If anything ever qualified for use of the overused term banter, it was this, writes Colm O’Regan

Larry Ryan on what we’ll miss most from Gilesy…   

It is not an uncommon scenario; the rugby man, with all his connections and influence, sending the football man, with his talents, away from the office disappointed.

Many people were agitated on Wednesday evening, but to many others there was great comfort on offer on RTE 2.

Billo was a man who truly made himself at home on telly, and invited us all in.

Brian O’Driscoll… Pray for us… AP McCoy… Pray for us… Henry Shefflin… Pray for us… Ruby Walsh…. Pray for us.

In the foreword of John Giles’s book The Great And The Good, Eamon Dunphy told us: “John is undemonstrative by nature. But his passion for the game is real and deeply felt.”

A word to the wise: The final say on sport in 2014

The axe swung. Experience counted for nought.

"One day it might indeed all end, but Eamo’s show will surely go on forever."

Still no word of Ray Houghton. Not even a stir out of his new Twitter account (@ray81988) since Brazil-Colombia on Friday evening.

One major selection dilemma haunts Alejandro Sabella ahead of the clash with Belgium; will he stick with calamity centre-half, Lorenzo?

With Lee Dixon left to carry the fight for ITV — and even he wouldn’t command much of a purse — it’s already turned into a straight battle off the field between RTÉ and BBC.

ROY’S REWARD — ENGLAND STILL ON COURSE FOR 2022

They came to bury Moyesy, certainly not to praise him.

Pep Guardiola was likened, by The Guardian columnist Raphael Honigstein, to Spanish clothing retailer Zara this week — a comparison first made by ex-Barcelona treasurer Xavier Sala-i-Martín.

Entente Cordiale, surely? King for a day, or two. No need to pepper the makeshift throne.

“They are enthusiasmus,” protested Giovanni Trapattoni before the start, falling back on his favourite word, one more time.

I brought some German colleagues to the dogs a few years ago. It might well be the last time anyone from their nation turned elsewhere for sporting inspiration.

With Morrissey in the house, we started something we couldn’t finish.

Right from the opening exchanges, the night held promise. Key men on their games, getting stuck in, making their presence felt.

Put it down to guilty conscience.

Enough’s enough for Eamo but Brady won’t abandon Trap’s ship just yet

By the dawn of spring, Mario would either be long gone or be breaking his back foraging for ball out around wing-forward

Blessed are the playmakers. Or should that be bantam?

The big surprise was the lack of changes.

Ominously, divisions in the Irish set-up were evident early in the evening. Tony ‘Woodward’ O’Donoghue and George ‘Bernstein’ Hamilton being persecuted for their craft.

It’s the kind of complicated, high degree of difficulty flick you really only see nowadays on the very biggest occasions.

Eamon Dunphy was yesterday predicting contrasting fortunes for Ireland and England at the European Championships.

With less than a week to go, we are still mired, rear wheels spinning, in nostalgia.

Yes, says Larry Ryan. No, says Liam Mackey

AFTER the taking of Tallinn, we were officially on Phase 4B of the circle of managerial life — as devised by you-know-who and applied to every Ireland gaffer in recent memory, except perhaps Gilesy.

EAMON DUNPHY hadn’t a dream: he just had a hunch.

BY half-time in Andorra la Vella we looked like the Irishmen who went up a mountain but came down a hill.

JEFF Stelling stepped among us mortals last week, holding court in fine style in these pages.

A case of Beauty and the Beast as the Montrose cast take a final bow, says Larry Ryan

HALF-TIME in Port Elizabeth and it’s parallel universe time again. Remember the movie Sliding Doors, when Gwyneth Paltrow’s life split in two when she missed her train? On RTÉ, England might have held a half-time lead over Slovenia but the carriage doors had slammed firmly in their faces.

WITH The Strapping Bull gone to his eternal, er, reward, we came to the couch last night concerned for The Skinny Rat.

GILSEY, Eamo, Ronnie and even Billo himself wore the disconsolate looks of men who had been asked to manage — not merely analyse — that team.

“THIS is a very, very important moment for Irish soccer. The next four years all depends on this,” explained Eamo before Saturday’s clash with Wales in Cardiff. Steady on.

Bookmaker Paddy Power have begun taking bets on the next career move for Eamon Dunphy.