Richard Dunne

[nigel-harps1954]

If the FAI just put money into the league itself rather than concentrating on players we'd have an altogether healthier league and players wouldn't need to think twice about coming over the play here as an alternative to dropping down a division to get noticed or to wind down the years.

[paul_oshea]

If they had a certain quota of centrally contracted players it could work a bit like the mls

[geysir]

I prefer the proven grass roots nourishment approach, all coaches at all levels (down to beginners) must be educated and receive payment per session, also in that way, all players get developed not just the best ones.
if experienced professionals want to return to the LOI that's fine, but building the foundation of coaching has much more value.

[Stuttgart88]

Can't that happens as well as backing the league?

[nigel-harps1954]

Can't that happens as well as backing the league?

Exactly. It simply shouldn't be the case of one or the other. Underage coaching in this country, for the large part, is shocking and kids are still being taught that you must win games, that the ultimate goal is trophies and glory. This simply shouldn't be the case.

[paul_oshea]

There has to be a laddered approach, always a next step, currently its not all tied in together and there are a few steps broken or missing on the ladder.

Ye can have the best coaches you want in the world, but if you don't have the talent, the resources and the structures and competitive leagues in place then its not worth your salt.

I think we have shown we can produce players regardless of the current coaching in place, that's not to say that we can't have better coaching in place and that in turn would increase the talent pool produced, but these players don't have the next step without moving across the water.

[geysir]

Can't that happens as well as backing the league?

I don't see why not, I already opined,

if experienced professionals want to return to the LOI that's fine, but building the foundation of coaching has much more value.

As J Low said after lifting the Jules Rimet, "Youth coaches create World Champions”

LOI clubs spending money on elder high earners like Duff or Dunne has a risk, they can get long term injured or their rate of decline suddenly accelerates.
The LOI is not falling apart right now, it's just at a very low standard of european league football.
Many european clubs have a coach for every 4 players, how can a LOI club compete against that? They need the funds to hire more coaches and not cut corners there.
Each club's goal should be to have the facilities to develop players from 8 years upwards, until the best of the players are ready to move on to a more competitive league and get exposed to a higher level, instead of the best of the youth leaving before their time, cheaply.
Considering that coaches develop (create) talent and volunteers/non educated coaches at any level can nurture poor habits, the goal is to have educated coaches, compulsory at all levels from 8 years onwards, in all areas of the country where a ball is kicked.

[Charlie Darwin]

Rules out a stint at Rovers so. I thought it'd be pretty cool if he returned to his Tallaght roots.

He's ruled out playing in Ireland a few times. No interest.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

http://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/socc...legend-5796635

Has retired, according to Ciaran O'Raghallaigh.

[Colbert Report]

Great career, great servant to us all the way along, I hope he enjoys his retirement.

[tetsujin1979]

conflicting reports on this, some saying he's retired, others saying his looking out for another club

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

I think O'Raghallaigh jumped the gun in order to be first with a "scoop".

Edit: Dunne "perplexed by reports".

http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-31269161.html

[KK77]

Richard Dunne and dusted: Irish legend at ease in retirement

0

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Liam Mackey

A few weeks back, Damien Duff painted a somewhat poignant image of a player struggling to come to terms with retirement, recalling that one recent morning in Loughlinstown he hired out an astro-turf pitch all for himself. And even as he practised with his right foot, he found himself wondering just what the hell it was he was actually practising for?

Richard Dunne likes to play a bit of a five-a-side too but there’s scant impression that he’s missing professional football in the same way as his former international colleague, which perhaps has a lot to do with the fact that Dunne and his family — wife Helen and children Tayo (10) and Lyla (7) — now make their home in sunny Monte Carlo, where the former Ireland centre-half doesn’t have to contend with constant reminders of his footballing past.

“I got married there about 10 years ago and we’ve been going back over every summer for holidays,” he explained yesterday on a flying visit to Dublin to make his punditry debut on TV3 for last night’s Champions League game between his former club Manchester City and PSG.

“The plan was to stay there for a couple of months when I did finish. It’s just moved on and it’s become a permanent thing.”


The notion of a completely clean slate in another country appealed to the former Everton, Manchester City, Aston Villa and QPR man.

“It’s just a different sort of way of life. Football is not on the telly 24 hours a day. You don’t have people asking you ‘what are you doing’ or ‘where have you been’ all the time. It was nice just to be able to relax and start afresh.

“I play football with friends every Monday, sometimes Thursdays, five a side. It’s about 15 minutes from the house. A couple of hours playing football and a couple of pints afterwards, and that’s it. I don’t have the need to continue playing. I really enjoyed it and I was really happy when I finished. I’m not crying out to go back and be part of it again. It’s over.

“I’m not glad it’s over because everyone wishes they could play forever, but I’ve done it and it’s finished and now I can just be happy and move on. I’m not chasing something that’s missing in my life.”

Asked if his career had been all he hoped it would be, Dunne’s response is a reminder that football can never be only and always the glory game.

“It’s very consuming, football,” the Dubliner reflects. “You think it’s the be-all and end-all of everything and then when you come out of it and step away, it doesn’t actually matter. Whatever people have written or said or seen on the TV, it’s always 10 times worse for the player. They take it to heart so much more than anyone could probably believe. You just have this cloud around you that everything’s terrible but when it’s over and you step away, you think, it didn’t really matter as much as it did at the time.”

