Todd Boehly will have to play long game to sign next top number 9 – which gives two current players chance to shine

Todd Boehly will have to play long game to sign next top number 9 – which gives two current players chance to shine

Fabrizio Romano was on the Caughtoffside Debrief podcast this week, and one of the major topics of conversation was Evan Ferguson.

The Brighton striker continues to emerge as one of the world’s top number 9s, and interest in him (and his transfer fee) are only growing.

Romano says that Brighton are going to try and keep Ferguson for one more season after this. If things there continue as rosy as they are now, it’s hard to imagine the Ireland international pushing to leave. He’s still 18, and is being developed perfectly by Brighton and their coaches.

“Evan Ferguson continues to attract interest, but I don’t have confirmation on a release clause in his new deal. I think Brighton are also relaxed on this situation – even though they know many top clubs are keeping an eye on Ferguson, at the same time they also want to give him time, there is no rush, so I’m not sure he will move next summer,” Romano says.

“I understand the plan is to keep him for at least one more season, so it won’t be easy for top clubs to sign him.”

In the meantime, we’ve got the rest of this season and probably next to work out whether either or both of Armando Broja and Nicolas Jackson have what it takes to be our number one striker in the years to come, or whether we should be tooling up for another summer-long battle with Brighton for one of their stars.