the changes to the game as a whole that’s seeing such a large % of PL players out with hamstring and serious knee injuries and when we lose very experienced players like March for almost an entire season from what was arguably a fatigue related injury..

He played 74 minutes against City - came on after 16 minutes for Welbeck and played the rest of the game. Add in the Irish games too.

My point is, that is a hell of a lot of top level football for an 18 year old which he was for most of that time. You will not find many 18 year olds who have played that much in the PL or any other top league, ever. I personally think it’s too much physically and mentally for someone so young and it’s no coincidence he’s struggling a bit with form and fitness this season.

 

[Zeberdi]

He played 74 minutes against City - came on after 16 minutes for Welbeck and played the rest of the game.

Yep - typo - I did get that the wrong way round but it still doesn’t change the fact that when you break it down into minutes, the 14 games out of 17 is not excessive for a 19 year old international, into his second contract in the PL . It also doesn’t change my point above that he came off the bench as much as he was switched out and when he was switched out, it was IMO primarily was to rest him and rotate Fati or Pedro in for their sake.

Of course his performance isn’t at best, everyone recognises that and accepts that as ‘growing pains’ but there’s a big difference between saying that and saying because of that he is being pulled from ‘lots’ of matches.

 

[Justice]

Last season he was the unknown, this season he’s marked as a the danger man and coaches will do there homework, it’s something he will have to deal with and that’s probably why he’s not been as effective.

 

[Zeberdi]

Last season he was the unknown, this season he’s marked as a the danger man and coaches will do there homework, it’s something he will have to deal with and that’s probably why he’s not been as effective.

Yes, we saw this with Mitoma last season (maybe still this season) and with Buonanotte - two other players that attract defenders like bees to honey but even that has an attacking role in itself but yes, they need to deal with it.

 

[Justice]

Yes, we saw this with Mitoma last season (maybe still this season) and with Buonanotte - two other players that attract defenders like bees to honey but even that has an attacking role in itself but yes, they need to deal with it.

Mitoma shows his quality time after time, double and sometimes triple marked he often still finds a way in.

 

[Zeberdi]

Mitoma shows his quality time after time, double and sometimes triple marked he often still finds a way in.

Absolutely he does - but he is still earmarked by the oppo as the one to shut down - he deals with it now so much better but last season the temptation to dive rather than work through the blocking players seemed to be apparently for him the easiest way sometimes to deal with running out of space!

 

[mothy]

£120m. Yes please. Thanks Evan

 

[Justice]

£120m. Yes please. Thanks Evan

We’ve received these amounts and still haven’t any decent cover where we all knew we needed it. Don’t get why fees are a thing with fans.

 

[RustyKent]

Manchester United could offer more than €55 million for Evan Ferguson

Manchester United are ready to break the bank and pay more than €55 million for the services of 19-year-old Brighton striker Evan Ferguson.

thehardtackle.com