“Because I’m Irish,” Ferguson replied as outrage took over the internet when word spread that “the Brits were at it again”.

On Saturday night in Amsterdam, Ferguson lasted 54 minutes for Ireland before being substituted because of a tight hamstring. In those 54 minutes he had 15 touches of the ball, fewer than any other Irish player. For comparison, Wout Weghorst had 38. Injury may have restricted Ferguson’s involvement to a certain degree on Saturday night, but against Greece in Athens, he had only 19 touches.

Watching Ferguson play for Ireland, it has been easy to contrast the life he leads in the masterful construction that is Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton (even if it has stalled lately) with the mere existence he experiences when he has lined out for Ireland.

This contrast may become even more pronounced as Ferguson’s career progresses. This is nothing new. Great Irish players from Giles to Brady to Keane have had to contend with a profound difference between what they experience at their clubs and what they have to adapt to for their country.

The scars from the loss of Jack Grealish and Declan Rice led many to become jittery as they became aware of Ferguson’s English mother which made him eligible for England. There was nothing to fear on that front, but, as Stephen Kenny departs, it is tempting to ask what kind of Ireland Ferguson will come of age in?

We have celebrated Ferguson’s accident of birth and he is the type of player Ireland desperately needs, or at least one type. But Irish football continues to look dysfunctional in all areas nearly five years after the John Delaney reign began to collapse.

The decisions of Grealish and Rice to play for England rather than Ireland are often viewed as pivotal moments when Ireland lost players who would have made a difference for a generation. Unlike Ferguson, they were English, but part of the Irish diaspora.

Both players could have been capped by Martin O’Neill, but he has taken what could be described as a humanitarian position. “You might say Jack would have had a lot more caps for the Republic of Ireland,” O’Neill said in September, “but would he have enjoyed similar levels of success at international level? Quite obviously, the records will tell you that, no, he wouldn't have." He added that neither Grealish nor his family “have regretted that decision”.

On Rice, O’Neill said, “I was not going to coerce or deceive him into playing a senior qualification game for the Republic of Ireland for a number of reasons. One, I just wouldn't have done it. Two, he, his father and his agent knew the rules anyway, and they decided to go to England. Has he regretted that decision? I don't think so.” 

O’Neill became like Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park when he scolds the founder of the park John Hammond with the words, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should”.

O’Neill wasn’t going to coerce or deceive. Instead he didn’t interfere with nature and the players haven’t regretted their decision.

As humanitarians, we can applaud the freedom granted to Grealish and Rice which allowed them to escape from bleak nights against Luxembourg or Armenia. As patriots, we may wish they were there to potentially make them a little better.

But what is Ireland’s duty to Ferguson? We celebrate Ferguson’s Irishness which ensures he will have a long career - at times it may seem like a very long career - for his country.

Will there be more nights like Saturday where he waits and waits for his opportunity?

The end of the Stephen Kenny era is significant not just because of its failure in terms of results, but arguably also as a failure in the more abstract terms that Kenny advances as success.

Most of the players were on an upward trajectory, he insisted after the match on Saturday, “bar one or two”, sounding like David Brent as he tells some of his Wernham Hogg staff “you’re not going to lose your job”.

He has capped 26 players during his time in charge, an entire squad of new players who will develop into the core of a new side.

Whether that core is good enough remains to be seen. Kenny’s Ireland were, according to Shay Given on RTÉ, trying to play football “in the wrong areas”. Kenny was determined to prove that Irish players can play football; his critics say that his results show more pragmatism is required.

Yet Ireland’s problem in 2023 is not that they’re playing too much football, but they aren’t playing much football at all, in any areas, as the failure to get Ferguson more involved demonstrates.

Irish players still emerge despite, rather than because of, the system and there will be many more bleak nights while that remains the case.

Kenny’s failings are clear to all but he did believe in something better for Irish football and Irish football still desperately needs vision.

Sport Ireland has frozen funding to the FAI because of issues surrounding CEO Jonathan Hill’s salary, while the failure to achieve gender balance on the board also threatens the money the association will receive from the state. The FAI, it seems, is always crashing in the same perpetually exploding clown car.

In their strategic plan published last year, the FAI said they would be working towards “creating a full-time football industry”. In Irish sport, there is not enough money available to do that without government support.

For the FAI to be engaged in these acts of self-sabotage is demoralising. They have made the reasonable case that it is absurd that the greyhound industry is funded to such a degree. In September they requested half a billion of government funding over 15 years. It was also a reasonable request.

Across the country, this wet autumn has demonstrated the absence of suitable facilities as kids go without matches for weeks on end.

Meanwhile an academy system will have to be developed which ensures that those players who no longer can go to the UK when they are 16 because of Brexit get enough contact with coaches here. If they stay here, rather than go to Europe if they can, they will be making a sacrifice in the national interest.

There is a desperate need for money in Irish football. There must also be a sense that it will be invested smartly without the bickering and feuding which is the starting point for the Irish football family, alongside a hostility to outside influence which makes The Field look like the “I’d Like to Teach the World To Sing” ad.

Ireland and the FAI face a bleak 2024 with friendlies lined up for the start of the year before the Nations League fixtures begin in September. Ferguson will be central to all future plans, on the pitch and in the FAI’s marketing. Somebody needs to change the story of Irish football. Otherwise being committed to Ireland will be seen as something to lament, rather than to celebrate.