With no domestic football until next weekend, all eyes are on West Ham’s internationals players as they take part in qualifiers for the World Cup or the UEFA nations league competition.
Ireland’s Evan Ferguson finally forced his way into the starting XI for his national side last night and as we covered this morning, scored in the victory against Bulgaria.
West Ham’s treatment of loanee Evan Ferguson has come in for criticism from Hammers fans keen to see more of the striker who has been handled with kid gloves by Graham Potter. So far, Ferguson has been starved of game time, limited to just short cameo appearances.
Ironically, speaking after last night’s successful performance, Ferguson displayed a pretty upbeat mindset.
“You want to play and, when you’re not, there’s frustration,” Ferguson said, “You have to take the minutes as you get them. I feel good. I feel like I’m in a good place mentally, I feel positive mentally and physically. I feel like I’m in a good place.” He told the brilliantly named Irish site balls.ie.
Which would seem a backhanded compliment to the manner in which West Ham have handled him.
Displaying a maturity beyond his 20 years, Ferguson spoke of the hype and expectation at both Premier League and international level:”
“There’s nothing I can do about [people’s expectations], to be honest! It’s other people having that expectation, and obviously you have that expectation of yourself that you want to do well every time you play football.
You can’t really control what other people think or do. I’ve had more probably bad than good in the recent times, you know. But I’ve gotten used to it, I don’t really care what’s being said. I think the past year or so I’ve learned to deal with frustration so you wipe it out of your head and move on to the next.”
Which bodes well for the young man whatever his future holds beyond this season. And for his last nine games as a West Ham loanee, let us hope we get a repeat of the form that helped the number 9 fire in a cracking equaliser. Certainly Ferguson has the elite mindset to reach the top level, providing his body stays fit enough.
And you just never know, a dramatic end to his Hammers loan spell could suddenly trigger a mad West Ham scramble to find the cash to make his loan permanent.
