Nathan Collins: Family Business

12 October 2021: A date etched into Collins family history.

With Republic of Ireland 4-0 up against Qatar at Aviva Stadium, manager Stephen Kenny calls upon substitute Nathan Collins for the closing stages.

It’s a defining moment not just for Collins, but for his family as well.

Collins’ father David, who was in Dublin that night to witness his son’s international debut, was on the books at Liverpool and played alongside Roy Keane for Ireland Under-21s.

His uncle Eamonn Collins was an Ireland youth captain, while his cousin Mikey also represented his country up to U21 level.

“We had every cap up to the U21s, but we were always missing the one senior cap for our family name,” Collins recalls with a smile.

“It was an emotional moment for me and my family. I was coming on at 4-0 up but it was unbelievable. My dad, my mam and my brother were very emotional; it was a massive deal for us.”

It’s a feeling Collins has become accustomed to. He was a constant for Republic of Ireland during the 2022/23 campaign, starting 13 successive games and netting twice.

In June 2023 he was named FAI’s men’s Player of the Year, rounding off a remarkable 12 months on the international stage.

“To win the award was massive for me,” says Collins.

“There’s nothing better than playing for Ireland, I love it so much. I’d do anything and fight through any injury to play for my country.

“It’s been a tough year, we’ve had some tough results, but I’ve still loved every minute of it. I want to get better and play for Ireland as long as I can.”

The Cherry Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree

Collins joined youth club Cherry Orchard in 2006, where his father David and uncle Eamonn both started their careers, and stood out from the very beginning – in every sense.

“I’m just under six feet and he wasn’t far off me at 13,” Eoin Clarkin, one of Collins’ former youth coaches, told Sunday World.

“But the biggest thing for me was his mentality and his tactical reading of the game. Tactically, he just seemed like he was four of five years ahead. Not even an age group or two up. He was almost at men’s level in terms of reading the game.

“From a very young age, he was always a captain but, honestly, he was almost like a manager on the pitch.”

Collins was developing at a rapid rate, and his father David – who was also his manager at Cherry Orchard – was concerned that a physical advantage over his peers could lead to stagnation.

“My dad always worried about that,” Collins continues. “He noticed it from early. In my own age group, from a young age, I was always stronger because I was naturally bigger. He was worried about me when I went to the next level and everyone was equal.

“I played for Cherry Orchard and so did my brother Josh. He was four years older and my dad managed both teams. I trained on Tuesday and Thursday, and my brother would train on Monday and Wednesday.

“Instead of me just sitting around the house, my dad would make me train with my brother’s team as well as my own to get used to the physicality of the older boys. I had to move the ball quicker – one touch, two touch.

“I trained four times a week and it was good for me. It made me realise a different side of the game, where I couldn’t bully or get the better of players strength-wise.

“I had to find other ways to play and change my game up. I had to be smarter because I couldn’t outrun them or outmuscle them. I had to learn the hard way.”

Collins also attributes his leadership qualities to his football-obsessed family.

“We’ve all been born into it; it’s all we’ve ever known,” he says. “It’s my life and always will be. I understood the game a lot and my dad helped me out a lot, so I could notice things quicker.

“Losing against my brother taught me to keep going and to bring the other lads with me.”

He continues: “My earliest memories of playing football are with my brother. He’s four years older than me, so I always played against him and was always in competition with him.

“My parents had to keep us in check. There were a few times it got out of hand, probably from me being the loser!

“He was four years older than me, so as a kid I always lost and just couldn’t handle it. I needed to go again and get something over him. Most of the time it ended up in tears!”

Time to Go

Collins continued to shine at Cherry Orchard, even against players four years his senior.

Scouts from professional clubs began to take a keen interest in his performances.

And while Collins’ parents initially felt that attending University College Dublin (UCD) and playing football alongside studying for a degree was the best thing for him to do – following in his brother Josh’s footsteps – it became clear to his father David that Collins’ future lay outside of Ireland.

“My dad realised I needed to go,” says Collins. “It’s hard to make it as a footballer. As a kid of 15, your parents are thinking it’s impossible because the percentages are slim to nothing.

“I wanted to go and play football, but my mam didn’t want me to leave home so early. It’s hard to let your 15-year-old kid leave to go to another country.

