Duff admits concern for the future of Irish football

Former Republic of Ireland Midfielder Damien Duff feels the future of Irish football is not in a great place at the moment.

Former Republic of Ireland International Damien Duff admits he feels the future of Irish football is not in a great place, regardless of some new young players having been called up to the Ireland squad.

Duff spoke at the Launch of RTÉ's World Cup coverage in Donnybrook on Wednesday, and revealed he isn’t impressed with the future of Irish football.

He said: “I don’t think the future looks particularly bright at the moment, but it’s up to the young lads and the management to play them.”

He added: “Players have to take responsibility as well. They’re not stupid, they’ve played a lot of games, they know how to keep the ball. Everyone’s quick to blame Martin, but I think the players as well need to calm down and put their foot on it.”

Duff who is involved with the Shamrock Rovers U15 squad as well as the First Team feels that Rovers player Graham Burke is a great role model for younger players to look up to.

He said: “Graham Burke gives an awful lot of hope to young lads and also gives league of Ireland players hope and if they do well for the Irish team, they’ll get back to England which Graham will probably do, so we need them to obviously play and do well and step up to the plate.”

Duff reckons that younger players should be given the chance to develop during these friendly internationals instead of pushing them into the deep end during the next qualification period. 

He said: “It’s definitely time to blood new young players, not when the qualifiers or Nations cup come around, lets see I hope something is there”.

Graham Burke and Shane Supple have both recently been called up to the Ireland squad from the League of Ireland, but Duff suggests that anyone who has the technical ability to play for Ireland will make a move abroad once their name is noticed.

“Any quality that is here that deserves national recognition to play for the team, they inevitably end up in England anyway.

“That’s what Graham Burke’s possibly going to do in the next couple of weeks, so I think there are enough players in England, but why not? Graham’s just got two caps as a Rovers player.”