Level-headed as a player – Duff has the temperament to excel as coach
100
Damien Duff won 100 caps for Ireland, making his final appearance against Italy at Euro 2012
ON a murky Tuesday evening, two former internationals were standing outside the FAI offices in Abbotstown cracking jokes. One was in his civvies, the others in his training gear.
Between them, Niall Quinn and Damien Duff won 192 caps and are two of only eight Irishmen to score for their country at the World Cup finals.
Their distinguished Ireland careers overlapped from 1997 to 2002 and it was 19 years ago this Tuesday that Quinn was left out of the Irish team for Duff ahead of a famous World Cup win over the Netherlands.
For the moment, Quinn is an FAI suit, the interim deputy
CEO, striving since January to bring stability to an organisation crippled by financial woes and disrupted by Covid-19, while Duff is a tracksuit guy, part of Stephen Kenny’s senior coaching staff since April.
For this morning’s training session in Abbotstown, Duff will be very much on point as the Ireland senior squad hear Kenny’s directions for the first time.
Some of the old hands, such as Seamus Coleman, James McClean and James McCarthy, who all made their Irish debuts alongside Duff, will mark the cards of others about the personality of the 100-cap left-winger.
Duff’s presence on the coaching ticket is significant, having worked under a lot of high-profile managers in his distinguished club career, including Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness, Roy Hodgson,
Claudio Ranieri and Jose Mourinho.
He wouldn’t have signed up to work with Kenny unless he held him in high regard.
As Duff prepares for his role, armed with information, knowledge and fine communications skills, Quinn tips him to deliver and make the Irish players better.
‘He’s probably one of the most level-headed players I’ve played with. He can bring that into the dressing-room,’ said Quinn.
‘As a player, he only had to be told once, whereas others had to be told three or four times. I’d say he was a dream for coaches. He learned from that as he went into his coaching career.
‘His presence (in the Ireland set-up) will be big for the younger players.
‘There’ll be lots of people offering advice in their day-today lives, in and around their clubs, but if Damien speaks they should listen,’ stressed Quinn.
When Duff broke into the national squad in 1997 as a teenager, Quinn recognised his talents.
‘We could see straight away that he was special,’ he recalled.
‘He wasn’t someone who needed much attention because he was so level-headed. He was so calm in himself. Some players get giddy, he didn’t.
‘When you’re in a dressingroom before a massive qualifier or at a major tournament, you see players doing things they don’t normally do.
‘You see players pulling up their socks five or six times. But when you saw Damien, all he was short of was having a cigar.’
As for Kenny, he has earmarked Duff to offer advice and guidance to the youngsters, five of whom selected this week are eligible for the Under 21s,
‘Part of Damien’s role is mentoring some of the younger players... personal mentorship with the young players that come in, he’s in contact with them.
‘He’s lived through their experiences, the ups and downs they’re having. They can relate to him, and relate to it, so that’s part of it. It’s a gradual thing.
Not all (happen) overnight. But that’s part of his agreement with his job.’
As for Duff’s expertise, Kenny has no doubts about what Duff and Keith Andrews, his No 2, will bring to the ticket.
‘Damien and Keith are both very strong on the IT part of it. They could be IT analysts. They’re brilliant at clipping and editing, understanding the dynamics of it.
‘They’re good coaches, very modern in the way they think. They’ve been in coaching environments at good levels. They’ll all be very involved on the training ground, for sure.’
As a wing wizard, Duff was a joy to watch as he slalomed past full-backs, and won more frees than he cares to remember.
After thriving as a first-team coach at Celtic, this is his next challenge and he’ll be as levelheaded and cool today as he was before, during and after his 100 Ireland internationals.