Brentford's willingness to invest a sizeable fee to sign Republic of Ireland defender Nathan Collins is a promising sign, according to former Dundalk striker David McMillan.
The centre-back joined Wolves for what was then an Irish record fee of just over £20m (€23.9m) last summer but he found game-time harder to come by in the second half of last season.
However, that has not deterred Brentford who spent even more as they confirmed the Kildare native's arrival in west London for a club and new Irish record £23m (€26.9m) on Tuesday.
Speaking on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast alongside former St Patrick's Athletic midfielder Conan Byrne, McMillan opined that the transfer showed how Collins' potential remains valued within the English top flight.
"Wolves had a slow start to the season and as a big £20m signing the pressure was on a little bit," McMillan said.
"There was a change of manager, performances improved and he dropped out of the side. But it is promising that Brentford are willing to spend big on him.
"You would hope that they're only going to do that because they see themselves playing him every week and like (Chiedozie) Ogbene, that's the main thing for any of these lads, is that they get in and are consistently playing."
Potentially four of Ireland's centre-backs could now be playing Premier League football when next season begins in August.
John Egan was promoted with Sheffield United while Burnley completed their signing of Dara O'Shea from West Brom last week. Andrew Omobamidele has also been linked with a switch from Norwich to Crystal Palace.
On O'Shea's transfer to Turf Moor, Byrne expressed excitement about the potential for the versatile Dubliner to thrive under Vincent Kompany's tutelage.
"With Dara, I think it's a brilliant move for him. At 24 years of age, coming into his prime," Byrne said.
"He's versatile, he's done really, really well at international level as well - a bit like Ogbene - and I'm sure Vincent Kompany had a look back at some clips of him at international level and saw how well he did.
"So it's a situation now where you're going to have the international centre-backs playing Premier League."
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