FOOTBALL CAN be a very fickle business.
At the start of the season, on the back of big-money moves to Wolves and Southampton respectively, Nathan Collins and Gavin Bazunu were being roundly hailed as the future of Irish football.
Now, the hype machine has moved on and honed in on Evan Ferguson.
Before Collins and Bazunu, it was the likes of Aaron Connolly, Adam Idah and Troy Parrott that were attracting countless accolades.
Next season, there will probably be another hot prospect getting Irish fans and media overly excited.
Yet the events of recent months will have served as a reminder that regardless of a young player’s talent, their destination to the top is seldom straightforward.
Because it has been so long since the days when Ireland have had someone who could genuinely be considered a star of the Premier League (as distinguishable from solid-but-unspectacular performers like Glenn Whelan and Jon Walters) — arguably not since the era of Damien Duff and Robbie Keane, both of whom were in their footballing prime more than a decade ago — has anyone genuinely fit this description.
Consequently, it feels as if there is almost an over-eagerness to crown the heir to their throne.
Yet context needs to be placed on the recent struggles of Bazunu, Collins and others.
Gone are the days when countless Irish players can expect to play regularly in England’s top flight.
Last season, Irish players’ involvement in the Premier League fell to a record low, with 14 players accumulating just under 10,000 minutes of action.
It is part of a downward general trend of late.
You might assume the peak was at the competition’s inception, but as I highlighted in 2017, the glory years in terms of the number of Irish players to start at least one Premier League fixture came in both the 2009-10 and 2011-12 season, with 33 players featuring on both occasions.
A few weeks back, my colleague Gavin Cooney outlined another telling stat via @irish_abroad, it was the first time ever a full match week of games had not featured at least one starting Irish player.
There have been a few young and fairly under-the-radar Irish players who have managed to pick up a couple of unexpected minutes this season — Everton’s Tom Cannon, Wolves’ Joe Hodge and Brighton’s Andrew Moran are players that wouldn’t have necessarily been expected to figure at all.
Yet the trio have been largely marginal figures, as have players who might have been expecting to figure more prominently, such as Fulham’s Shane Duffy, Bournemouth’s Mark Travers and Tottenham’s Matt Doherty (before his mid-season move to Atletico Madrid where his first-team opportunities have been even more limited).
The reason for this alarming downward trend, however, can hardly be purely put down to a lack of quality.
Is the Irish international team significantly worse now compared to the peak Premier League-participation years of 2009-2012? Hardly.
The reason is more to do with footballing economics and how the balance of power has increasingly shifted in England’s favour — it is now where the majority of the world’s best managers (Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp) and players (Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne) tend to congregate, and of course, where most of the mega-wages are paid (last January, a Deloitte study found that 11 of the 20 richest clubs in the world were Premier League-based).
Even a manager like Julen Lopetegui is willing to leave Sevilla, one of Spain’s top teams in recent years and regular Europa League winners, in favour of an (at the time) relegation-threatened Wolves outfit.
Only one Irish player really — Everton’s Seamus Coleman — could be described as a regular starter throughout the campaign when fit and available.
With four Premier League goals to his name, Evan Ferguson is the other obvious success story but the 18-year-old has still encountered a couple of injury setbacks and his minutes have been managed carefully, with seven top-flight starts under his belt as it stands this season.
Collins, whose £20.5 million (€23.5 million) move from Burnley to Wolves at the start of the season was an all-time record for an Irish player, has not started a Premier League match since his team’s 3-0 defeat to Man City in January. Bazunu, meanwhile, has not played since last month’s 3-3 draw with Arsenal.
But it is much more difficult now to be a Premier League regular than it was 10 or even 20 years ago.
Once upon a time, playing international football was seen as the pinnacle for footballers.
Yet last Christmas, the World Cup was full of players who are either playing second-tier football in England or lining out in relatively obscure leagues with a comparatively low standard of football). For example, the number of representatives in Qatar from the Championship (26), the Saudi Pro League (33) and MLS (36) was not too far off Ligue 1 (54), Serie A (68) and the Bundesliga (75), while the Premier League was the predictable runaway leader (136).
Even the top teams had players who were out of favour with their clubs. Brazil’s Richarlison, for instance, has only featured sporadically for Tottenham this season, just like England’s Harry Maguire at Man United, while another Spurs player, Cristian Romero was key to Argentina’s triumph and one of the best defenders at the tournament and yet he has looked decidedly average and error-prone in North London this season.
With the exception of the latter stages of the Champions League, it is hard now to think of a higher level of football than the Premier League.
It will be an interesting summer for the likes of Bazunu and Collins, who at 21 and 22 respectively are both still young and undoubtedly continue to possess the potential to be consistent Premier League starters for years to come.
Yet a season out of the top flight could be beneficial for both. And this outcome is a virtual certainty for Bazunu unless he gets a move away from a Southampton team on the brink of relegation, while Collins — who signed a five-year contract with Wolves last July — may consider a loan transfer elsewhere should regular minutes continue to elude him, though it’s also worth noting he has made some important contributions in his seven appearances off the bench since being taken out of the starting lineup.
It is the best league in the world so while disappointing from an Irish perspective, it is virtually inevitable that young players like Bazunu and Collins will go through rough patches, but both starlets undoubtedly have enough talent and character to grow stronger from their respective recent disappointments and return to the form that enabled them to reach such heights in the first place.
Upcoming Premier League fixtures (3pm kick-off unless stated otherwise):
Saturday
Leeds v Newcastle (12.30)
Aston Villa v Tottenham
Chelsea v Nottingham Forest
Crystal Palace v Bournemouth
Man United v Wolves
Southampton v Fulham
Sunday
Brentford v West Ham (14.00)
Everton v Man City (14.00)
Arsenal v Brighton (16.30)
Monday
Leicester v Liverpool (20.00)
