‘I’m very excited’: Daniel Sturridge admits he’s a huge fan of £100m attacker who rejected move to Liverpool

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Daniel Sturridge has admitted that he’s really excited at the potential shown by former Liverpool target Evan Ferguson.

As reported by the The Athletic back in June 2022, Ferguson actually turned down the chance to join the Reds as a 16-year-old in 2021.

“I went to Liverpool a few times,” said the Irishman. “It’s a good club, but you see so many boys at Liverpool just fading away and there’s no chance to get in the first team. I was thinking, ‘Do I just want to play two years of under-18s and then go to the 23s and go from there to where?’

In the end, Ferguson ended up at Brighton, where he’s been pulling up trees ever since. And speaking on Sky Sports Monday Night Football last night, former Liverpool striker Sturridge admitted to be being a big fan of the youngster.

“Evan Ferguson, I know he is very young but I believe the guy has that killer instinct,” said the 34-year-old. “The way he scores the goals, Brighton fans I know you’re going to be mad at me.

“But I look at him and he has that killer instinct. You can see he is driven by goals. At a very young age, he’s going to be a project too, but I’m very excited to see how he develops.”

Sturridge backs Ferguson to shine

Although Ferguson has gone a little quiet of late, it still feels like Liverpool will end up regretting missing out on him.

Perhaps there was just a little more the Reds could have done to convince him at the time he was leaving Bohemians.

Because as it turns out, Ferguson was wrong about the pathway at Anfield. He only has to look at the number of players given opportunities this season alone to see that.

If you show yourself to be good enough in the underage sides, then Jurgen Klopp is a manager who will give you a chance.

Given the way things have gone for him since his arrival at Brighton, it’s easy to imagine that Ferguson would have been offered that chance at Liverpool.

If the Reds want to rectify their mistake on losing out on the 19-year-old, they’ll have to pay some serious money.

There have been reports that Brighton are expecting to bank £100m when they eventually sell Ferguson [Sky Sports]. After his hat-trick against Newcastle United back in September, you could understand those valuations. But the Ireland international has just one goal in his past 10 games for Brighton.

Nevertheless, Ferguson is obviously young and as Sturridge explains, has immense potential. The initial hype looked justified, now the Brighton man needs to start finding some consistency.