Irish Striker To Remain With Roma For Now

Whilst it could have been better, the first half of the 2025/26 Italian Serie A campaign has been a decent one for AS Roma gaffer Gian Piero Gasperini.

Although we opened the New Year and the second half of the campaign with a narrow 1-0 defeat to Atalanta, with 18 games now played, we continue to sit in fifth place in the domestic top flight table with 33 points from eleven wins, but undoubtedly our positioning would have been far better with some consistency in our seven defeats, as points from draws count and we are yet to draw a single game in this campaign.

And for supporters who enjoy following every twist and turn of the 90-minute action — including those who use online sports betting platforms such as CSB for added entertainment — the remainder of the campaign promises plenty of intrigue, as football so often proves that anything can happen.

Improving our chances further of closing that gap would be in becoming even more potent at the top of the pitch, and unfortunately for us, the loan signing of Brighton and Hove Albion’s young striker Evan Ferguson has not exactly gone to plan. The 21 year old, 26 capped Republic of Ireland international striker fell out of favour at his parent club after a lengthy spell out injured, but he has struggled since coming to Roma, returning just four goals in 19 appearances across all competitions so far and that was mostly a far improved set of performances in December.

Many thought the young lad would be recalled and return to England at some point during January but it now seems that this will not be the case. Brighton’s chief executive officer Paul Barber has recently spoken to the press to reflect on Ferguson’s loan spell with us so far and he indicated that it would be ‘very unlikely’ that the loan spell would be cut short this month. It seems that they would like to see him build on the experience and his more recent form following a good December, and now show far more consistency in the second half of the Serie A campaign.

Not least, as he added, that Brighton do not seemingly have a recall clause option on the loan deal signed, so the only way the spell ends is if Roma specifically start the ball rolling from our end and put a return in motion.

As fans will know, ahead of December and his return that month, the speculation rumour mill had him heavily linked with an exit and more than indicated that we were looking to bring in an alternative option and a more reliable goal threat, but it remains to be seen whether or not that is our plan, or whether we now think that he has turned the corner.

With a place in the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup 2026 squad up for grabs, Ferguson would no doubt prefer to make it a real success with us now and we have to hope he makes the most of it as we all benefit then.