‘Pain in the a*** parents not helping kids’ – Duff
DAMIEN DUFF believes ‘pain in the a***’ parents are one obstacle to Irish football’s attempt to catch up with their European counterparts.
The former Ireland star is adapting to a new role within the game having moved into underage coaching and he has now taken charge of the U-15 side at Shamrock Rovers.
Duff is enjoying the role, although he remains bemused by the modern youngster’s attitudes to football and bad habits that he attributes to a lack of practice.
But the Dubliner says that another factor is demanding parents who can sometimes take issue with how management run the team.
“Surprisingly enough I’ve really enjoyed it,” said Duff yesterday. “A lot more goes into it than I realised. I can only imagine what it’s like to manage a big club. It’s a big job, just clipping games, looking forward to a game on Saturday, clipping footage of games you’ve just played and then dealing with pain in the a*** parents.
“I don’t think it (interfering parents) helps kids, it gives them maybe a false sense,” said Duff, when asked to elaborate and if it related to questions about team selection.
“A few have tried, ‘My little Johnny is this or that’ but I try to treat them like adults. I bring them back down to earth. I put on adult sessions that I got in the Premier League. That’s the way I treat them; the way Brian (Kerr) treated me.
“I’m probably too tough on them, they probably hate me but that’s the way I was brought up with the underage team and at Blackburn so that’s how I’m doing it. I was always told how s**t it was or I needed to do something better.
Duff’s Rovers side have started to introduce early-morning training sessions into their schedule with a view to catching up with sides from around the continent.
“We do one at 6.30 in the morning and, again, I don’t know whether you’d call them cavemen here in Ireland but they’re giving you a bit of stick because you’re getting them out of bed. It’s supposedly the best time to learn.”
TEN days on from a famous win in Cardiff, mixed feelings remain in Irish football about the methods that secured a valuable success.
Now that he’s out of the dressing room and working as a TV pundit, Damien Duff can appreciate the dilemma. He was with his old boss Brian Kerr at a Sport Against Racism Ireland (SARI) event in Dublin yesterday and they were on the same page about Ireland’s unattractive style under Martin O’Neill and the fact that Denmark are a favourable draw for the World Cup play-offs once Christian Eriksen can be contained.
“Eriksen is the key man and with Martin’s luck he might miss the match,” Kerr quipped.
But Duff admits that it’s difficult to argue with O’Neill’s results, even though he still has a niggling feeling that Ireland could have qualified automatically.
“We’ve had some of the biggest results in our football history over the last couple of years and it’s under Martin. So that’s why it’s hard to knock him,” says Duff.
“It’s a bizarre one, a love-hate one. We’re all quick to criticise the style of play and what have you but listen, we’re in another play-off and if we get there he would be the first one since Jack to qualify for two consecutive major tournaments but it’s not pretty at times.
“We all know that but maybe with the personnel that’s just the way Martin goes. Mind you, I think he’s played a lot like that in his career. I still think we messed up along the way, the likes of Austria at home, Wales (home), Georgia away. You look at Serbia and I think they won by a point did they? I still think it was still there to win.
“But I don’t think Denmark are graced with an awful lot of quality. They obviously have Eriksen, (who is) world-class you’d argue. But what else? I’m not sure.”
Kerr echoes that view about the challenge that awaits O’Neill’s side in November. He does have a knowledge of the Danish scene from his stint with the Faroes.
“The teams have similar styles and play direct, but we seem to play that way more intentionally,” says the former Irish boss.
“They have a mixed group, like us, but their players are more spread out. They have more links around Europe – not like us where all our players go and play in England. They’ve always had players in Spain, Italy and Germany and that’s a good mixture. They are a good secondplaced team but it’s an even match.”
Duff and Kerr were speaking at a SARI event in St Kilian’s Senior NS, Ballymount to celebrate FARE #FOOTBALLPEOPLE action weeks. Schools interested should email info@sari.ie