Serie A pace will suit Evan Ferguson's style after AS Roma move
The Republic of Ireland international has been getting minutes into his legs, scoring four goals in a training match against minnows UniPomezia, who have been recently promoted to Italy's Serie D.
Then on Saturday, he found the net again against German second division side and multiple former Bundesliga champions Kaiserslautern, nicking the ball off the goalkeeper and rolling it into an empty net in the 1-0 friendly win.
The fact that neither game was a competitive one should of course temper expectations about what the 20-year-old could achieve in Serie A during his season-long loan.
But crucially, unlike last season, he will have had a full and injury-free pre-season under his belt going into the campaign and he is going in with less expectation around him after seeing his progress stall somewhat over the past year.
On that, former Drogheda United and Shamrock Rovers defender Graham Gartland also feels the style of play in Italy will suit Ferguson down to a tee as he told this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast.
"He strikes me as a player that needs games to get his match sharpness up," said Gartland, a former team-mate of Ferguson's father Barry at Longford Town in 2003 and 2004.
"But he can ease into that a little bit. He has a good pre-season behind him in Italy and once that comes, his sharpness comes. And once his sharpness comes, then he is a different player.
"Because he is quite tall and he has a presence about him, that's where he has a chance to go and work on his feet, and the pace of the play in Italy will be different to the Premier League and I think that will suit him as well.
"You see it with the likes of Edin Dzeko who went there from Man City and he did really well and he strikes me as a similar player to that, that the tempo of the game might be a bit slower and it would allow him just to build into that."
In the wake of Ferguson's friendly cameos, Roma's new manager Gian Piero Gasperini, who enjoyed success over a long period with Atalanta - including on Irish soil when he led the Bergamo club to Europa League glory at Aviva Stadium in May 2024 - has spoken about the need to make the most of his talents, saying: "We need to get to know Evan and exploit his depth. In some situations, we could have looked for him more."
And former Brighton, Celtic, Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk midfielder Richie Towell pointed to the player who netted the Europa League final hat-trick for Atalanta as an example of how Gasperini can improve players.
"I think with a manager like Gasperini there, I think he's really going to take Evan under his wing and make him a proper, proper player this season," he said on the podcast.
"You see what he's done with Ademola Lookman. Lookman was kind of in a little bit of a similar situation to Evan where he was doing ok but you were waiting on that flame to ignite; where he went to Gasperini at Atalanta and that Atalanta side were amazing - high energy, lots of shots on target, balls into the box, I loved the way they played - so if Evan can mimic anything like what Ademola Lookman did, he'll have a great season."
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