AS THE transfer window draws to a close, Irish trio Troy Parrott, Caoimhin Kelleher and Jeff Hendrick each find themselves in a different boat.
Parrott earlier this month completed a loan move to Eredivisie side Excelsior, following in the footsteps of another Irish striker David Connolly, who memorably scored 42 goals in 48 appearances during two seasons there.
Hendrick, meanwhile, is reportedly on the verge of a loan move to Sheffield Wednesday, the side currently bottom of the Championship after a difficult start to the campaign, losing all four of their opening matches.
And Kelleher looks set for another season as Liverpool’s number two, notwithstanding talk earlier in the summer that he could move elsewhere, having spent the last five campaigns as a back-up goalkeeper at Anfield.
Despite being the only one of the three who had effectively guaranteed himself first-team football for the forthcoming season at the time of writing, Parrott has been the one to suffer the most in terms of his international prospects.
The Dublin-born striker was left out of Stephen Kenny’s squad to face France and Netherlands, while both Kelleher and Hendrick made the cut.
Asked about Parrott’s exclusion at the squad announcement, Kenny indicated the player’s current fitness levels were an issue: “I think Troy Parrott has a groin operation so he’s only been training less than a week and in that week he’s been to Holland, got a move to Excelsior in Holland which could be a move for him. He’s excited by it. I know he came on for a few minutes the other day but he’s only been back training literally a few days. So it’s too early for Troy.”
Yet there are more similarities than differences with Messrs Parrott, Hendrick and Kelleher, as each is stuck in a kind of Premier League limbo.
Kelleher has twice as many Ireland caps (10) as he has Premier League appearances (5).
Asked about the goalkeeper in June, Kenny told reporters: “It looks like he’ll be on the move this summer, and it can only benefit him because he needs to play games. Obviously, he’s not started games this year and it’s been a problem for him. He’s very, very talented.
“It’s hard to leave Liverpool, it’s such an iconic club, but he’s not so young now. He’s 24 and he needs to play and he knows that.”
Yet three months on, Kelleher still finds himself confronted by the same dilemma he has faced for years now.
With Gavin Bazunu having regained his place in the Southampton team and Mark Travers currently playing regularly with Stoke in the Championship as well as Max O’Leary also lining out consistently in the second tier with Bristol City, Kelleher risks slipping further down the pecking order if he cannot solve this problem soon.
The same can be said for Hendrick. The 31-year-old has benefitted to a degree from a lack of depth in Ireland’s midfield department, although Jamie McGrath might wonder why he was not afforded similar leniency, having faced a spell in the international wilderness after struggling for football at Wigan following an ill-advised transfer to the club in 2022.
McGrath is back playing having signed for Aberdeen, thereby earning a place in Kenny’s latest squad, but Hendrick’s lack of football is not ideal by any means.
Even if he completes a move to the Owls as expected, it seems unlikely that he will get 90 minutes under his belt between now and the forthcoming international window.
As a consequence, if he does feature against France or Netherlands, it will be his first appearance since an 85th-minute cameo during Ireland’s 3-0 victory over Gibraltar in June.
His last start came in Reading’s 2-0 loss to Huddersfield on 8 May.
Hendrick is still technically a Newcastle player but has long been surplus to requirements at the Magpies, with his last appearance coming in December 2021 amid a 4-0 loss to Man City, the only time he featured during Eddie Howe’s reign.
Meanwhile, Parrott seems similarly far away from Spurs’ first team, his only two Premier League appearances were late arrivals off the bench in 2019 and 2020 respectively during the ill-fated Jose Mourinho era.
His last loan spell was underwhelming, scoring three goals in 32 Championship appearances for Preston in the 2022-23 season.
The stint in Holland will be his first experience of club football beyond England, and Irish fans will hope the slower, more methodical continental style of football can bring the best out of the 21-year-old.
The trio are far from the only ones whose development is at risk of stalling by sticking around too long at Premier League clubs where first-team minutes are scarce.
The likes of West Ham’s Conor Coventry (23), Bournemouth’s Gavin Kilkenny (23) and Wolves’ Joe Hodge (20) possess plenty of potential but are no doubt frustrated by the limited game time they have received at their parent clubs.
In the case of all of the above, the temptation is often to put off a permanent move and instead go on loan with the possible chance of winning a place at the top level eventually.
And while loan moves are certainly preferable to inactivity, there is an obvious lack of stability with the player knowing he won’t be at the team in question for the long haul and potentially spending several successive working with different managers in different systems and different leagues.
There are clear drawbacks to departing a top-flight club for good — it will often involve a considerable drop in wages and so players sometimes prefer to stay put and allow their lengthy contracts to slowly expire, despite knowing that first-team opportunities are likely to be limited.
Yet while a permanent move to a lower tier may seem unappealing, it can have long-term benefits.
The man likely to captain Ireland against the Netherlands and France, John Egan, is a prime example.
At 21, he left Sunderland, then a Premier League team, to join Gillingham on a permanent deal.
In his first season, he played 45 games in League One and has barely looked back since.
A little over 10 years on and he is a regular starter at Premier League level with Sheffield United.
Others such as Josh Cullen and Gavin Bazunu have benefitted from taking step-backs, leaving West Ham and Man City respectively relatively early in their career.
And it is consequently no coincidence that these are the types of players that have since gone on to become the bedrock of Kenny’s team, with other players of similar ability prone to becoming increasingly marginalised due to bad decision-making at club level.
Upcoming Premier League fixtures (games kick off at 3pm unless stated otherwise):
Friday
Luton v West Ham (20.00)
Saturday
Sheffield United v Everton (12.30)
Brentford v Bournemouth
Burnley v Tottenham
Chelsea v Nottingham Forest
Man City v Fulham
Brighton v Newcastle (17.30)
Sunday
Crystal Palace v Wolves (14.00)
Liverpool v Aston Villa (14.00)
Arsenal v Man United (16.30)
