The wheel of the sporting year turns again as one segment closes off with the playing of the All Ireland SHC Final, and those in men’s and Ladies football and Camogie imminently awaited, while in other sports things haven’t even kicked off. Quite literally. In recent week’s we’ve seen the brightest star in Irish Basketball, CJ Fulton, on trials in the NBA during that Association’s Summer League.
Slightly closer to home, though, as the beginning of another Premier League campaign draws nearer, two of Meath’s finest sporting exports, Josh Keeley and Evan Ferguson, have both been in the news as both will be operating for new employers when it all kicks off around August 15th.
Dunboyne’s Keeley – who spent the last two seasons on loan at Barnet and Leyton Orient respectively – has formally left ‘parent’ club Tottenham Hotspur (damn you Daniel Levey and Thomas Frank), but will remain in London having linked up with Luton Town.
The Hatters have had a rollercoaster few seasons having come all the way up through the leagues to end up in the Premier League only to find themselves getting ready to begin the forthcoming campaign in League One having succumbed to successive relegations as high flying Wrexham have done the opposite.
However, those who are now Matt Bloomfield’s side have previously proven that they have the ambition and nous to make up a considerable amount of ground in a fairly quick space of time. Certainly, they haven’t done those prospects any harm by acquiring our big keeper.
Elsewhere, one is not as au fait with Italian football as would have been the case some three decades ago, but, it can still be fairly safely assumed that AS Roma are as competitive as has always been the case.
So, presuming Evan Ferguson will actually get some first team football with them following his loan move to the Italian capital from Brighton, to see him hitting the net again can only be a good thing for both the player and Irish football.
Now, I would be very much of the view that the Seagulls were lousy in the way they treated the Laytown lad towards the end of his time at the south coast club.
Particularly Brighton’s owner Tony Bloom. Not only because Evan – and Aaron Connolly while he was at the club – contributed greatly to the club’s ascent through football’s rankings. Also, mind you, because of the amount of glory he has enjoyed with his horses in the care of Ireland’s (and the world’s) greatest trainer, Willie Mullins.
It would only be fair and right to acknowledge that the talented East Meath lad has been beset by injuries for an elongated period of time. But he still hadn’t got a fair crack of the whip off Brighton’s current manager.
Now, when he was/is fit his class is undoubted. Which is why West Ham took him on loan and why others like Arsenal and Manchester United were among the strongest suitors of his services. Though in the cases of the latter pair he may have dodged a brace of bullets.
If nothing else, Ferguson’s foray into the land of La Cosa Nostra should rekindle the interest in Italian football here. Anything to make the winter shorter!
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