Tony Cascarino speaks of his love for Evan Ferguson and why he must avoid Robbie Keane mistake
HUGE PRAISE: Tony Cascarino is a big fan of Evan Ferguson (Photo by David Davies/Offside via Getty Images)
Tony Cascarino is 23 years retired. That's oceans of time for the old yarns about his exploits with Ireland and with clubs across England, Scotland and France to curl at the edges but the delivery remains note perfect and the people still lap them up.
He spent 20 minutes doing a Q&A with Virgin Media staff in Dublin yesterday afternoon and among the anecdotes he dropped was the one about an Irish training sessions when he witnessed Robbie Keane and Damien Duff first-hand and for the first time.
The way Cascarino tells it, he turned to Niall Quinn and quipped that these two youngsters were going to put them out to pasture. It’s a tale that carries an extra resonance now that Evan Ferguson is at a similar juncture in his nascent career.
And the former Millwall and Marseille striker is already on record as stating that Ferguson is this country’s best goalscoring hope since Keane claimed the last of his record 68 international strikes back in 2016.
There is always the risk of over-egging the pudding when it comes to wunderkinds. Too many have come and gone like a comet but Cascarino is adamant that Ferguson’s star will illuminate us all for years to come.
So he isn’t holding back.
“I’d go hard and all-in. Sometimes you get a feel for a player when you see them interviewed. We see what he does on the pitch and it’s, ‘yeah he does this, he does that, he leads the line really well’.
“I wouldn’t say he has an eye for a goal, I think he’s not bad, but he’ll improve on that without a doubt. But he’s one of them, when I saw him get interviewed, I thought, ‘boy, he knows what he wants to do’.
“I like that immediately. A big smile on his face. There was no feeling of being nervous or, ‘keep my feet on the ground’. He was, ‘I want to be in now’. I love that about him.”
Ferguson’s future has been the subject of no little debate. Eight goals in your first 24 appearances for Brighton & Hove Albion, a side turning heads collectively in the Premier League now more than ever, will do that.
The south coast club moved fast to nip any more talk of Manchester United or Tottenham Hotspur in the bud by offering the Bettystown man a hugely-improved five-year contract that was duly signed.
Keane again provides a wider context here given Cascarino’s conviction that the Tallaght man's decision to swap Coventry City for Inter Milan when still only 19 was the last thing he should have done.
“Robbie’s reply wasn’t a very good one in my opinion - and I like Robbie - but it was money based. I don’t think he should have done that move at 19. So it was a big change. It’s who you got behind you as well, who is telling you what is good for now.”
His take on Ferguson is that Brighton is where he needs to be. Tony Bloom, the club’s owner, is a man he believes to be a “genius”, and the soundings from manager Roberto De Zerbi about their Irish protégé have been encouraging.
Their brand of attacking football will suit and Cascarino feels that there is reason to believe that Ferguson won’t be flogged on a weekly basis. That will stand to him long-term because the graph won’t always point north.
“If I asked you how many players can you name who haven’t had a dip in their career it’s probably a handful. Probably Messi and Ronaldo. I would say you have to dip him in and out at times… Throw him in and bring him out, but don’t lose that enthusiasm.”
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