John O’Shea hopes Evan Ferguson’s move to Roma can be the spark that ignites the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup qualification campaign.
Ferguson struggled for form last season and after a loan move to West Ham didn’t work out, the Meath man’s immediate future looked uncertain.
However, the 20-year-old’s move to Italy appears to have reignited his career. Although Roma have only played two Serie A games since Ferguson’s arrival, manager Gian Piero Gasperini has already spoken highly of his abilities.
And the change of scenery might help Ireland’s cause too.
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“So far it looks like there’s a spark between Evan, the manager, Roma. It seems to be a perfect mix really,” says assistant manager O’Shea.
“It tells you a lot about the person and character to make that call. He wanted to go there to have that challenge and also the competition he faces.
“Roma are a big team in Europe, a massive team in Italy. To show that maturity to get in the team and play at that level, showing what he can do is no surprise. You just hope that he maintains that consistency and then Ireland will get a huge benefit from it.”
Bosun Lawal has also impressed O’Shea, with the 22-year-old’s versatility in defence or midfield making him a real asset to the national squad.
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“We’ve known about Bosun for a good while. We’ve had him jumping in with the squad, whether it was training days or him getting him used to how us as staff and how the boss works. That was brilliant for him.
“It was unfortunate for him to pick up that stress fracture to set him back a little bit when he went down to Stoke City (last year), but now that he’s fully fit he’s shown brilliant maturity for his age. We’d have no fears putting him in centre-back or central midfield.
“He’s a really good option to have, we can see how good a footballer he is and if he keeps progressing he can be a leading light going forward for Ireland.
“I just hope he keeps progressing at the rate he is because he’s a lot of attributes to help the Ireland team.”
With Saturday night’s game against Hungary at the Aviva (kick-off at 7.45pm) confirmed as a full-house, O’Shea hopes the team can repay the faith of the supporters by delivering a winning start to the campaign.
“It’s up to us and the players to deliver those three points,” he adds.
“You want teams chasing you rather than to be the chaser. We know that when you have a home game starting off, no matter who it is against, we always back ourselves to get off to that good start.
“We know it’s going to be a difficult night at stages, but also we know there’s going to be huge chances for the crowd to really get behind us.”
O’Shea understands the development of the group better than most, having witnessed the shifts from Stephen Kenny’s reign to his own period as interim boss to now working alongside Heimir Hallgrímsson.
“The growth has been in game-plan and how players have developed. Leaders are developing at their clubs too.
“There’s no time like the present for these boys to step up and make the country that are already proud of them even prouder by qualifying for a tournament. That’s the thing you have to grasp and be ready for, and to enjoy it too.
“You see how the lads are developing at international level that they want to take that step. We have to take that step at some time.”
Now feels as good a time as any.
