Advertisement League of Ireland Horse Racing TV Listings GAA Fixtures The Video Review Sport meets news, current affairs, society & pop culture Rugby Weekly Extra Dive into all the news and analysis 3 times a week The Football Family Weekly insights from the week’s big talking points Advertisement More Stories Nathan Collins.Alamy Stock Photo annual survey Irish involvement in Premier League rises again - but it may be unsustainable Nathan Collins was the success story, but Evan Ferguson’s season disappointed, with seven of 15 Irish players suffering relegation. 6.01am, 26 May 2025 Share options Gavin Cooney IRIH INVOLVEMENT IN this season’s Premier League again showed an increase on last season, with 15 players combining for a total of 17,212 minutes. This is 1,169 minutes more than the 15,593 minutes played by Irish players last season, which was a significant increase on the 9,326 minutes totalled in the 2022/23 season. Ireland is the 10th highest-ranked nationality by playing time in this season’s Premier League, sandwiched between Belgium in ninth and Germany in 11th. This season’s Irish total is still some way short of the 22,244 minutes racked up by Irish players in the 2020/21 season, a total backboned by a Sheffield United side stocked with Irish internationals including John Egan, Enda Stevens, and David McGoldrick. Nathan Collins tops the Irish involvement list and indeed for the whole list: he is remarkably the only outfield player to have played every single minute of Premier League action this season. Collins is the first Irish player to play every one of a season’s 3420 minutes since Stephen Ward did so for Wolves in the 2011/12 season. Advertisement Dara O’Shea once again suffered relegation from the Premier League, but played a total of 3,122 minutes for Ipswich Town, and was voted the club’s player of the season. The Irish total would have been higher had O’Shea’s team-mates Sammie Szmodics (991 mins) and Chiedozie Ogbene (238 mins) not suffered long-term injuries. Szmodics was the highest-scoring Irish international in the league this year, with four goals. Another Ipswich player, Jack Taylor, scored once across his 859 minutes of action. Matt Doherty played his way back into favour at Wolves under new manager Vitor Pereira, and ended up with the third-highest number of minutes played by Irish players, totalling 2,110 minutes. Jake O’Brien also benefitted from a change of manager. Having hardly played under Sean Dyche, he was a regular right-back under David Moyes, racking up 1,571 minutes. O’Brien, like Doherty, scored twice across the season. O’Brien’s appearances often came at the expense of Seamus Coleman, however, with the Irish captain enduring an injury-dogged season that yielded just 215 minutes of action, his lowest number since his very first season at Everton in 2009/10. Frequent injury to Alisson Becker meant Caoimhín Kelleher played 900 minutes for champions Liverpool, the same total as he played last season. The most disappointing Irish story of the season was Evan Ferguson, who played a total of 402 minutes for Brighton and latterly West Ham, less than a third of the 1365 minutes he totalled last season. His loan move to West Ham has not worked out, playing only 165 minutes for the London club without scoring. He scored one goal for Brighton earlier in the season, having scored six goals the season previous. Elsewhere, Ryan Manning played 1462 minutes for Southampton, alongside international team mate Will Smallbone 689 minutes. Smallbone’s minutes would have been higher had it not been for injury. Kasey McAteer, meanwhile, played 853 minutes for relegated Leicester City. So while the Irish total minutes is similar to last season’s, it’s not automatically sustainable, given seven of the 15 Irish players to play this season were relegated. To complete that list: Mark Travers played 450 minutes for Bournemouth before leaving on loan for Middlesbrough, while Brighton’s January signing Eiran Cashin made two appearances totalling 20 minutes. Andrew Omobamidele joined Strasbourg on loan in January from Nottingham Forest, for whom he made an occasional matchday squad without making a Premier League appearance. Several young Irish players made Premier League matchday squads this season without getting onto the pitch, namely Jack Henry-Francis (five times for Arsenal); Mark O’Mahony, Jacob Slater, and Killian Cahill (once, five times and once for Brighton respectively, with O’Mahony joining Portsmouth on loan); Tom Cannon (once for Leicester before joining Stoke on loan); Frano Umeh (eight times for Crystal Palace); Jack Moorhouse (twice for Manchester United); and Alex Murphy (four times for Newcastle before joining Bolton on loan.) The Irish in the 2024/25 Premier League Nathan Collins, Brentford – 3,420 minutes Dara O’Shea, Ipswich - 3,122 minutes Matt Doherty, Wolves - 2,110 minutes Jake O’Brien, Everton – 1,571 minutes Ryan Manning, Southampton - 1,462 minutes Sammie Szmodics, Ipswich – 991 minutes Caoimhín Kelleher, Liverpool - 900 minutes Jack Taylor, Ipswich – 859 minutes Kasey McAteer, Leicester – 853 minutes Will Smallbone, Southampton – 689 minutes Mark Travers, Bournemouth – 450 minutes Evan Ferguson, Brighton and West Ham - 402 minutes Chiedozie Ogbene, Ipswich – 238 minutes Seamus Coleman, Everton – 215 minutes Eiran Cashin, Brighton – 20 minutes Minutes totals do not include stoppage time to allow for fairer comparisons with previous seasons Gavin Cooney Viewcomments Send Tip or Correction Embed this post To embed this post, copy the code below on your site Email “Irish involvement in Premier League rises again - but it may be unsustainable”. 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