Less than a week has passed since Evan Ferguson officially joined AS Roma, but he already appears to be having an impact on the club's vocal supporters. In a training match against minnows UniPomezia, who were just promoted to Italy's Serie D, the Republic of Ireland star scored four goals, demonstrating how much he has been getting used to playing.
Then, in Saturday's 1-0 friendly victory over Kaiserslautern, a German second division team and several previous Bundesliga champions, he scored once more after nicking the ball off the custodian and rolling it into an empty net. Naturally, expectations about what the 20-year-old could accomplish in Serie A during his season-long loan should be tempered by the reality that neither game was competitive. Crucially, however, he will enter the campaign having completed a full and injury-free preseason, unlike last season, and he is entering with fewer expectations surrounding him after his progress had stalled during the previous year.