99% think i heard the FAI confirm she wouldn't be fined.Originally Posted by seanfhear
the FAI confirmed no fine would be levied (I myself would not be so lenient as it will encourage others)..
Well, there was 33% cost overrun, we can do those without blinking.
How good was Duff in hindsight do people think?
Brilliant, one of our very best I reckon.
When was his peak for us? 2002 to perhaps 2005?
He was very talented but wasn't as important for Ireland as good old Tony Galvin. Both were very good at dribbling past defenders, but Galvin was more prominent for the national team, when he played. Duff problems were the clubs he chose after Blackburn, while Galvin was a Spurs stalwart for 12 years in a row, very impressive player too, so flashy like Duff. Then some brainy made Duff play as left back, the farther Duff was from the box the less effective as footballer he became,
Duff and Robbie Keane both broke through in 1997, 6 years after Roy Keane arrived on the scene and a full quarter of a century ago this year. The last genuinely top class players this country produced.
What went so wrong?
Bosman.
I don't think it's a coincidence that the number of Irish players at Premier League clubs has steadily declined since Bosman (and the three foreigner rule, which I think was contemporaneous)
Plus unlike most other major nations in Europe, we've never developed a serious professional alternative here. We put all our eggs in one basket, and then got dumped.
The FAI never moved on from the 90s and thought the English teams would still develop our talent even once the PL became this global juggernaut with cash to burn.
That's so interesting to see how proximate Keane and Duff's development and emergence was to Roy Keane's. Absolutely crazy to think we haven't produced a player even close to them since. All those DDSL teams, all those Kennedy Cup teams. Just shows how good it is to be elite at this sport.
In my top 5 favorite Irish players ever. He was fantastic
And just dream of how much better he could have been had he been luckier with injuries.
There was a moment against Spain in 2002 where Duff, flat on his back, keeps the ball from three pressing Spanish players, gets to his feet, and beats them in the dribble. He was the most technically gifted player I've ever seen play for us by some distance. If he'd developed as a finisher, he'd have been absolutely world class.
Player: one of our best.
Diver: world class.
Walker: silver medal
Currently: Gerry Doyle wannabe.
The guy was brilliant in every sense of the world. For me, he's up there with McGrath and both Keanes as the best player of the past thirty odd years. For the guy blaming the FAI for not developing players and all that, I'd say that a country of our size is due a truly great player once every twenty or thirty years. We have some good players that could turn into Premier League regulars, but one of these years, a guy will come along in the underage squads and take our breath away. I remember reading about James McCarthy training with Barcelona and Liverpool as a fifteen or sixteen year old. Terry Dixon at Spurs, Conor Clifford at Chelsea. One day, hopefully soon, one of these kids is going to come out of nowhere and impress everyone.
there is a 2 or 3 min video of duffs best bits against spain 2002 on youtube. well worth a look to remind ourselves how good he was.
think he was at his peak in 2002, the move to chelsea seemed to knock a bit of the flair from him
He really did con the ref for that penalty looking back at it.
The first post on this thread from 2003 gives a good idea of the kind of company he was able to mix it with at the time, and he really was at that level at that point.
I don't remember TV footage being that grainy as recently as 2002 though, I know it was before the digital switchover but hopefully I'm not imagining that the picture quality was a lot better than that!
For us his peak began September 2001 v Netherlands, I don't remember when it ended but at some stage when he was at Chelsea he lost that ability to effortlessly dribble past a defender, you began to see more offloads etc.
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