EVAN FERGUSON has taken a big step towards securing a shock loan move to AS Roma, according to reports.
Per Gianluca Di Marzio, the Ireland striker has chosen a move to the Italian capital as a means to rekindle his career.
However, Brighton are reportedly seeking a transfer fee of €45 million should the Serie A club seek to make it permanent, a price to which Roma are hesitant to commit.
The 20-year-old is set to leave the Seagulls this summer after struggling to establish himself on loan at West Ham.
He made just eight Premier League appearances for the Hammers since joining in January, but played only 14 minutes in their last eight games.
And former Ireland international Kevin Kilbane compared it to his own move to West Brom aged 20 in 1997 and – particularly – Sunderland two years later.
He explained to SunSport via NetBet Online Casino Ireland: “I think the move in itself, the big move, everything that was around West Brom, probably took me six months really to fully become established.
“I played in the old Division 3 – League 2 and League 1. I’d had two years at that level, stepped up, took me a little time and then I felt I was starting to establish myself then or getting close to international set-up.
“I was probably very mature as a player. I was still developing as a player in my body as well.
“Physically I was going to get probably stronger along the way. My body was probably still developing until I was 22, 23 and beyond that as well, certainly physically.
“Certainly in those first two years, I was worried because I was finding really inconsistent spells when I’d gone to West Brom.”
After making 106 appearances for the Baggies, Kilbane moved to Sunderland for £2.5million in 1999.
It was a difficult first season, as they went winless between his debut against Southampton and March 2000.
Peter Reid’s side was eventually relegated from the Premiership, with Kilbane labelling his first six months at the Stadium of Light as a “write-off”.
He said: “I signed just before Christmas. Up until May that year, it was almost like a write-off for me.
“I was being seriously questioned.
“My whole Sunderland career probably in that first two years was probably, ‘he can’t cut the mustard’, ‘he can’t do this’, or whatever.
“It took me with Sunderland, probably 18 months before I felt really properly established.”
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Kilbane credited the influence of managers Peter Reid and Mick McCarthy for getting him through the hard times at the Stadium of Light.
And he reckons Evan Ferguson needs to have similar positive characters around him to do the same.
Kilbane added: “I was 22 then, Evan Ferguson‘s a lot younger than me.
“He’s going to have decisions to make across his career. He’s going to have spells of bad form and he’s going to have injuries and he’s going to have certain setbacks along the way.
“I had great managers around me. It was Peter Reid and it was Mick McCarthy. They gave me the belief and gave me the feeling of, ‘you’re going to be part of my squad, you’re going to be part of this.’
“That was the thing that I probably needed.
“I always look back at my own career and feel as though it was underachievement because of the certain attributes that I would have had when I was coming through.
“You’ve got to do everything that’s going to get you in the team and keep you in the starting 11 week in, week out.
“I started to learn that very early in my career and how to do that.
“That was the fortunate thing for me, again, that I had people around me that could have guided me.”
