Liam Brady: 'Thanks for the memories'

FAREWELL: Liam Brady bids farewell as he says "thanks for the memories" on his last game for RTÈ. 

Farewell, then, to the last member of RTÉ’s golden generation. Liam Brady bowed out with a 3-0 win that offered more relief than excitement and damp eyes when a montage of his highlights was played beforehand.

An iconic figure whose views travelled far beyond Ireland, Brady has spent most of the past 25 years analysing the game on our screens – only taking a brief break to serve as an assistant to Giovanni Trapattoni before quickly returning. His near-permanence, on the best of days and worst, has provided a familiar comfort even if it has never been dull.

That he has become disillusioned speaks volumes about the game rather than the man but at the end of his contract he has decided now is the time to go. “I’m an old dog, you can’t teach me new tricks,” he said yesterday, pointing to football becoming a plaything for billionaires and the social media cesspit to explain why he has fallen out of love.

Except in many ways Brady, 67, alongside Johnny Giles and Eamon Dunphy delivered the best of social media before social media existed. They did it better than the new age takesmen, too, with a fusion of insight, lived experience and passion that was unmatched by other broadcasters.

They were not a good team, to paraphrase Dunphy, but a great one; urban legend having it that more people would tune in when they were speaking than during the match.

That Brady’s words shaped the narrative right up to the end was the most accurate measure of his impact. Before this encounter James McClean, the eighth man to become an Ireland centurion, adroitly swerved a question around Brady’s claim made following Friday’s embarrassment away to Greece that this was the “worst group of players … in my lifetime.” 

“I’d be very stupid and naive to sit here and take on Liam Brady and criticise Liam Brady with the calibre of player that he was,” McClean said. “I’m not going to do that.” Wise from a man whose words have on more than one occasion, rightly or wrongly, landed him in trouble.

The end of an era pic.twitter.com/HsBroJ9TMP

— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) June 19, 2023

It was an exaggerated statement from Brady, which he has rowed back on, but his status among the country’s greatest has always afforded him the ability to set foot in territory reserved for only the highest achievers within the white lines. Even when his commentary has sounded overly harsh and repetitive, it felt like heresy not to listen and take stock.

There were liberties afforded, no doubt, such as when he admitted to not knowing much about Mikey Johnston, the Glaswegian who earned a third cap off the bench and was swiftly nutmegged for Greece’s matchwinner on Friday before redeeming himself last night with a game-changing appearance off the bench. It was easier to chuckle and think of Brady’s lack of insight as an extended reflection on the standard of player available rather than the absence of research likely in play.

“His willingness to forthrightly address issues without fear or favour was indicative of Liam's personality as a whole,” RTÉ’s head of sport Declan McBennett said in tribute, adding that Brady helped “define modern sports punditry.” 

The absence of a hidden agenda, in a role where relationships muzzle so many from speaking truthfully, was admirable. Brady was not afraid to upset or speak negatively about men he had known for years if it meant providing his unabridged view. While he retained a softer stance on Trapattoni than Giles and Dunphy, he was willing to admit the game was up when the results became as negative as the playing style.

In the communique announcing his exit, Brady listed out a number of his highlights in the analyst’s chair. There was Zinedine Zidane and France at the 1998 World Cup, his first major tournament for RTÉ having spent the previous two working for the straight-laced and sedate BBC. The Champions League heroics of both Manchester United in 1999 and Liverpool in 2005, when Brady like everyone else was handing the trophy over to Milan at half time, received a mention. So too the emergence of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, a team that would redefine how the game is played.

But one line about Dunphy and Giles stood out more than the moments and events. “We had great fun together in between the arguments.” Brady said. The lasting images for long-time viewers will be the pointed fingers, exasperated sighs and raised voices. And while Brady, sitting in the middle of the trinity, was often cast as the more nuanced member of the three he was never short of his own strong opinion. Just do not mention Saipan.

It is seven years since the trio sat together in an RTÉ studio, though they reconvened briefly in 2019 for a series of games on Premier Sports, but Brady continued putting his head above the parapet, unafraid to offend old friends or modern heroes. Only last year, during the World Cup, he was calling Neymar “a cod” – another deep-fried take from the man affectionately known as Chippy.

“Thanks for the memories,” Brady said, doing his best not to make his departure a big deal. The expressions of gratitude should be all ours.