“They made a deal with me: I could play football but I had to study as well. I had to do my work to keep my mam happy! If something had happened – I could have got injured, or I might not have made it – I needed something to fall back on.”

Collins joined Stoke City in January 2016 after being scouted by Tony Bowen, assistant manager Mark Bowen’s brother.

Before joining, his parents had held talks with Diarmuid McNally – director of football at UCD – to confirm he would return home at 18 and go into the Belfield Park system if things didn’t work out at Stoke. “My dad covered all the bases, but he didn’t need to,” Collins laughs.

Leaving home at 15 was an enormous decision, but Collins settled quickly in Staffordshire.

“I went to a few teams, but Stoke was a family club, a hard-working club and a club that I felt really comfortable with as soon as I got there,” he says.

“They made me feel comfortable and that allowed me to play my football.

“I was only supposed to go over for a one-week trial. I’d been there a few times before. After that week, my dad told me that he was going home, and I was staying for three months!

“All I ever wanted to do was play football, so I didn’t really care. I was like, ‘Okay, see you later!’ I loved it.”

Captain’s Duties

In April 2019, Collins made his first-team debut for Stoke against Swansea City.

His first start came 10 days later when he played the full 90 minutes of the Potters’ 1-0 defeat to Middlesbrough.

He signed a five-year contract with the club that August, amid significant interest from Premier League clubs.

“None of that got into my head,” he insists. “I just wanted to play football and almost left the decision to the people around me.”

Later that month, Collins became Stoke’s youngest-ever captain (18y 105d) when Nathan Jones handed him the armband for a Carabao Cup tie against Wigan Athletic.

Having led the Potters to a 1-0 victory, Collins resumed captain’s duties for the visit of Leeds United a fortnight later.

The bet365 Stadium was beginning to turn toxic. Stoke, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2017/18 season, had registered a 16th-place finish on their return to the Championship.

Any sense of optimism at the beginning of the 2019/20 campaign had quickly been dashed, with the Potters picking up just one point from their opening three league matches.

Goalkeeper Jack Butland had been dropped following the 3-1 midweek defeat to Preston North End, and manager Jones’ future was coming under increased scrutiny.

Experienced professionals would be forgiven for wilting in such circumstances, but Collins, 18 and in possession of the captain’s armband, typically took it in his stride.

“Thinking about it now, it’s mad, isn’t it?” he laughs.

“It was a massive shock. Just before we went into the dressing room Nathan Jones pulled me to the side and said, ‘Listen, you’re going to be captain today.’

“But it didn’t bother me. As a kid I was always captain of my team. Obviously it’s tougher with older lads in the dressing room, but what I’d done up to that point had got me so far, so I just thought I’d continue to do the same thing.

“I was the same player and the same person; I just had an armband on.

“Nathan Jones trusted me and did a lot for me. I really enjoyed working with him, he was unbelievable.”

Despite Collins’ best efforts, Stoke lost 3-0 to Leeds that afternoon. Jones left in the autumn and there were only eight points on the board from 15 games when Michael O’Neill took charge in November.

The only priority was to keep Stoke up. The new boss turned to experience, opting for Liam Lindsay and Danny Batth as the first-choice pairing at the heart of defence. Collins completed a full 90 minutes just once more that season.

“It was a tough time,” Collins admits. “[O’Neill] came in, had a hard job on his hands, and wanted to get senior lads into the side who had experienced those situations before.

“That’s completely normal and something you’d expect when a manager comes in. But for me, having been playing and even captained the side, it was an awkward one. But I was young and I knew that I had to bite the bullet and win him over.

“It was a new experience for me, being dropped from a team for the first time. It was annoying, it was frustrating, but there were a lot of good lads in that group who talked with me and got me through it.

“It hurt me, but that drove me to work hard in training and show him why I should be in the team.”

Collins’ efforts didn’t go unnoticed. He made 27 appearances under O’Neill the following campaign, with his season curtailed in February 2021 due to a foot injury sustained during a game against Norwich City.

By the time Collins returned to full fitness, a new challenge lay ahead.

Stepping Up

In June 2021, Collins completed a move to Premier League side Burnley.

