EVAN Ferguson’s girlfriend Gracie sarcastically criticized him for “always smiling for a photo” as she shared a couple of snaps from their date night.

Despite finally being in the spotlight again lately, the Meath native remained impassive in front of the camera.

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Ferguson only turned 20 last month, so the fact that his career trajectory hasn’t been completely upward in the last 12 months is nothing to worry too much about, despite what you might see on social media. .

But the continuation Danny Welbeck’s late resurgence He appears set to limit his minutes with Brighton for another season.

After their two-way defeat against LiverpoolCoach Fabian Hurzeler hinted that there will be no changes to his starting pairing of Welbeck and Georginio Rutter in the short term.

He purred: “They have only played together for a short time, but they do it quite well.

“As I always say with Danny, he is a player and a teammate who is very open to everyone and tries to integrate each new player very quickly into the group.

“You see on the field that they have a good relationship and it’s about making connections. Making connections takes time.”

“They have to know each other, they have to know what touch their teammate likes, what space they want to go in, when they make the race, the moment of the race.”

In case the 31-year-old hadn’t made his preference not to mix and match too much clear from the start, he underscored that point later in the same interview.

He highlighted: “I think these things are only achieved by playing together several times and that is exactly the consistency we need in our team.

“If you always need to change players, you can’t build these relationships.

“These two are playing pretty well together right now.”

Last week another Ireland international was asked to recall his experience marking Ferguson…female ace Jessie Stapleton.

The Dubliner reflected on a schoolboy match where she scored while detailing her career in football.

She spoke after providing wonderful assistance to Kyra Carusa as Ireland. sealed a 9-0 aggregate victory over Georgia.

Later, in the RTE studio they questioned her about a match from her time in school football.

She said: “I was playing for Cherry Orchard in an All-Ireland final but I played all year.

“And I ended up marking Evan Ferguson!”

RTE Sport presenter Marie Crowe pointed out that normally the girls would have played with boys a year younger than them rather than a year older.

He asked Stapleton what “the secret” was to keeping the leading figure in Irish men’s football quiet.

Laughing, the 19-year-old downplayed his efforts: “He’s a big guy!

“I don’t even know (what the secret was), since it was years ago, I couldn’t tell you.

“But I think back then we were all just footballers. Nobody had a big name or anything but fair play to him as he’s done incredible things. It’s a credit to himself.”

MAIN OF BEING A FOOTBALL PLAYER

He was later asked about his professional career so far, which has been led her to join West Ham – with her loaned to Sunderland for this season after a similar temporary spell at Reading last season.

The versatile ace explained: “Yes, I had a brief spell at Shamrock Rovers, I played with them at under-17 level in the League of Ireland.

“Then I moved across town to Shelbourne to play senior football there.

“It was the best two and a half years in Ireland, it was class.”