John Fallon: Duffy decision ominous for old reliable's Ireland future
IN OR OUT? Shane Duffy during a Republic of Ireland training session at Hampden Park. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Thursday's Ireland squad announcement is in danger of confirming the man who saved Stephen Kenny’s job can only save his own international career under the manager.
All the indications, including soundbites from Kenny himself, point towards Shane Duffy’s exclusion from the list unveiled for the opening matches of a pivotal year for Irish football.
Lowly Latvia are first up next Wednesday at Aviva Stadium, as lukewarm a build-up there could be for the arrival of Kylian Mbappé, new captain Antoine Greizmann and the rest of France’s aristocrats the following Monday for the real business of European qualification points.
Duffy hasn’t played for Ireland since last June, a shaky showing before his attackers blitzed Scotland at home, but more pertinently is his paucity of club games.
Switching to Fulham from Brighton and Hove Albion, initially on loan and then permanently in January, was designed to increase, rather than inhibit, his game-time but the extent of his exposure in the last five months was a sole runout at Sunderland in the FA Cup.
Jeff Hendrick’s struggles at Newcastle United shatter the hypothesis of club minutes correlating to the international hierarchy but the abundance of alternatives Kenny possesses in the central defensive department adds a different layer to the argument.
Once Kenny chose not to risk Duffy for the Scotland rematch at Hampden Park, his first-choice trio of defenders was clear.
Dara O’Shea, John Egan and Nathan Collins haven’t done anything subsequently — even the latter has figured for Wolves despite losing his starting lost — to jeopardise that trinity.
If anything, the competition from elsewhere has intensified.
Séamus Coleman stepped in for Egan last time out in November, the forgettable slender win over Malta, and has re-established himself as Premier League regular at Everton.
A quartet of Championship defenders also have genuine claims. Darragh Lenihan didn’t get a minute on the pitch in November but is a central cog in Michael Carrick’s Middlesbrough revolution while Kenny favourite Andrew Omobamidele is back from his long-term injury at Norwich City, albeit not with the recent frequency he’d like.
Luke McNally is another option on the rise, his capture from Burnley on loan coinciding with an uptick for Coventry City, while Seán McLoughlin has just been voted Hull City’s Player of the Month. That’s before we factor in another ex-Cork City graduate in Kevin Long of Birmingham City.
All of which shunts Duffy to the margins. Mitigation through what’s he done for Kenny — scoring equalisers against Bulgaria and Azerbaijan, forcing the leveller against Serbia and forcing the breakthrough in the win over Luxembourg — won’t rescue the Derryman from the shelf.
A calf strain that kept him off the Fulham bench for Sunday’s drubbing by Arsenal may render the debate academic but it’s a long way back for the man mountain who turns 32 in January.
Kenny has other calls to make in a squad that is likely to be closer numerically to the 26 he went with in November rather than 24 for the competitive double-header two months earlier.
Rest assured that anyone who forked out for the duo package will see Evan Ferguson I the flesh. Such has been the scale of his impact since his first cameos off the bench in November that he’s a cast iron starter against Les Bleus.
He’s beyond comparison when the formbook of Irish strikers is analysed.
Michael Obafemi befits that category of certainties as Well. Vincent Kompany finally got his man at the end of the January transfer window and is sensibly managing his transition into the Championship winners elect with an eye on the sterner testing ground of the Premier League next term.
A fitful season for both Chiedozie Ogbene and Troy Parrott won’t cost them their places but the focus will be on whether Adam Idah profits from Callum Robinson’s injury-enforced absence. The emergence of Ferguson, blessed with the similar hold-up attributes Kenny admires in Idah, creates a dilemma for the manager when the easiest thing is simply to reward the Corkman’s return to action with a recall.
Beyond the conventional strikers, Mikey Johnston will add depth to the Wide attacking areas. His on-loan Vitória Guimarães last week let his maiden call-up slip, not that it’s surprising given the joy in Kenny’s voice talking up the new recruit.
Mark Sykes is another probable, having used his debut against the Maltese as a springboard to consolidate his berth as a Bristol City wing-back.
The Latvia audition might also see Blackburn Rovers’s FA Cup hero Sam Szmodics be blooded after he finally received his international clearance, deepening the pool of midfielders with an eye for goal.
Back into midfield and the absence of Preston’s captain Alan Browne at the weekend needn’t trigger concerns, for he was genuinely otherwise engaged at his partner’s bedside while giving birth to their child.
His goal in the November defeat to Norway cemented his status as one of the midfielders alongside anchorman Josh Cullen, with Jayson Molumby still well positioned to occupy the other.
Callum O’Dowda fared well enough against Malta to suggest he’s not just a squad member but in the conversation for the left wing berth previously rotated between James McClean, Robbie Brady and Enda Stevens. Fitness problems for the latter appear to rule him out of these ones.
How many of Kenny’s squad suffer knocks over the weekend could minimise the difficult decisions for France – a desirable issue Ireland haven’t been burdened with much in recent campaigns.
Chuck scorn their way and Bohemians not only repel but regularly excel.
They’ve been long considered the League of Ireland’s hipster club, associated with craft beer, climate action and poetry, but the serious side to their off-field activities was outlined at Dublin’s Mansion House on Monday at the launch of their strategy on community Work and football social responsibility.
Government Minister Roderic O’Gorman was present to offer his blessing to the rebrand from Bohs Foundation, bestowing status as change agents in the community and inclusiveness space that other national League are also taking an interest, albeit a limited in most cases.
Bohs don’t retain a copyright on operating with a conscience but what they do is done well, especially putting money where their mouth is when it comes to serving their 3,000 or so members.
Football Social Responsibility (FSR) officer James Flanagan is the latest recruit among their seven full-time non-football staff, engrained in what was floated centrally as the ‘virtuous cycle’ within The Club’s Broader Charter.
Powerful speeches by James Conroy, player manager of the club’s amputee team, and Karen Halpin, whose Down Syndrome son got a new lease of life by joining their Special Champions team, has many an attendee in the Oak Room welling up.
Bohs are 13 years without a trophy but reassessed their priorities to measure success through other criteria after near-extinction.
Building on a rapid start to the campaign by regaining their European spot would be welcome but won’t define them.
Pizza slices were on the menu for FAI staff last week as their chiefs continued with their pledge of fusing a workforce often feeling under control of a fragmented employer.
A survey of staff undertaken by specialist consultants Inspiring Change delivered a damning assessment of workplace culture; 78% of 206 participants informing Jonathan Hill in stark terms of their thoughts on the FAI a full three years after the regime led by his predecessor John Delaney had left the building. Undervalued with a recurrent theme.
Change has definitely been evident since, in personnel stakes anyway.
Hill was flanked at the top table of the Sport Ireland auditorium by Louise Cassidy and Aoife Rafferty, two recruits delegated to lead the charge.
Ms Cassidy, as MarkComms chief, was behind the rebrand unveiled later on Thursday, to varied reviews while Ms Rafferty is in charge of People & Culture, known generically as human resources.
In the latter context, recognising length of service with presentations of framed miniature versions of the new Castore jersey was a welcome gesture, even if some of the more disgruntled employees shunned the public show of affection.
Three core values — Passion, Purpose and Togetherness — were magnified by management to symbolise the ‘new’ FAI and detractors were implored to finally get on the bus. That’s good and well in theory, so long as the wheels are locked in.
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