Ups and downs ahead for young hopefuls

The start of the English campaign will mean another cycle of optimism and disappointment for many of the young Irish players hoping to make the breakthrough with leading Premiership clubs. It was never easy to make the transformation from schoolboy with a local club in Ireland, to apprentice in a big city set-up to first-team star but, make no mistake about it, it has never been more difficult either.

It sometimes seems that boatloads of youngsters make the journey to England's boarding houses full of hope that they will be the next Liam Brady, Roy Keane or Steve Staunton but most will end up having to make the drop to the lower divisions or return home to the National League as part of their journey to the big time.

The success of Brian Kerr's teams in Malaysia and Iceland highlighted the reservoir of Irish talent which exists at English clubs like Blackburn, Middlesbrough and Leeds but despite the impact made by many of his players at the summer's two major underage championships, the Irish manager admits to being as lost as the rest of us when it comes to picking who will be the next to make it big at club level.

"It's pretty much impossible to say because you never know when a club is simply going to head off to Italy with £5 million rather than give a young player a chance," says Kerr of the situation.

"I could say that Damien Duff should make the breakthrough this year because in Malaysia, along with a lot of the other lads he looked like a class international act but when the opportunity arises it often seems easier for the manager to go out and spend a lot of money than take a chance on bringing someone in from the reserves."

The problem, Kerr feels, is the willingness of English clubs to trawl through large numbers of youngsters hoping to find one outstanding player. "They're willing," he says, "to take a lot of fish in order to catch a salmon, but really all they are trying to do is make sure they don't miss the next Roy Keane."

And so, while clubs like Manchester United have run remarkably successful youth schemes, and Leeds, Chelsea and Liverpool, who have given some home grown talent first-team opportunities, players elsewhere have often had to rely on luck for their break or gradually come to the conclusion that their only hope lay in moving on.

Recent returnees have included Chris Malone, a fine full back who is now with his home town club Dundalk after a lengthy spell with Blackburn, midfielder Thomas Morgan who has joined St Patrick's Athletic from the same Premiership outfit and Dessie Baker, who had almost four years at Old Trafford before joining Shelbourne towards the end of last season.

"I got other offers," says Baker, who never made a single first team appearance "but all I could think of was that this was Manchester United. I was thrilled to be going there and when I was there I felt I was as good as the rest of them but I gradually began to realise that I was going to have to leave to get a chance.

"It finally really hit me when United won the championship in '96 and I knew that they were going to buy in players for the Champions League. At that stage I went to Alex and he said that that was the case all right and that I'd probably be off better leaving."

Since returning to Dublin Baker has made his mark at Tolka Park and, after starring with the under20s in Malaysia he is optimistic about his chances of doing enough as a first-team regular here to earn another shot at the game across the water.

Those still there after long hauls, however, include Nicky Colgan - a 23 year-old goalkeeper from Drogheda who made just one first-team appearance last year and now finds himself behind four other players (three of them full internationals) in the queue at Stamford Bridge, Jim Crawford at Newcastle, who despite captaining the reserves and doing well in preseason seems likely to be, for the most part at least, frustrated again. Then there is Mark Kennedy, who appeared to have done the tough bit by making his name at Millwall but who now faces considerably more competition for places in Roy Evans's side.

"If anything it's getting worse," says Kerr, "because there is no opportunity for players to get experience."

Still, there is a silver lining with Shay Given looking certain to figure extensively in Kenny Dalglish's plans at St James' Park and Stephen Carr's chances to develop at first-team level aided by Tottenham's current reluctance to seem extravagant. It looks good too for Richard Dunne, who performed solidly for Everton when given the opportunity last term and Gareth Farrelly, who is expected to do well there.