Kevin Kilbane pinning Irish hopes on Evan Ferguson and tips Robbie Keane to be top manager

Kevin Kilbane made more than 100 appearances for the Republic of Ireland in a career which saw him play in the Premier League for Sunderland, Everton, Wigan and Hull.

In an exclusive interview with Ladbrokes: Fanzone, the former left-back/winger talked about his hopes for the Irish national team and gave his thoughts on what the future holds for Robbie Keane.

Ireland have something really special in Evan Ferguson

I think right now we’re looking at Evan Ferguson at Brighton when it comes to Ireland’s hope for the future. He’s scored in the last couple of weeks against Arsenal and Everton and has had a really bright start to his career with Brighton’s senior team. He’s one who we’ve kept a close eye on over the last few years since his time in Ireland, and I’m really pleased with the faith Brighton have shown in him.

He’s already producing for them. He’s getting first-team football and has even forced himself into Brighton’s starting line-up, so he’s the one I’m looking at right now. We’ve not had a goalscorer – that’s something everyone talks about – on an international stage since Robbie Keane.

Chiedozie Ogbene is another one who I’m really keen to see progress in the next few years. He’s at Rotherham at the moment but I’m expecting him to move on at some stage in the near future. He’s someone I like. I admire him and I expect him to carve out a good career for himself.

The difficulty for us as Irish fans at the moment is that a lot of the players we’re pinning our hopes on, if you like, are down the leagues, so there’s still that uncertainty as to how they’re going to develop in their careers.

I think we’ve got the nucleus of something quite good, but ultimately I think Ferguson is the one who could go on and become a very, very good Premier League player. He’s still very young, but he’s one I’d be looking at and expecting to go far. He shares his surname, and if he goes on to achieve anything similar to what Duncan did, then Evan will have had a very good career.

Evan doesn’t need to be thinking about his next move, he’s still so young and he’s at a great club in Brighton where he’s getting more and more exposure. They’re putting a lot of trust in him and he’s in a really good position there.

Looking around the rest of the squad, you’ve got Nathan Collins at Wolves. He’s someone I expect to be a really top-class centre-half, I really do. And alongside him, you’ve got Dara O’Shea. He had a horrendous injury last year but it looks like he’s finally over that, playing week in, week out as captain of West Bromwich Albion. Hopefully, he’ll continue to improve, but defensively we look very strong, and it’s an area we’ve always looked comfortable in over the years. It’s about getting our midfield and attack a bit better, and then I think we’ve got a real chance of going and achieving something really special in the next few years.

Our goalkeeping situation right now is something which has come out of nowhere in the last four or five years. Gavin Bazunu and Caoimhin Kelleher are two players we’re hoping can go and challenge each other for the next 10 or 15 years.

Over the years, everyone that comes through is dubbed the next Robbie Keane or the next Damien Duff. We’ve got to temper our expectations on these younger players because their exposure to top-class football has been virtually non-existent in a lot of their cases. That’s the key, first and foremost.

We’ve had a lot wrong with the team in recent years, and the first step is qualifying for tournaments again. Euro 2024 is a huge one for us. It would be great for us to make it to the finals where we can expose one or two of these younger players to better opponents. We’ve got an incredibly tough qualifying group and we’re in a really difficult position going forward, but the key is to get back playing at these major tournaments.

Robbie Keane has everything it takes to do well in management

I always saw Robbie [Keane] getting into management, if I’m being honest. I’ve been fairly close to him over the years, and I know he’s always had aspirations of becoming a manager. But it’s so hard, first of all to find the right club. One of my best friends is Lee Carsley, who is now England’s under-21 manager and he has gained a great reputation for himself.

Someone like Lee has gone under the radar with his development. He wanted to develop himself, and didn’t want to go and take a job and become a head coach. He’s gone away, worked at underage football at some brilliant clubs like Man City, Brentford, Birmingham and Coventry, and he’s now put himself in a position where he’s being spoken about whenever big positions become available.

I think Robbie has chosen a slightly different path. He was in with Mick McCarthy at the senior international set-up, and then with Jonathan Woodgate at Middlesbrough. He’s dipped his toes in. He’s not necessarily been able to go and get that head coach role, so I’m really interested in seeing how he does and where he goes. Of course, I’m hopeful he’s going to do well in whatever he goes on to do, because he’s got everything in him to go on and do very well in management.

People will often mention the likes of Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, and it doesn’t always work out that you’re a great player and you go on to become a great coach. But Robbie’s gone away and developed his mind; he’s gone into various clubs around Europe to see how they do things. He’s worked with a number of academies back in Dublin. He’s viewed all aspects of the game and he feels he’s ready to give it a go. If it’s Portsmouth, or if it’s another job, I hope he goes on and succeeds, because I think he really deserves it.

Most supporters, when they think of Robbie, will always think of that Germany game back in 2002, but I see him as that 17-year-old kid who turned up and made his home debut against Argentina at Lansdowne Road and got man of the match. I can clearly remember him at that time. On the training ground, he was as good as anything I’ve ever seen. He just possessed this natural ability as a proper street footballer, almost like Wayne Rooney. I’m not shy in saying it; Robbie was every bit as good as Wayne Rooney when he was coming through at 17.

We were lucky that we had Damien Duff coming through at the same time, and it was just a great period to play for Ireland. It’s hard for me to think of anything but the influence and impression he left on all of us as a young kid after that Argentina game.