THE NUMBER OF minutes clocked by Irish players in the Premier League this season rose sharply in the 2023/24 season, ending a trend of historic lows.
Last season saw Irish players total just 9,326 minutes of action, a record low in the Premier League era. The previous lowest came the season prior.
This year, however, 17 Irish players totalled 15,593 minutes between them, a 67% increase. It marks the best Irish involvement in England’s top flight since 2020/21 season.
However, this season’s improved total may not represent a trend: six of the 17 Irish players suffered relegation, including three of the four players who totalled the most minutes.
And if Southampton don’t win the play-off final at Leeds’ expense, none of the promoted three will bring many established Irish senior internationals with them.
This total placed Ireland 12th on the overall list of minutes played by nationality, immediately ahead of Italy and just behind Germany. England naturally led this table, with Brazil second, France third, and Netherlands fourth.
Dara O’Shea played the highest number of minutes, playing 2,894 minutes for Burnley.
Next on the list is Nathan Collins, who played 2,649 minutes in his debut season for Brentford.
Josh Cullen is third on the list, with 2,059 minutes for Burnley, while next is Chiedozie Ogbene, who amassed 1,993 minutes for Luton. It would have been much more had it not been for injury.
Evan Ferguson would have had more than 1,365 minutes for Brighton had it not been for injury, while injury to Alisson Becker meant Caoimhín Kelleher played 900 minutes for Liverpool, which is also 900 minutes more than he played last season.
Andrew Omobamidele had to wait until January to make his debut for Nottingham Forest, but then racked up 782 minutes, which was considerably more than the 572 minutes Seamus Coleman totalled for Everton in another injury-hit season. His international pal Matt Doherty wasn’t first choice at Wolves but nonetheless accumulated 1,142 minutes.
John Egan had the opposite experience: he had just 484 minutes for Sheffield United having suffered a serious achilles injury in September which ruled him out for the whole season.
Mark Travers got 360 minutes for Bournemouth after they yanked him back from an encouraging loan spell at Stoke, while Irish underage striker Nathan Fraser played 184 minutes for Wolves. Mark O’Mahony and Sam Curtis went from the LOI to the Premier League this season, and they played 61 and 27 minutes for Brighton and Sheffield United respectively.
Michael Obafemi got all of 19 minutes for Burnley as he spent the first half coming back from injury and the second on loan at Millwall. Alex Murphy made his debut for Newcastle this season too, while the Irish total does include the single minute Tom Cannon played for Everton before dropping down a league to join Leicester.(Cannon is yet to pledge his international allegiance to Ireland, but for now he makes this list.)
Meanwhile, Ferguson was again the top Irish scorer in the league, matching last season’s personal tally of six goals. These are the highest Irish individual totals since David McGoldrick struck eight for Sheffield United in 2020/21. Chiedozie Ogbene was next on the Irish scorers list with four, and he took slightly more shots than Ferguson: 35 to 33.
Dara O’Shea topped the Irish assists chart, with four.
Kelleher enjoyed the highest-placed finish among the Irish contingent, helping Liverpool to third place. Alex Murphy at Newcastle is the only other Irish player whose club enjoyed a top-half finish, with nine of the 17 finishing in the bottom five.
The Irish in the Premier League – 2023/24
- Dara O’Shea (Burnley) – 2894 minutes
- Nathan Collins (Brentford) – 2649 minutes
- Josh Cullen (Burnley) – 2059 minutes
- Chiedozie Ogbene (Luton) – 1993 minutes
- Evan Ferguson (Brighton) – 1365 minutes
- Matt Doherty (Wolves) – 1142 minutes
- Caoimhín Kelleher (Liverpool) – 900 minutes
- Andrew Omobamidele (Nottingham Forest) – 782 minutes
- Seamus Coleman (Everton) – 662 minutes
- John Egan (Sheffield United) – 484 minutes
- Mark Travers (Bornemouth) – 360 minutes
- Nathan Fraser (Wolves) – 184 minutes
- Mark O’Mahony (Brighton) – 61 minutes
- Sam Curtis (Sheffield United) – 27 minutes
- Michael Obafemi (Burnley) – 19 minutes
- Alex Murphy (Newcastle) – 11 minutes
- Tom Cannon (Everton) – 1 minutes
Stats from Premier League website and FBRef. Note: minutes totals do not include added time to allow for fairer comparison with earlier seasons
