Brighton striker Evan Ferguson told to leave after West Ham decision as £22m ace signs

Former Republic of Ireland striker Shane Long has urged Evan Ferguson to leave Brighton this summer.

Ferguson struggled for game time at Brighton in the first part of the season and was behind Joao Pedro, Danny Welbeck and Geoginio Rutter in the pecking order.

It was hoped a January loan and reunion with his former Brighton boss Graham Potter at West Ham would kick-start his career but so far Ferguson has failed to make a telling impact at the Hammers.

The 20-year-old Ireland international is due to return to Brighton this summer but his future with Fabian Hurzeler's team looks uncertain – especially as the Seagulls recently spent £22m on Greek striker Stefanos Tzimas who arrives this summer from FC Nürnberg.

"He needs a pre-season with a club," said Long to Ladbrokes. "First of all, he needs to move on from Brighton, and find a manager that gets that confidence in him again, because we all know now how good he can be.

"He just needs to get away for the summer, forget about football, get his fitness in order, and come back fresh and raring to go with that hunger and drive to succeed again."

Ferguson made his Premier League debut for Brighton at the age of 18. A foot injury slowed his progress last season but he has a pretty healthy strike rate of 17 goals and six assists from 80 top flight outings. Not bad for a young striker breaking through in a mid-table Premier League team. It was enough to have clubs like Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United all showing interest.

Chelsea interest in Evan Ferguson

Long added: "He's only a baby. I wasn't playing properly in the Premier League until I was 21 or 22 – Evan's already shown us he can do it at such a young age.

"It's just a case of giving him that confidence and letting him play freely, without the weight of the world on his shoulders.

"The crazy thing is, he's still so young. There's been a lot of pressure and expectation on him ever since he burst onto the scene, really - all of a sudden, all of the headlines were around a mega-money move to Chelsea, and all these teams queuing up for him.

"Watching him when he first came through, he had everything – he had size, speed, he was a good finisher.

"He was hungry to do well, and he had that youth and naivety to go out and play. But then things weren't going so well, and he was probably getting in his own head about it.

"I was excited for Evan [Ferguson] when he went to West Ham, because he was going to a manager he knew well – I thought he'd get the best out of him, but it's not really turned out that way."

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