Not that anyone should think he’s ungrateful for his career. “I really enjoyed it,” he stresses. “It was my dream to play football, and I was very lucky that I played it for so long.”

He’s looking forward to watching Ireland at the Euros this summer, from the comfort of his sofa, and expects the team to have a more rewarding experience in France than he and his colleagues had in Poland four years ago.

“I think the quality of the other teams was outstanding,” he says of Euro 2012. “Spain and Italy were better back then than they are now and I think our chance was probably the World Cup a couple of years beforehand — that’s when that squad of players could have performed to a better level. By the time 2012 came around, I think we were sort of a year or maybe two years past our best as footballers.

“You can try and do everything and give your all, but when players are better than you, they’re better than you and we found that out the tough way.”

Mention of the World Cup that got away, in 2010, prompts the inevitable question about how his French neighbours recall the infamous ‘Hand Of Gaul’. He smiles.

“Anyone who asks me over there, ‘Were you part of that team?’ when I say, ‘Yeah’, they go (sharp intake of breath) ‘Sorry’. I think for them they’d rather not talk about it. They know they got away with it.

“The image of me sitting down with (Thierry) Henry after the match, was more of a reaction to missing out on the finals, because I hadn’t seen the handball (at that point).

“It wasn’t until I went back into the dressing room that I saw it. We probably didn’t realise it then but we found out two years later that it was our best chance as a team to make an impression on a tournament. So when you look back now, it was a big disappointment.”

Looking ahead to how Ireland might fare this summer, he says: “It’s a younger squad going into the tournament and they have grown as the group stages went on, so the tournament itself is coming at the right time for Ireland. If you look at the results last month, our opponents aren’t shaping up too good, so we can take heart from that, and the added bonus is that three teams will get out. One win will do it for us and I don’t think we have anyone to fear.”

Dunne has no doubt but that his old comrade Robbie Keane will have a role to play.

“He has to be part of the squad, he’s Ireland’s Ibrahimovic,” he says.

“He’s the person who, if things are not going well, everyone will look to him to be the one to score. He is the person who has scored in World Cups for Ireland, scored important goals all through his career. He’s a very valuable part of the team and if he’s not in the team he’s one character you can rely on to be ready when he’s called upon.”

And while Dunne doesn’t see a future for himself in football as a coach or manager (“I enjoy spending time with my kids and family and if you go down coaching and managing, it’s a much longer day”), he is certain that Keane has the right stuff to go on and one day manage the Irish team.

“Yeah, definitely,” he says. “With all the caps he’s got, and the experience and clubs he’s played at, eventually — once he’s qualified, done his badges and some sort of apprenticeship at a club — he’ll definitely be an Ireland manager.”

[paul_oshea]

This stuff always upsets me a little, and every time i read it from a player i enjoyed it ebbs a little more away.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-34622563.html

Its the bit about not being fussed about the Ireland games, the same as Duffer said. I find it very hard, but i notice even at an amateur level those who work off the field for clubs of all types are far more interested in the long term and teh club as a whole as opposed to the sports participants who's interest in generally more self-centred and selfish - the lifetime of their participation of the sport at the club.

[jbyrne]

This stuff always upsets me a little, and every time i read it from a player i enjoyed it ebbs a little more away.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-34622563.html

Its the bit about not being fussed about the Ireland games, the same as Duffer said. I find it very hard, but i notice even at an amateur level those who work off the field for clubs of all types are far more interested in the long term and teh club as a whole as opposed to the sports participants who's interest in generally more self-centred and selfish - the lifetime of their participation of the sport at the club.

id take what they say with a very large pinch of salt. duffer has been seen at many Ireland games since he retired and when he was still a player I remember him making his own way to a Slovakia away game under stan while out of the squad injured. id say they are letting on to themselves that they are not bothered as a sense of denial because they are not playing anymore

[paul_oshea]

Ya i remember that game, he make a big issue of his limp when he got to the airport.

I dont know i notice it at all levels of sport, those referred to as "clubmen" love the club and the club is what its all about. Very few of those that play at the club participate in the off-field work that is involved, even when they have finished playing.

[geysir]

This stuff always upsets me a little, and every time i read it from a player i enjoyed it ebbs a little more away.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-34622563.html

Its the bit about not being fussed about the Ireland games, the same as Duffer said. I find it very hard, but i notice even at an amateur level those who work off the field for clubs of all types are far more interested in the long term and teh club as a whole as opposed to the sports participants who's interest in generally more self-centred and selfish - the lifetime of their participation of the sport at the club.

Dunne said nothing about that.

[Charlie Darwin]

Dunne said nothing about that.

Shh!

Paul is offended that Dunne hasn't been plunged into an existential crisis by his premature retirement. This is not the heart-on-the-sleeve centre half observed from the YBIG section in such exotic places as Moscow, Yerevan and Fulham.

[geysir]

Too late for rationality, the lynch mob has already burned "The Iron Curtain" banner flag.

[paul_oshea]

Shh!

Paul is offended that Dunne hasn't been plunged into an existential crisis by his premature retirement. This is not the heart-on-the-sleeve centre half observed from the YBIG section in such exotic places as Moscow, Yerevan and Fulham.

What about that made up place in your head, Zelnica?