Ahead of the Premier League season, it looks like there could be quite a few Irish regulars in England's top flight. Essentially all of the main contributors in the competition from last season have retained their place, while the addition of West Brom adds a couple more players to the mix.
What does it make for our Fantasy Premier League prospects? Well, we're about to find out.
We have put together a squad consisting only of Irish players, one that will strike fear into the heart of any opponent.
If you fancy taking us on, you can join the Balls FPL league by entering this code: 6od1ns.
After doing this last season as well, we are pleased to say that we think this year's team is much improved.
That defence is excellent, with Matt Doherty and Enda Stevens amongst the best attacking fullbacks in FPL last year. Seamus Coleman, John Egan, and Dara O'Shea are all excellent defenders who should get big minutes for their respective clubs.
In midfield, we have five players who should feature on a regular basis for their clubs. Conor Hourihane was one of Aston Villa's most important contributors towards the end of last season, while Jeff Hendrick, James McCarthy, and Will Smallbone should see a fair bit of playing time.
Robbie Brady is the wildcard here and we are hoping he can bounce back with a strong campaign for Burnley.
Up front the trio of David McGoldrick, Aaron Connolly, and Callum Robinson will be hoping to find the back of the net with more frequency than they managed last season. We're backing them to do it.
McGoldrick and Connolly were obvious choices, while we went with Robinson ahead of Michael Obafemi and Shane Long as we felt he would get more playing time.
We ran into a bit of an issue at goalkeeper. Darren Randolph, who is unlikely to play much this season, is the only Irish goalkeeper in Fantasy Premier League this season. Caoimhin Kelleher has been inexplicably left out of the Liverpool options.
To fill that second position we plumped for Bailey Peacock-Farrell, because he plays for Northern Ireland. He almost definitely won't play a game this season.
After putting together this stellar squad, we still had £24m of our £100m budget left over.
Here's how we're lining up for the first set of fixtures.
Not a bad set of fixtures for our lads to kick things off.
We will keep you updated with our progress throughout the season. We can't imagine things will go great.
See Also: FPL Challenge: Build The Worst Squad Possible Using Entire £100M Budget
