He came on for a relegated club that lost 4-0 at home, so Norwich City’s Tony Springett’s Premier League debut last weekend caught little attention in the footballing world.
But when the winger (19) came on as a second-half substitute – his side were already 3-0 at West Ham – it was meaningful and face-saving from an Irish perspective. His substitution made the teenager the 15th Republic player allowed to play in the Premier League that season, a welcome boost: to have just 14 players in that league in one season would have been an all-time low in three decades of the Premier League -Soccer.
The number is significant as 14 is also the total number of Irish players on loan from Premier League clubs this season.
Ireland U-21 manager Jim Crawford is hoping to work alongside Springett, who has previously been crowned twice in friendlies at U-18 level, in the next qualifying campaign.
A sub-appearance will not be enough for the Norwich man to get into the current squad, which has three key Euro qualifiers on the horizon next month with what remains a potential winner-takes-all game for Crawford on June 14 .June in Italy names group games at home against Bosnia (June 3) and Montenegro (June 6) to follow, and the Ireland boss is hoping the home crowd will respond by filling the Tallaght Stadium.
Apparently welcoming the arrival of yet another Irishman onto the Premier League stage, Crawford confirms that the English-born Springett is “very much in the Irish herd”.
But that success for Springett is tempered by the fact that such advances are so rare.
“It’s a lot harder now than it was when I was at Newcastle. It was difficult for people like me then, but now it’s more difficult than ever,” says Crawford, reflecting on the Irish’s influence in the top flight.
“The gap is huge now. Even the path from League One to the Championship is now a huge gap. You can move from League Two to League One, but the rise to the championship is huge. I see myself going to games in the UK all the time so the step up to the Premier League is even bigger.”
A Premier League debut this season for Evan Ferguson aged 17 was a vote of confidence from Brighton in him and a loan to their feeder club in Belgium is likely the next step in his career.
Troy Parrott (Spurs/MK Dons), Gavin Bazunu (Manchester City/Portsmouth) and Conor Coventry (West Ham/MK Dons) can be proud of their loan performances this season but are pushing term into their parent clubs’ plans for next season is a challenge.
The prospect of other Irish loanees such as Tyreik Wright (Aston Villa), Oisín McEntee (Newcastle) and Mipo Odubeko (West Ham) becoming Premier League players next season looks shakier.
Luca Connell has been on a four-year deal with Celtic for the past three years and has never been so far from their first-team after making an unfortunate move from Bolton.
Asked by Mick McCarthy to train with Ireland’s senior team in 2019, he now can’t make it to Ireland’s U-21 side, let alone the senior team.
With the gap at Premier League level now so wide, Crawford needs these players to make the right decisions. One of those prospects who has a choice to make is current U-21 international Ollie O’Neill. To still play for the championship winners Fulham, but highly rated there, he is no longer under contract. They want to re-sign him but Premier League clubs like Spurs are snooping.
“Fulham is keen to keep Ollie and rightly so as he is an immense talent. He’s between clubs at the moment, I know some clubs are interested in him, my advice to him was to think long and hard about it; If he leaves, he has to go to the right club and the right culture for him as a player,” Crawford said.
“I know from experience when I went to Newcastle United (1995) it was a huge club, I should have gotten out of there earlier than I did. I needed someone to tell me that I was looking at David Batty, Rob Lee, Lee Clark. I wouldn’t get into the first team before them.
“They all want to play football in the first team but guys like Ollie, we have to influence them as much as we can, these are potential high-level international players for Ireland. We don’t want to lose if they sign with the wrong club and say goodbye to football in the wrong environment.”
A lesson Irish football desperately needs to learn from its young stars.
* Tickets for Ireland U-21 vs Bosnia (Friday 3 June) and Montenegro (Monday 6 June) are available on Ticketmaster.ie
https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/its-harder-than-ever-for-young-irish-players-to-make-the-grade-in-england-41637421.html It’s harder than ever for young Irish players to break through in England
