Ogbene’s happy as a Miller
New doc a fascinating insightthe into Irish great’s career
CHIEDOZIE OGBENE has been tipped to see out his Rotherham contract in style.
The Ireland international will be a free agent in the summer and is expected to finally leave the Millers.
There was plenty of talk of a January transfer, but Rotherham boss Matt Taylor revealed yesterday there was no late interest in the forward.
And any bids received in the middle of the month fell well below the Championship side’s valuation of the 25-year-old.
Taylor is confident Ogbene will be a big asset between now and the end of the season, as the club bids to avoid the drop.
Speaking ahead of today’s meeting with Sheffield United, he said: “I’m looking forward to what he (Ogbene) can produce these next 18 games.
Excellent
“He’s been excellent these last couple of games, he’s fully focused and there’s a brightness about him.
“He’s been motivated and re-encouraged by the bodies we’ve been able to bring in, so hopefully there’s less pressure on Chio.”
Ogbene has scored seven goals in 27 appearances so far this season for the Millers, currently five points above the drop-zone.
Rotherham made seven signings in January and they stuck to their guns when it came to interest in Ogbene.
“There were no late bids, a lot of interest in the middle of the window, which we spoke to Chio about,” Taylor said.
“I cannot compliment Chio enough about how open and honest he’s been with us in terms of his expectations, where he wants his ultimate destination to be, whether this window or the end of the season.”
IT WAS a phrase Liam Brady got used to hearing.
One that would be uttered, day after day, in training grounds in Turin, Genoa and Milan.
“Il buongiorno si vede dal mattino.” A good day starts in the morning.
Italians take that to heart. Consider the care and precision they put in to their first coffee of the day.
Brady has taken the lesson to heart in a new documentary about his football life — The Irishman Abroad — which will air on RTE on February 13.
You will struggle to find a sports doc with a stronger start.
Darragh Bambrick’s film begins with a caption — Lake Como in Italy, and then we are with Brady at the wheel, talking to Bambrick out of shot.
He is playing music — John Lennon’s final album ‘Double Fantasy’ to be exact. ‘Starting Over’ comes on and Brady starts to sing along.
Then the memories come tumbling out of him.
On December 8, 1980, Lennon was murdered in New York. Brady was still finding his feet in Italy and was being driven to training by Juventus teammate Antonio Cabrini.
He had the radio news on and turned to Brady — ‘Lennon è morto’.
In the doc, Brady gets visibly emotional. “I had been in Italy just five months and was still a bit homesick,’’ he said.
“John Lennon was just 40 years old. He was just getting going again.
Music
“I cry whenever I hear this song.”
He goes silent for a moment, losing himself in the music. Then he comes alive, jigging and swaying to the beat while at the wheel.
It’s Liam Brady like we’ve never seen him before.
Bambrick’s documentary is divided into three parts: growing up in Dublin and the years at Arsenal, the Italian adventure, and days in green with Ireland.
What draws everything together is music. The soundtrack takes in everything from Italian Arias to The Beatles to David Bowie to Thin Lizzy to The Dubliners.
And Brady picked all the music for the soundtrack himself.
There is a famous photograph from his Arsenal days, relaxing in his London home with a pile of records — LPs from Horslips, Rory Gallagher, Bob Dylan.
That was no posed pic, something that quickly becomes clear in this film.
“I had money to buy records, which was the great love of my life. I could afford a new LP every week,’’ he said. “I saw Bob Dylan, went to The Who, saw all these legendary groups.
Vinyl
“It was a great time, there were so many bands to go and see. I didn’t read the newspaper, I read the NME (New Musical Express).
“It’s a funny thing, rock stars often want to be footballers, and footballers often want to be rock stars.”
We see Brady’s delight when coming across a rare Dylan LP — he’s still a vinyl man, of course — on a trip to a Turin record shop recently.
There are stories about rebel songs being played on the Arsenal team bus — they had seven players from Ireland, north and south, at the time and a manager from Belfast in Terry Neill.
For the parade through north London after winning the 1979 FA Cup, a tricolour flew at the front of the bus. Pat Jennings was friendly with Luke Kelly and that led to plenty of nights out that ended in sing-songs with
legendary singer. But it wasn’t always easy to be Irish in England in the 1970s.
In the doc, Frank Stapleton recalls coming back to London after being on international duty and how they’d always be stopped and questioned by CID. Brady remembers one experience, in particular, vividly.
“It was a bad time, so much happening in Northern Ireland. The thing that struck me was that the English people didn’t really understand what was happening in Northern Ireland, didn’t understand the politics their government had put in place. They didn’t understand it, either,’’ he said.
“I was on the Tube one night