Portsmouth boss reveals latest on former Crystal Palace triallist as decision nears over West Brom starlet
The former Premier League man has featured prominently in pre-season - now a Pompey decision is imminent on his future.
Nathan Ferguson’s Pompey fate will be decided by the weekend.
Blues boss John Mousinho confirmed a call will be made over whether or not to hand the former Premier League man a Fratton future by this Saturday.
That update from the Blues head coach arrives after the former Crystal Palace and West Brom man banked more pre-season action, in the 0-0 drawn with Hawks.
Ferguson played 65 minutes at Westleigh Park, following on from his outing off the bench at Reading last Saturday.
It means the 24-year-old has now played four of Pompey’s five pre-season friendlies, in addition to joining the first-team squad for their week-long training camp in Slovakia.
Ferguson operated at right-back once again, with Zak Swanson deployed anchoring midfield in a 4-3-3 formation.
Mousinho feels the triallist is now putting together a valuable bank of pre-season training and minutes on the pitch, as he prepares to decide the way forward for the player.
When asked if a decision will now be made on Ferguson, he said: said: ‘I think so.
‘What we wanted to do first was build Nathan up, so first of all he could play the minutes at the weekend and minutes tonight.
‘That was important, because it’s the first time Nathan has played anything over 45 minutes for a long, long time.
‘So over the next few days as we attack the weekend and build into the league season we’ll make a decision on that.
‘We probably will (decide by Saturday), that’s probably fair. It’s been a case of not needing to rush into anything.
‘It’s a really beneficial one for us, in terms of having another player around who can play and having a player around who’s excellent in training and games.
‘And it’s vice-versa for Nath, at the very least he’s building up fitness in terms of having a bank of games and building up a long training record without being injured.’
Ferguson was the subject of an £8m collapse transfer move to Palace in January 2020, but later moved to Selhurst Park with his side ordered to pay just £900,000 at a tribunal.
West Brom rejected a £4m bid for the Birmingham talent before the £8m figure was agreed, but a knee issue was flagged in Ferguson’s medical which led to the move initially falling apart.
A deal was concluded in July 2020 with a tribunal setting the compensation figure 13 months later. By that time Ferguson had been fighting an issue with the knee before suffering a torn Achilles tendon.
That led to the player featuring just once for the Eagles, with Ferguson not playing a competitive game since a 3-0 Palace defeat to Spurs in December 2021.
Now though he’s aiming to put his injury issues behind him and earn himself a contract, after emerging as one of the Championship's most exciting defenders with West Brom.