"You don't know how many of them will ever play first-team football. The solution these days in England isn't to give the 18-year-old from Galway a run when things get bad, the solution is to throw in a new u5 million £5 million Italian."

So said Brian Kerr this time last year, when asked about the prospects of the current crop of young English-based Irish players of making the breakthrough into first team football in the Premiership. Twelve months on, as the season kicks off, those prospects have hardly improved, following yet another summer spending spree on foreign talent by English clubs, one that has brought over 40 European, South American and African players into the top division alone.

All of which is very glamorous and exciting for the armchair viewer, tuning in to live games every week, but spare a thought for the young Irish hopefuls, many of whom will find their paths to the first team blocked by newly-arrived internationals, some of whom cost their clubs nothing under the Bosman Ruling.

Of the 18 player-squad that won the Under-18 European Championships in Cyprus last month 11 start the season with Premiership clubs, and only three of those - Everton centre-half Richard Dunne and midfielders Alan Quinn of Sheffield Wednesday and Stephen McPhail of Leeds - have any first-team experience to date.

Dunne, the first product of Everton's link with Home Farm, returned from Cyprus to discover that the club had signed Italian centre-half Marco Materazzi from Perugia and are chasing another foreign defender, Croatian World Cup player Mario Stanic (not to mention Aston Villa's reluctant recruit, David Unsworth). Meanwhile Slaven Bilic, another member of Croatia's World Cup defence, has announced that he will, after all, be staying at the club following the departure of manager Howard Kendall. Meanwhile Alan Quinn, who scored Ireland's goal in the under18 final against Germany, found yet more competition for a place in the Sheffield Wednesday midfield waiting for him at Hillsborough in the form of Dutch World Cup player Wim Jonk, the 10th foreign player in the first-team squad. Quinn's namesake Barry, who captained the under-18s to victory in Cyprus, found two Belgians, a Swede and a Jamaican newly-installed at Highfield Road when he returned to duty with Coventry City. This must also be a worry for the club's four other Irish firstteam squad players, Gary Breen, Liam Daish, Willie Boland and Barry Prenderville.

In all 38 Irish players have been given first-team squad numbers for the new Premiership season, with seven of that group yet to make their debuts - Alan Lee (Aston Villa), David Worrell (Blackburn), Barry Prenderville and Barry Quinn (Coventry), Paul Donnelly and Damian Lynch (Leeds) and goalkeeper Brendan Murphy (Wimbledon). Charlton's 26-year-old midfielder Mark Kinsella, the club's player of the year and their only ever-present during the 1997-98 promotion season, finally gets his chance to play at the highest level and will hope to do enough to add to the two senior Irish caps he won earlier this year.

It's a big season too for Mark Kennedy, who should at least be guaranteed first-team football at Wimbledon, where he moved last March, after three frustrating years at Liverpool. Middlesbrough's left-winger Alan Moore will also hope to re-establish himself after missing much of the past two seasons through injury.

Damien Duff should make further progress at Blackburn, although a recent groin operation means he will miss the start of the season, and possibly Ireland's European Championship game against Croatia on September 5th. Gary Kelly of Leeds will also miss the beginning of the season after having an operation on a shin injury. Team-mate Alan Maybury has a similar injury and may also be sidelined for the season's first game. Maybury, who made 12 league appearances for Leeds last season, is just one of six Irish players in the first-team squad at Elland Road, the largest Irish contingent in the Premiership. McPhail, the club's young player of the year in 1997, is perhaps the most promising of a group which includes Damian Lynch and Paul Donnelly.

Ian Harte may find first-team football hard to come by following the signing of left-back Danny Granville from Chelsea.

While Gareth Farrelly won himself a place in the annals of Evertonian history by scoring the goal on the last day of the season which helped them escape relegation last season, he could struggle to win a place in the first team following the signings of Scottish international John Collins and French midfielder Olivier Dacourt. Terry Phelan's prospects will be similarly dampened.

Steve Staunton returns to Liverpool seven years after Graeme Souness sold him to Aston Villa and he will be expected to bring some much needed solidity to a back four that has included Phil Babb and Jason McAteer, playing alongside Jamie Carragher, in most of the club's major pre-season games (including the 1-0 victory over Celtic in Glasgow last week).

Roy Keane has made a robust return to action for Manchester United after his long injury layoff. In recent games he has, characteristically, gone not just for 5050 tackles, but 10-90 ones. His availability will not only be welcomed by Alex Ferguson and Mick McCarthy, but also by David Beckham. The England player will have someone to share the load of opposing fans' venom this season.

Denis Irwin, now the longest-serving player currently at Old Trafford, has played well recently, defying those who assumed young Phil Neville would consign him to the subs' bench for the season.

Jeff Kenna (Blackburn), Andy Townsend (Middlesbrough), Shay Given (Newcastle), Kenny Cunningham (Wimbledon) and Lee Carsley (Derby) should all see plenty of first-team action this season, but Stephen Carr (Tottenham), Curtis Fleming and Steve Baker (Middlesbrough), Lee Boylan (West Ham) and Rory Delap (Derby) will wait to see what effect new signings at their clubs will have on their prospects in the new campaign.