Tony Cascarino believes Evan Ferguson is ‘suffering’ because his rise to prominence was so quick. And the former Ireland striker is convinced the West Ham loanee is experiencing a crisis of confidence - just like he did at Celtic under Liam Brady.
But what alarms Cascarino is that he was 27 when he first recalled seeds of doubt creeping into his own game, whereas Ferguson only turned 20 in October.
By the time ‘Big Cas’ joined Celtic in 1991 he had already played for Gillingham, Millwall and Aston Villa, and would go on to play for Chelsea, Marseille, Nancy and Red Star.
Ferguson is still finding his way in senior football, having made an impressive impact initially at Brighton under Roberto De Zerbi, following his move from Bohemians. But new Seagulls boss Fabian Hürzeler loaned the Meath man to West Ham in January and, according to Cascarino, it has been “a disaster”.
Very little has gone Ferguson’s way at the Hammers, even though he’s playing under Graham Potter who handed him his Premier League debut at Brighton.
In Dublin yesterday, Cascarino said: “Potter might think 'I know what's wrong, I know how to deal with it, but I haven't got time.' And that's the conundrum for Evan. Can Ruben Amorim wait for Rasmus Højlund?. No, he can't. If you're not winning games, scoring goals or creating chances, you can’t wait because you’ll be sacked."
Ferguson has started once in six appearances for West Ham and hasn’t scored a club goal since hitting the net for Brighton against Wolves back in October. But he did score Ireland’s equaliser in the 2-1 home win over Bulgaria last month.
Cascarino said: “I suffered my first real lack of belief and confidence when I was at Celtic. It was really bad, but I got to 27. He's 20, having serious doubts about where he is. People know what his potential is but I think he's been affected by that rise so quickly. For whatever reason it looks like he's suffering when he's playing. Young players should be raw and naive and make mistakes, but he looks like he's on the fringes of games.”
Cascarino reckons he can easily spot the signs of a player struggling with his game, having been that soldier before. Capped 88 times by Ireland, he said: “The transfer stuff leaving Villa was going on during the summer and I missed pre-season so I wasn't fit when I started at Celtic. I'm not making excuses, because I was shockingly bad at Celtic, but I wasn't in great nick and started the season indifferently.
“There were a few rumblings from the fans after we lost an Old Firm game and I was one of the ones who got pointed out. I started to feel it. We had a midweek game at Parkhead and the ball came out of the sky but I couldn't see it as I lost sight of it in the floodlights. As it came to me, I completely missed it and you just heard the (booing) from the Jungle and everywhere around. I got subbed.”
Cascarino went to see Brady in his office the next day. They were friends and former Ireland team-mates, but Cascarino knew Brady wouldn’t like what he had to say.
“I was his record buy, so it was all sitting badly as he was feeling the pressure too,” he said yesterday. "I said to him 'I think you should leave me out' and he went 'well that's great, my record buy is telling me he's not going to play! I said it’d be better for the team because I was nowhere near my A-game. He clearly got upset with me. But I was like 'no, it's not a good idea for me to play'. I asked to be left out, and he did that. I said I’d train really hard and play reserve games, but I realised that I’d started to feel the effects of the pressure.”
And Cascarino continued: "People said to me 'it's a big club' but when I played at Aston Villa I dealt with it and at Millwall, if you're not doing well there you’ll get dogs’ abuse. You can have so many doubts in your head about whether you're up for it, or whether it's right.”
"Celtic is a particular type of club. Everyone up there is either Celtic or Rangers. You could have someone doing the garden who is a Rangers fan, and the milkman is Celtic. You’re getting it all day, every day. Everyone you meet is Celtic or Rangers but it was a double whammy for me because Rangers fans were having a go at me, and so were Celtic fans! Everyday was like groundhog day. I found that really tricky but for Evan, he just needs to somehow find his game.”
Cascarino believes Ferguson has all the talent - and time - to turn his career around and kick on again for club and country. And he told the 20-year-old that international football can be a great release when club football isn’t going so well.
"What happens in dressing rooms is people look at you and think 'he's not doing it - and you know you’re the guy. I knew it at Celtic, sitting in the dressing room with people thinking ‘he's not trying a leg’. But I still played my best football for Ireland when I was having a s*** time at Celtic.
“It was a relief to come to Ireland and, honestly, international football is easier than top flight football. I'm sure putting the Ireland shirt on is a relief for him. It was for me. At Celtic, people used to say ‘f***** hell, you've gone away and scored again for Ireland, but you've not scored here’. It was a very big learning curve for me as it was the first time I suffered criticism and self doubt. I was conscious of it and when that happens, you overcomplicate things.”
Cascarino added: “When Rory McIlroy lost the US Open, the last thing he wanted to do was play golf. I remember playing really badly and thinking I don't want to play football. And that's weird because it's the game I love. A sports person, if you fall out of love with the game for a period, you can spiral. There’s definitely a player in Evan, but he needs work to get him back to being a player that can scare the life out of people.”
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