As we know from experience, a conversation with James McClean can only rarely, if ever, confine itself to what he calls “the finer things” in the game.

"It's the only time a tennis ball has ever made me angry."

It was seven years ago that Liam Lawrence expressed his reservations about players like Jermaine Pennant and Jamie O’Hara “juggling” between declaring for Ireland and England.

Damien Duff is clearly sick of Saipan.

Back-to-back clean sheets against Moldova and Wales served to reinforce the solidity of the Shane Duffy/Ciaran Clark partnership at the heart of the Irish defence.

Nobody in the ilk of Damien Duff has graced the Ireland squad since the magician retired after Euro 2012, but Daryl Horgan hopes the similarities in appearance noticed by his new teammates yesterday can in some way be replicated in a football sense.

Robbie Keane announced yesterday that Wednesday's game against Oman was to be his last.

Short of Paul McGrath doing a Bejamin Button and reconstituting himself as the fabled ‘Black Pearl of Inchichore’, it’s hard to think of an Irish footballer whose appearance in the League of Ireland will generate more genuine delight than that of Damien Duff.

He is well on the road to recovery and with a clear destination in mind: Damien Duff is hoping to make his League of Ireland debut before the season is out.

Though we’re not sure what this says about the choices of Ireland’s finest footballers.

 

On a number of levels, what a lovely surprise that was to see Mr Damien Duff turning up all hale and hearty on RTÉ’s ‘Soccer Republic’ the other night.

Speculation mounts in Melbourne that Damien Duff’s Australian adventure is over after an unusual double injury in Melbourne City’s draw with Wellington on Saturday.

So it’s business as usual, as in business unusual, across the Irish Sea, the fledgling new Premier League season having already sent the back pages into overdrive with LVG’s nightmare start at Old Trafford, Liverpool prepared to swap frying pan for fire as Balotelli replaces Suarez and, simply stinking the whole place out, the Malky Mackay scandal.

A mixed week at the upper echelons of the bullshit trade. We lost one of the greats. It says much about the business The Ultimate Warrior was involved in that many people took time to be convinced he was really dead and that the announcement wasn’t a stunt.

I suppose with all the hype in the media and the growing pressure on Giovanni Trapattoni since the European Championships last summer, it didn’t come as a huge surprise to anybody to see him relieved of his duties less than a day after the defeat to Austria in Vienna which effectively made it impossible for Ireland to qualify for the World Cup in Brazil next summer.

I watched the qualifier against the Faroe Islands a long way from home — and yet it still felt very much like home.

Damien Duff turned down an offer from England manager Roy Hodgson to receive his 100th Ireland cap in a special presentation before Ireland’s recent game at Wembley.

Robbie Keane will win a record 126th Republic of Ireland cap tomorrow night confident he still has another five or six years in his legs.

Seamus Coleman is learning the ropes at a rate of knots, off the pitch as well as on it.

Robbie Keane admits that he was shocked by the omission of Kevin Doyle from the Irish squad for Friday’s World Cup qualifier in Stockholm.

Our columnist reflects on a worthwhile outing against Poland and being named Ireland’s player of the year.

As a remarkable 2012 of sport slips away, what of those we may soon say farewell to — as we embrace a new select group of sporting stars from Ireland.

Dear Santa

2012 has been an annus horribilis for Stephen Hunt, 12 months during which his Euro dreams turned to dust and his very career as a top-flight player appeared to be threatened by injury.

Republic of Ireland striker Jon Walters believes the FAI’s decision to publicly back manager Giovanni Trapattoni should put an end to speculation over the Italian’s future.

He is preparing for the end now.

Such are the peculiarities of footballing hysteria that a series of subtle, successfully-executed dives will bring about nothing like the binge of handwringing a bunch of botched, largely fruitless ones will.

Our columnist believes energy and endeavour can compensate for the missing experience when Ireland take on Germany tonight – even if the opposition can seem to hail from a different planet, never mind a different league

For one seen mainly as an understudy, Darren O’Dea has featured in a few big productions on the international stage.

IT’S probably just as well that Damien Duff isn’t a tearing-his-hair-out kinda guy or else he’d be billiard ball smooth by now.

Denis Irwin has defended embattled Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni, but conceded the Italian faces a mammoth task to guide the Republic to the 2014 World Cup in Rio.

It will be only five o’clock at home this evening but ten o’clock at night here in Kazakhstan when Ireland kick off their World Cup qualifying campaign in the intimate but impressive surroundings of the Astana Arena.

Shay Given has described his international retirement as “the biggest football decision you will ever make” but made clear that, for a combination of reasons, he felt now was the right time to pass on Ireland’s No 1 shirt.

Ex-Republic of Ireland boss Mick McCarthy says Giovanni Trapattoni is right to be giving youth its fling in Belgrade next month.

Balotelli.

The big surprise was the lack of changes.

Olomouc in the Czech Republic is not a million miles away from Poznan — it’s 476.7km to be precise — but it seems like a million years since Damien Duff and Robbie Keane made their senior Irish debuts as fresh-faced kids in a friendly in that Czech town in 1998.

Seven years ago, Damian Duff sat down for a chat with thi snewspaper and spoke about how you could feel Lansdowne Road’s creaky old bones shaking from the toilets in the dressing-room as the DART thundered through the West Stand.

Other than straight after games, Damien Duff doesn’t really do press but he’s such a much-loved character in the Republic of Ireland ranks that even the most demanding hacks are generally happy to cut him some slack.

Montecatini last night literally rolled out the green carpet, as Giovanni Trapattoni, Marco Tardelli and the Ireland squad were formally welcomed to this beautiful Tuscan spa town, the reception committee including the Lord Mayor Giuseppi Bellandi and the reigning Miss Italy Stefania Bivone.