Ireland boss shares how Brighton’s Evan Ferguson is really feeling about West Ham spell

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Is there no end to West Ham United’s so-called striker curse?

Last week, The Hammers confirmed that Danny Ings would be leaving when his contract expires, just two-and-a-half years since he arrived in a £12 million deal from Aston Villa.

While captain Jarrod Bowen insists Ings will be a ‘big loss’ due to his vocal, influential presence in the West Ham United dressing room, a record of five goals in 69 appearances means few supporters will share the skipper’s disappointment in seeing the once-prolific striker depart.

Niclas Fullkrug, a £27 million addition from Borussia Dortmund, has been limited to only three goals and a measly five starts himself during an injury-hit debut season.

And, to think, at one point Evan Ferguson felt almost like a ‘sure thing’ in West Ham’s long-running pursuit of a centre-forward capable of blossoming into a reliable London Stadium goal-getter.

Instead, four months and 177 minutes into his loan deal, the Brighton and Hove Albion-owned frontman already looks destined to join Jordan Hugill, Ashley Fletcher and Mido in the ever-growing pantheon of forgettable Hammers forwards.

Evan Ferguson’s West Ham frustrations addressed by Ireland manager

While Graham Potter has come in for criticism due to the Irishman’s lack of game time – Evan Ferguson himself admits he wants far more minutes than he is currently getting – the West Ham boss feels any such stick is ‘unfair’, to say the least.

Ferguson’s last goal came in the March international break, when the Republic of Ireland beat Bulgaria. As manager Heimir Hallgrimsson includes the Drogheda-born youngster in his squad for June’s friendlies with Senegal and Luxembourg, the green jersey once again promises to provide some degree of respite.

Hallgrimsson accepts that Ferguson will enter the camp in far from ideal circumstances.

However, the former Iceland and Jamaica boss is in no mood to dictate what he feels should come next for a 20-year-old striker approaching a crossroads in his young career.

“I am not interfering with the next step,” Hallgrimsson tells the media. “All players know they have a better chance of playing for the national team if [they are playing] on a regular basis and if you’re playing well. We don’t need to discuss that.

“I think he’s much more frustrated that he’s not playing than me.

“That’s an interesting thing about him. We would just like to see him in camp where he is at the moment. He isn’t getting playing time at West Ham, so we just want to see where he is at the moment.

“We cannot do much in 10 days, but hopefully he will get a good off-season and then start a good pre-season and come in flying in September [for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers].”

Graham Potter explains Brighton loanee’s lack of game time

Not so long ago, Ferguson was reportedly being valued in the region of £100 million after scoring 12 Premier League goals while still a teenager, including a hat-trick in a thumping Brighton win over Newcastle United.

Ferguson’s reputation – and thus his price-tag – has fallen considerably since then. Though reporter Ben Jacobs, speaking to talkSPORT at the beginning of 2025, suggested that Brighton would still look to bring in £45 million from any club pursuing a permanent deal for a 20-year-old centre-forward who could obviously still come good.

“He’s been good in training,” Potter, who handed Ferguson his top-flight debut at the Amex, said back in April. “He’s always been ready to help the team. He’s settled in well with the group here, trains hard every day and he’s ready to play.

“From our perspective [the criticism of and from Ferguson] is unfair, to be honest. You have to see the context of where he was in terms of the minutes he’s played previously and how he was on his return from injury.

We got him at the really early stages of that return-to-play stage.

“So to think that you can just walk into a Premier League team and just hit the ground running and play is difficult.”

Ferguson has played in just three of the seven league matches since those comments. His first and so far only start in a West Ham shirt saw him subbed off at half-time in a 1-0 defeat by Wolves.