Evan Ferguson and West Ham begin rebuild together as Graham Potter addresses permanent move | OneFootball

Republic of Ireland international set for Hammers debut against Brentford

Graham Potter would not be drawn into discussing whether West Ham might seek to sign Evan Ferguson on a permanent deal if his six-month loan from Brighton goes well.

That last sentence serves to summarise what the club have left to play for this season. Long gone from both domestic cups and poor enough under Potter’s predecessor Julen Lopetegui that qualifying for Europe is frankly an impossibility, the last 14 games become an extended pre-season ahead of Potter’s first full campaign in charge.

And the arrival of Ferguson to lead the line will likely make the next three months more enjoyable for the East Londoners. With Michail Antonio and Niclas Fullkrug away in Dubai and not remotely close to match fitness, the winter window became all about signing a striker.

Ferguson was the primary target — young, hungry for more game time than he was getting — and duly picked West Ham over a whole host of interested parties. Arsenal, Chelsea, Bayer Leverkusen and Bournemouth were just some of the clubs who explored the logistics of a move for the Republic of Ireland international.

Though injuries to Kai Havertz and Nicolas Jackson mean game time would have been in fine supply at Arsenal or Chelsea, predicting their injuries before they happened was not among Ferguson’s many skills. At the time he made his decision, it was West Ham who most needed a striker and where match minutes were closest to guaranteed. Now he’s here, and is set to make his debut against Brentford on Saturday.

Potter handed Ferguson his first appearance for Brighton when he was just 17, and for a good few months the striker had to change in a different dressing room from the rest of the first team, because of safeguarding regulations. “The quality of his finishes was almost like there’s a calmness to him that made you think it wasn’t a 17-year-old. He played football like he was a 20-something, and he was 17,” Potter recalled.

Evan Ferguson will look to get back on track at West Ham

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For a year or more, Ferguson was scoring at an impressive rate in the Premier League for a player so incredibly young, and it is no exaggeration to say that he was then one of the most highly rated teenagers in English football, tipped as a potential £100million player of the future.

That weighed heavily on the now 20-year-old, especially over the last two years, when his involvement in the Brighton first team waned due to ankle and ACL injuries, as well as the selection decisions of manager Fabian Hurzeler — less keen on Ferguson than Potter or Roberto De Zerbi were.

“Sometimes with young players we jump in too quickly,” Potter recalled of those early predictions of stardom.

“Sometimes in football if you’re hot you’re hot and when you’re not, you’re not, which is silly, really, because the player quality is still there. [The struggles] were mostly because of injury, to be fair to him. And then Danny Welbeck has hit a great vein of form. These things can come alongside each other.

“I have no idea whether he was enjoying his football or not at Brighton; he hasn’t indicated anything negative to me. When you’re not playing and you’re injured and you’re coming back from that long rehabilitation road, it’s just not enjoyable.”

But if he can stay fit and rediscover his goalscoring pomp, Ferguson is now well placed to find enjoyment again.

He and the West Ham first team trained not at their Rush Green training ground but at the London Stadium on Thursday, as is the Hammers’ tradition for the final full training session before a first home game following the end of a transfer window. It gives new signings — Ferguson, on this occasion — the chance to get to grips with the turf at the stadium before playing there.

Ferguson is said to have “trained well and shown his quality” in his first fortnight, with Potter weighing up whether to start him or use him from the bench against Brentford.

Brighton ummed and ahhed before eventually letting Ferguson leave, with Hurzeler cognisant that the striker had endured “a frustrating 12 months” and now “really needs to be playing regularly”, acknowledging: “This loan gives him that opportunity, and under a manager he knows well.”

Now to make good on that. “He [brings] a different dynamic,” Potter said. “We’ve used Mo [Kudus up front], we’ve used Lucas [Paqueta], because we lost Fullkrug. A focal point No 9 changes that dynamic. Evan is a great finisher and can link the play well. He’s only going to get stronger and better during the time he’s here with us. He’s ready to help the team.”