Paul Fennessy

NATHAN COLLINS turned 22 in April and already, he has twice eclipsed Robbie Keane’s past status as Ireland’s most expensive footballer ever.

The Tallaght native had been the record holder for an Irishman since 2008 when he moved from Tottenham to Liverpool for €23 million.

Last season, however, Collins became the all-time record transfer fee for an Irish player after he joined Wolves from Burnley for €24 million.

And now, the Leixlip native has set another landmark fee, leaving Julen Lopetegui’s side to link up with Premier League rivals Brentford for a club-record £23 million (€27 million).

When you consider he signed for Burnley from Stoke for €14 million in June 2021, that means clubs in the last two years have paid a total of €65 million for his services.

Collins therefore still has some way to go to match Keane in this regard, with the latter’s cumulative transfer fees over the course of his career estimated at around £75 million (€88 million).

And the big money is not where the parallels end with the Ireland legend.

Like Collins, the Dubliner made his name with a series of impressive performances in England’s second tier at a remarkably young age.

Both players earned big-money moves to the best league in the world during their respective eras — Keane to Serie A and Collins to the Premier League.

And for all their talent and early successes — Collins became Stoke’s youngest-ever captain at 18 — both endured setbacks along the way. Keane’s game time was limited at Inter Milan even more so than Collins at Wolves — the young striker made just six Serie A appearances whereas the defender still managed to play 32 games in all competitions at club level last season, despite finding himself out of the starting XI for more or less the entirety of the second half of the campaign.

Collins was remaining upbeat when asked on international duty about his unexpected Wolves exile.

“I’m fit and raring to go,” he told reporters. “I look after myself. If I’m not playing, I still do the right things… I’m in the gym. When you’re not in the team, you get to work on different things you can’t work on when you’re in the team. I took the positives out of it, I made the best out of it and I worked on what I needed to work on.

“I’ve been here before, to be fair. There have been spells that I haven’t played. I’ve a good background behind me looking after me and keeping me well. Me, my family, and everyone behind me, we’re strong, we’re willing to go work hard again and get back into the team. That’s what I’m about, that’s who I am, and that’s my personality. There are ups and downs. As I say, don’t get too high, and don’t get too low. It is what it is.”

For a while, Irish fans worried that Keane would be unable to fulfil his undoubted potential.

People often reminisce fondly about Ireland’s famous 1-0 victory over Holland in September 2001. What’s often forgotten is going into that game, a number of Irish players including Keane and goalscoring hero Jason McAteer were not regular starters for their clubs.

In the 2001-02 season for instance, Keane played just 16 Premier League matches from the outset and nine off the bench, with the likes of Robbie Fowler and Mark Viduka often preferred to the Irishman.

Between 1999 and 2001, Keane played for Wolves, Coventry, Inter and Leeds.

The lack of game time was ostensibly having an impact — he managed just three Premier League goals in the entirety of that underwhelming 2001-02 season.

At times, he was accused of being ‘a scorer of great goals rather than a great goalscorer,’ which is ironic when you consider that he is now 17th on the all-time Premier League goalscorers list — both Mo Salah and Jamie Vardy only recently surpassed him — as well as being Ireland’s record goalscorer by some distance (he is on 68 with Niall Quinn next on 21).

What Keane badly needed was a home. A place where he was the unquestioned number-one striker. And he found it in Tottenham.

That first spell at Spurs was by far the most consistent of his career, scoring 80 in 197 Premier League appearances. By comparison, he had played 156 times in the league at his previous four clubs combined.

Collins is the same age Keane was at the end of that fateful 2001-02 season.

He arguably possesses a similarly high ceiling but the fulfilment of potential is easier said than done and his career is at somewhat of crossroads now just as Keane’s was then.

Can Brentford be his Tottenham — salvation and a home where he feels wanted again on the back of a frustrating season?

The fact that he signed a six-year deal certainly suggests he is at the club for the long haul.

Wolves, in hindsight, turned out to be a less-than-ideal move. It was a club very much in transition and they were always going to struggle and flirt with relegation, regardless of whether or not they signed Collins, thanks to a lack of firepower up top, in addition to the departure of experienced players like Conor Coady. The recent transfer of star man Al-Hilal-bound Ruben Neves, meanwhile, suggests they may be set for another taxing campaign.

Bruno Lage signed the Irish international but Lopetegui, his successor, clearly did not see him as a first-choice player or rate him as highly.

On the other hand, you get the sense he will be more valued by Thomas Frank, certainly based on the manager’s comments today.

“His character is really good, and we know that character is everything,” the Danish coach said. “He will fit into our culture, I have no doubt about that.

“I see leadership potential in Nathan. He’s a perfect Brentford player — hungry and ambitious with a desire to learn.”

Collins is a centre-back who is very comfortable with the ball at his feet — as he showed with his spectacular goal for Ireland against Ukraine in the Nations League last year — and he should suit Brentford, a team with an exciting and frenetic style, well in this regard.

The Bees regularly alternated between a three and a four at the back last season, often playing the latter system against the weaker Premier League sides.

Collins, of course, is adept in both formations, consistently playing as part of a three for Stephen Kenny’s Ireland.

The recently crowned FAI Senior Men’s Player of the Year will be competing for a first-team spot along with former Burnley clubmate Ben Mee, Ethan Pinnock and Mathias Jørgensen, and is perhaps seen as a replacement for experienced Swedish centre-back Pontus Jansson, who has left the club to join Malmo.

And the ingredients are certainly there for Collins to become a top-class player who regularly thrives in England’s top flight, just as Keane ultimately did. So far, he has had an encouraging start to the season with Wolves and a good end to his campaign at Burnley without enjoying a sustained run of games over the course of the season at that level.

“He wants to captain Ireland,” his father David, himself a former footballer, told The42 as part of a February 2021 profile. “He doesn’t only want to captain Ireland, he wants to qualify for World Cups. He doesn’t only want to get to World Cups, he wants to qualify out of the group.”

Collins’ career has developed significantly even since then and there is no reason why he cannot gradually keep the upward trajectory going.

Yet for now, a few seasons in the one place might be no harm to his development, as he bids to prove that he can star consistently at Premier League level.