The last few years have been challenging ones for the Republic of Ireland’s football team. In 2020, they failed to win any of their eight matches, enduring a seven-game scoreless streak in the process and in 2021 they dropped to 51st in Fifa’s world rankings, their lowest position since 2015. Gradually, though, the doom is starting to lift and a revival is beginning to take shape, fuelled in part, by Brighton and Hove Albion.
Brighton’s reputation as one of the Premier League’s shrewdest clubs is no secret. They have become kings of transfer market flipping, signing promising prospects from all corners of the globe, nurturing and developing them into top-level players before selling on at a considerable markup.
Evidence of the club’s sprawling scouting network can be found in the club’s first-team squad, which contains players of 13 different nationalities. Among them, an increasingly prominent Irish contingent spearheaded by 18-year-old striker Evan Ferguson.
With three goals and two assists in his last four Premier League appearances, Ferguson is an obvious poster boy.
“It’s been a great spell for Evan,” Ian Buckman, Brighton’s head of academy tells i. “As an academy first and foremost we’re incredibly proud of him as we are of all the players that break through. He came to us with good experience at Bohemians and really settled well, progressing through our U18s and U21s.
“He’s a great character, very level-headed, down to earth, really hard working and his goals show his qualities, all different types of goals. He’s a great finisher, his link-up play is very good. But his temperament and personality are first class and that really helps.”
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Brighton have nine Republic of Ireland players aged 23 or under on their books, and two more from Northern Ireland. The club has successfully established a scouting network in a country bristling with untapped potential and are starting to reap the rewards for their foresight.
“A lot of credit would have to go to John Morling, our previous academy manager,” Buckman says. “John previously worked with the FAI [Football Association of Ireland] and had good knowledge of the quality and talent over there. Leroy McCourt [Brighton’s Ireland-based scout] does a lot of great work for us and keeps an eye on the players.
“We’ve had some great lads. Dessie Hutchinson was one of the early ones, I think he plays hurling now back home [signed for Albion from Waterford Bohemians in 2015 and now a hurler for Waterford], and then with Aaron [Connolly, on loan at Hull] and Jayson [Molumby, at West Brom] coming through, certainly it helped. Once one or two had blazed a trail it allowed others to follow.”
Evidence of a promising generation coming through can be found in Uefa’s recent rankings, which rate the Republic of Ireland’s U19 and U17s among the 10 best teams in Europe. Brighton’s foray into the Irish market has been driven by talent, but also by practicality. Irish players aged 18 or over can move freely to English clubs due to the common travel area agreement, whereas their peers from other European Union countries now require a work permit or must qualify for a government body endorsement via a complex points-scoring system.
“We previously would have had a number of players from around Europe coming to us in the academy system and Brexit’s obviously had an impact,” Buckman admits. “And now with the more recent boys like Jamie Mullins and Mark O’Mahony, they’re coming in at 18 rather than that bit younger. Aaron and Jayson would have arrived at 16. At that time I was working with the U18s and Robert Sanchez would have come in [from Spain] for example at 16 as well.”
That Premier League clubs are now restricted to buying players only once they have turned 18 is another Brexit by-product that has had ramifications. Previously, English clubs virtually had a monopoly on up-and-coming Irish talent; that is no longer the case as clubs from EU countries can snap them up two years earlier. AC Milan and Inter Milan both have 17-year-olds in their academies bought directly from League of Ireland sides, as do Stade de Reims and Caen in France. James Abankwah, Ireland’s U19 captain, moved to Udinese from St Patrick’s Athletic last summer.
Unsurprisingly, Premier League clubs want existing rules relaxed to allow them to compete for emerging talent at 16 and 17 rather than waiting until they are 18. Brighton snapped up Ferguson just before the ban came into effect in January 2021. The upside to having to wait is that youngsters brought in have, in some cases, had an extra two years to mature physically and mentally and in the cases of Mullins and O’Mahony, opportunities to play senior football.
“I think it shows the maturity of a lot of the boys,” Buckman says. “At any level and at any standard to go and play senior football in a good league like they have in Ireland, speaks very highly of the players. First to be able to go and do it from a technical and tactical perspective but also to handle the physicality of it and as young players to be in those senior environments I’m sure it’s a really good learning curve for them.”
Having a close support network of peers from similar backgrounds and footballing experiences is also invaluable, says Buckman.
Brighton’s Irish and Northern Irish contingent
- Killian Cahill (goalkeeper, on loan at Bognor Regis)
- Aaron Connolly (23, striker on loan at Hull)
- Matt Everitt (20, striker)
- Evan Ferguson (18, striker)
- James Furlong (20, left back on loan at Motherwell)
- Leigh Kavanagh (19, centre back)
- Ruairi McConville (17, centre-back)
- Andrew Moran (19, midfielder)
- Jamie Mullins (18, winger)
- Mark O’Mahony (18, striker)
- Ben Wilson (20, winger)
“The boys will be with host families initially. That’s a massive part of helping them to settle and then as they progress and develop we try and get them into more independent accommodation and help and support them with all the life skills they need and being away from home. The happier and more settled they are off the pitch, the better they’re going to perform.”
Naturally, Ferguson’s blistering start to Premier League life and Brighton’s recent business with League of Ireland clubs has piqued the interest of football fans back home.
“There’s a lot of hype about him [Ferguson] in Ireland,” Danny Bellringer, co-chair of the Irish Seagulls supporters group, tells i. “The national side have really struggled in recent years to get a natural goalscorer, so there is a huge amount of expectation and interest in him across the country really.
“When a club like Brighton starts having such an Irish presence then it really does make people sit up and take notice. Even before the recent interest in Ferguson, Brighton were on the radar of people in Ireland due to the likes of Shane Duffy, and also having Chris Hughton as manager here.”
Irish Seagulls was only set up in January 2019, but according to Bellringer they are now recognised as an official supporter’s club by Brighton and their membership is “growing by the week”.
“I think a lot of fans here are taken aback when they see a bunch of lads in Brighton tops celebrating wildly when the goals are flying in – it tends to be mainly Man United and Liverpool over here, but people are definitely taking a lot more interest in us now,” he says.
“I’m heading over to the Bournemouth and Fulham home games this month, and if any other members are going we will try and meet up. We do have a flag with the Irish Seagulls logo and that is going to be making an appearance at the Bournemouth game.”
Brighton’s sixth-place position in the Premier League table is nothing short of miraculous given the turbulence the club has encountered in recent months. They were forced into an early season managerial change with Roberto De Zerbi replacing Chelsea-bound Graham Potter, have seen key personnel from the boardroom, recruitment team and training pitches depart and sold Leandro Trossard in January while keeping Moises Caicedo after his head had been turned.
That success speaks to their forward planning and unwavering faith in a project that runs throughout the club. It seems that everything that Brighton touches turns to gold; or increasingly, green, white and gold.
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