The emotional pull of Celtic will be huge for someone like Shane... he will simply love it there
SHANE DUFFY has been clear from the start. He wants to play for Celtic. There is passion waiting to be invested in an historic season for the club he grew up supporting.
The emotional pull of Parkhead has played a significant role in moving him to the brink of concluding a one-year loan this week. Despite interest from within the Premier League, the 28-year-old’s focus was only on leaving Brighton for Glasgow.
Mick McCarthy believes that same sense of pride can also draw the very best out of Duffy if and when he wears the Celtic jersey.
He sees a perfect fit between his former club and a man he happily managed for the Republic of Ireland. Tying up the final details of the move will, the 61-year-old insists, give Neil Lennon a natural leader ready to put his body on the line for the ten-ina-row cause.
Dismissing any doubts that might be felt by Duffy dropping out of favour at Brighton, McCarthy is effusive about his qualities. He paints a picture of a centre-back teak-tough in body and mind who carries out instructions to the letter. Someone who makes those around him raise their game.
That respect was underlined when Duffy was given the captaincy for McCarthy’s last game in charge of Ireland — a 1-1 draw with Denmark last November.
Coronavirus then broke up their association prematurely. With the Euro 2020 play-offs pushed back, the FAI accelerated a pre-set plan for Stephen Kenny to take over at the helm of the national side.
Duffy may no longer be under his direct command, but McCarthy wishes him nothing but success in Scotland. And he knows what it will mean for the former Everton and Blackburn man to line up for Lennon’s side. ‘He will love it,’ McCarthy told
Sportsmail. ‘The emotional factor with Celtic is amazing for someone like Shane.
‘Of course that gives you something extra. This is a club he will always have looked at and thought about playing for and now it looks like he is finally about to do it.
‘You are out of the team in the Premier League and feel as though you are hard done by. Then Celtic come in. Bloody hell.
That’s a bit of a tonic for you, let me tell you.
‘He will have watched it all along, supporting them right through the nine in a row and all the games.
‘If — if — he can be involved in ten in a row, it would be amazing for him.’
McCarthy knows a thing or two about achieving a slice of history at Celtic — having won the Double in the club’s 1987-88 centenary season — but dismissed any parallels.
‘That was a long time ago,’ he added. ‘I’m just delighted for Shane if he gets this move.
‘I think it will be a great signing for Celtic. I would have taken him anywhere, no problem.’
The arrival of Graham Potter as Brighton manager in the summer of 2019 brought a change of style on England’s south coast and saw Duffy lose his previous firstchoice status.
McCarthy, though, never considered demoting him at international level. He reflected: ‘It didn’t cross my mind because he was such an important part of our team.
‘I’ve had that in the past, when you’re not playing at a club, but playing internationals because a manager recognises what you bring to the team.
‘That was the case with Shane. He is a great defender, he really is. It wasn’t as though he wasn’t in the Brighton team because he was playing badly. It was just that the manager fancied someone else. That happens. It’s no slight on Shane or anyone involved.’
While Brighton have made technique a higher priority for their defenders, McCarthy stresses Duffy is more than just an old-fashioned centre-back.
‘There might be some better at it than him, but he can play with the ball,’ said McCarthy. ‘He can do that as well.
‘Against Switzerland, we passed it out from the back with Ireland and he was comfortable.
‘If he needs to shift it quickly, he’s got that long, diagonal ping that he does particularly well.’
Strength of character is a prerequisite for performing successfully at the Old Firm. And never more so than in this season.
The pressure of trying to get Celtic to their record title sequence will be ever-present — particularly if Rangers maintain their positive start — but McCarthy doesn’t expect that to daunt Duffy in any way.
‘He doesn’t seem to get fazed by anything,’ said the Irishman.
‘I remember he got injured in one of our training sessions — I think that it was before we played Switzerland — and I thought he had no chance of playing. None.
‘He thought otherwise: “I’ll be all right. I’ll give it a go. I’ll be fine”. And he was.
‘He’s a fully committed defender. He’ll do whatever he can to keep the ball out of your net and block things with everything he’s got.
‘For a manager, he’s great. A good guy to have around. He just comes in and does his work.
‘There are no remonstrations about anything — not that I saw anyway. He just gets on with the job and does it really well.’