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18th Nov 2014

Eamon Dunphy speaks out regarding Roy Keane’s recent behaviour

Well this was inevitable...

Paul Moore

Well this was inevitable…

If there is anyone who can rival Roy Keane for the title of ‘soundbite king’ then it’s definitely RTE’s outspoken, engaging and upfront broadcaster Eamon Dunphy.

There are few things that JOE loves more than hearing from the nations most loved/hated pundit and his views on the Irish assistant manager are just as unflinching as you would come to expect.

Speaking with RTE, Dunphy feels that Keane’s recent behaviour has been an unwelcome distraction for Irish players;

The Keane situation now is out of control. It’s gotta stop, the Roy Keane stuff.

Bill Kenwright, the Everton chairman, is on television tonight talking about Keane’s madness, he had a go at Everton. This is the Roy Keane show now, it’s a circus. If Martin O’Neill doesn’t get a grip on it, it’s going to get worse.

There’s a lot of players out there we’d like to sign [up]. We have to have a reputation as an international soccer team for professionalism, discipline and behaving properly, which means keeping your mouth shut on occasion – which is not something Roy Keane is able to do.

The former Irish captain was as frank as ever recently when speaking with members of the press especially in relation to the international future of Aston Villa’s own Jack Grealish. Dunphy reckons that Keane’s remarks might have a negative impact on Martin O’Neill’s ability to attract players who qualify through their parents or grandparents.

(There were) very serious remarks he made about Jack Grealish. There’s a young player we’re trying to get, he’s at Aston Villa and Keane had a go at his father.

But diplomacy is the way you deal with that and it’s also the way you persuade Jack Grealish to play for Ireland. Having a go at his father is not.

There’s a lot of players out there we’d like to sign [up]. We have to have a reputation as an international soccer team for professionalism, discipline and behaving properly, which means keeping your mouth shut on occasion – which is not something Roy Keane is able to do.

We all know that Dunphy and Keane have a fractured history to say the least but the ghost writer of Keane’s first book thinks that the media outbursts from the former Ireland captain could be a hindrance to Ireland’s Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.

If that goes on then the Irish soccer team is going to become a circus and a joke and it’s going to damage our results.

I would question why he’s out with the media, attacking journalists, having provided the fodder in the first place for the questions they were asking. This has to stop, and it has to stop now.

Roy Keane would not have been given the job of Irish team manager on his merits and now he is effectively speaking for the FAI. And the things he is saying, are not things Martin O’Neill or the FAI should be saying.

Dunphy even suggested that Keane’s behaviour was a source of distraction and encouragement for the Scottish cam ahead of last Friday’s qualifier in Celtic Park.

“I saw Gordon Strachan making fun of Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane in his press conference last week, talking about his own assistant Mark McGhee and saying sarcastically ‘we fight every night about Scrabble’,” said the RTÉ analyst.

“But it was before the match, and it feeds into a mood that would have been in the Scottish camp, where they have no respect. The one thing you want your opponents to do is respect you.

Somehow we don’t think that this will be the last word on the issue.