Bigger clubs came to the table, but Collins, again placing trust in his close circle, could see a pathway under Sean Dyche.

“There were a few options,” he confirms, “but I made the decision with my family and I knew I needed to play football. At Burnley, I had a chance to get in and play.

“It’s tough going for a bigger jump, particularly as a young centre-back. You need to earn respect in the Premier League and show people that they can trust you, which is obviously hard to get.

“I thought I’d do it the hard way and the long way. My family has always worked hard, taken small steps and got where they wanted to be.”

Collins made his top-flight debut against Norwich in October 2021 but struggled to dislodge either Ben Mee or James Tarkowski, making only five appearances before the turn of the year.

But when Mee suffered a season-ending injury in March, there was a hole at centre-half that needed to be filled.

Collins started 12 of Burnley’s final 13 games, only missing Man City’s trip to Turf Moor due to suspension.

“The more games I got, the better I got,” he says.

“I was getting better and better and better – I was starting to excel. It was hard to drop me at that stage.

“Sean Dyche helped me a lot; he trusted me a lot and gave me a lot of freedom.

“I knew my role and I knew what I had to do. I felt good, I felt strong and I never really felt pressure.”

Burnley rallied during the run-in and won three successive games in April, with Collins on target during a 2-0 victory over Southampton.

But it was too little, too late. A defeat to Newcastle United on the final day consigned the Clarets to relegation.

Collins, however, did not return to the Championship. In July 2022, he signed for Wolverhampton Wanderers.

With Collins a regular starter in a back four alongside Max Kilman, Wolves conceded only four goals during their opening six games of the 2022/23 campaign.

But it was at the other end of the pitch that the Midlanders were having difficulties. Head coach Bruno Lage was sacked in October after a 2-0 defeat to West Ham. He left Wolves in the relegation zone, with the side having found the net just three times in eight matches.

“We had interim managers who weren’t able to implement their style, so we were grinding out games and not playing our best as a team,” says Collins. “It was a really tough stage for us.”

On 5 November, it was announced that former Real Madrid boss Julen Lopetegui would become the club’s new head coach.

Collins started the Spaniard’s first five games in charge, but the arrival of the experienced Craig Dawson in January saw him lose his spot in the starting XI.

Used off the bench seven times from that point, occasionally as Lopetegui opted for a back three, Collins played his part in guiding Wolves to Premier League safety, before returning to start the final two games of the season against Everton and Arsenal.

London Calling

Despite his limited gametime during the second half of last season, Collins’ numbers make for impressive reading.

He completed 27 tackles at a 75 per cent success rate, and only six players in the Premier League blocked more shots (28).

Collins finished the 2022/23 season with an 88 per cent pass accuracy (22nd in the league overall), having completed 1,001 of his 1,138 passes.

With Brentford in the market for a centre-back following captain Pontus Jansson’s departure, and Collins seeking first-team football after a disrupted campaign at Molineux, the timing was right for both parties this summer.

“I talked to the manager [Thomas Frank] and he sold me it massively,” says Collins.

“He knew what I needed to do to get better, and he knew what I was good at. He told me he’ll make me a better player and I trust him. To feel wanted is a nice thing.

“I play my best football when I’m on the front foot, aggressive and ready to go. When I play conservative, I’m not at my best. I think that’s what the manager has seen and it’s a good match.”

And it wasn’t just Frank who pitched the Brentford project.

“Ben [Mee] was texting me,” Collins smiles. “I asked him a few questions and he couldn’t talk highly enough of the club.

“I’d played with Ben and I trust him, so I believed everything he said. I learnt so much from him at Burnley – he’s a legend.

“Even before that, I had something pushing me this way. Maybe it’s just the way the club is. It’s a really hard-working club, a humble club, and it comes from a good place. That’s what I am, that’s what my family is, and that’s what made me feel comfortable.”

Having put pen to paper on a six-year contract, with a club option for an additional two years, Collins is looking forward to the future in west London.

“I wanted some stability in my life,” he concludes. “I don’t like the fact that I’ve moved, and I don’t want to be that person.

“This club feels right for me. I’m in a good place. My family are happy, and my brother lives 20 minutes down the road, so it feels like home already.”