Burnley FC face Fulham battle for Premier League striker | OneFootball

A host of high-level teams are set to compete for the Irishman in the new year.

Burnley face competition from Fulham in the battle to sign Brighton & Hove Albion striker Evan Ferguson in the January transfer window.

A player who at the start of the year was going to cost any suitors potentially £100 million now finds himself as a loan candidate. Ferguson hasn't been helped by injuries and the emergence, or re-emergence, of Joao Pedro and Danny Welbeck, but he now finds himself at the bottom of the Seagulls' striker pile.

Because of this, a number of clubs have positioned themselves to be prospective temporary destinations for the Republic of Ireland international, including Burnley.

According to Alan Nixon, if the 20-year-old is open to dropping to the second tier for more regular minutes, then the Clarets would be interested in taking him.

They wouldn't be alone in said pursuit, though. Three Premier League sides - Leicester City, Nottingham Forest and West Ham United - have been previously linked with Ferguson, with a fourth - Fulham - now being added to that evergrowing list.

Fulham join Burnley in Evan Ferguson race

According to the Independent, the Cottagers are "investigating" a possible January move for the number nine. He is seen as a strong option to boost their attacking resources. Like Burnley, Fulham would be looking to take him on loan.

Brighton's manager, Fabian Hurzeler, recently stated that Ferguson isn't going to be available on loan in the winter window, as per the Independent. This follows comments from the club's CEO, Paul Barber, who claimed that no exit of any form was on the cards for the 20-year-old, who signed a new five-and-a-half year deal with Brighton in November 2023.

"Evan's a really important part of the squad," said the Brighton CEO to talkSPORT.

"Sometimes mischievous rumours emerge from various strange places and one or two journalists will buy into those ideas, put out there by one or two other clubs perhaps in some cases.

"But Evan's very happy, we've very happy with Evan, we expect him to be an important of the squad throughout the season.

"Unfortunately, sometimes in this business we know that the rumour mill and the noise on the outside is stuff you have to ignore."

Burnley could do with a natural goalscorer like Evan Ferguson

It would be some coup by the Clarets if they managed to beat the other alleged competition to Ferguson and convinced Brighton to lend him to them. For a team that is so heavily reliant on the brilliance of its defence, a raw talent of a centre-forward, like the Irishman is, would be a brilliant asset.

Burnley have only scored 26 goals in 21 games this season - an average of 1.23 goals per game. There aren't many other promotion winning sides who have gone up when scoring at that sort of rate.

Part of their problem is chance creation, where they rank even worse amongst their league competitors, but Ferguson would certainly help add to Scott Parker's attacking arsenal.