Eamon Dunphy - Autobiography
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During his TV3 interview with journalist
Ursula Halligan, broadcast in January 2010, Eamon
Dunphy mentioned that he was working on his memoirs. Given his
varied and somewhat chequered background it should make for very
interesting reading. Although he has limited number of titles to
his name he is an accomplished writer. Add to this that he has never
been regarded as someone that pulls his
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punches his autobiography could make for an
explosive publication that could turn out to be a hit with the public and
the critics alike. Then again if, as most people suspect - although he denied
it in his TV3 interview, that he craves and courts controversy can we be
sure that his memoirs will contain his real views or will he load his autobiography
with headline grabbers just for the sake of grabbing a headline.
What will make it into Eamon Dunphy's
Autobiography?
Possible Non-Football Issues for the Dunphy
Memoirs
Nevertheless the thing that interests me
is what will make it into the Dunphy autobiography and what will he leave
it. He has been involved in a lot of controversial incidents over the
year and while this is a a soccer site I have to admit to what his take
on some of his non-football related antics. During his interview with
Halligan he touched off a few tasty morsels that, perhaps, we've heard
or read about but weren't covered in a lot of detail in the public arena.
Things such as his admitted cocaine usage while working on talk radio
show. He told Halligan that he didn't use much and it was just part of
his mid-life crisis. Then there is his multiple drink driving offences
- he was given a ten year driving ban for that. Around the same time Eamon
Dunphy was also taken off the air and suspended by RTE when he reportedly
turned up drunk at the TV studies for coverage of an early morning match
between Japan and Russia during the 2002
Word Cup finals. Dunphy said at the time "I was not actually
drunk - I had been. I had not been terribly drunk, but I had not slept,
or been to bed." Despite this and the drink driving ban Dunphy
claimed during the TV3 interview that he was not a "big drinker".
I'm not sure if he was referring to the amount he drinks or his physical
stature - apparently he is 5' 2" in height.
Football-related issues for the Eamon
Dunphy Book
My first recollection of Eamon Dunphy's
penchant for courting controversy was during the 1984 Euro championship
finals. At the start of the tournament Dunphy refused to go along with
the consensus view that Michel Platini was a great player. "He's
a god player - not a great player." Dunphy maintained this position
right throughout the tournament as the French, led magnificently by Platini,
swept all before them and beat Spain in the final 2-0. Michel Platini
scored in every match including two hat tricks in the group stages. He
won the golden boot as top scorer with nine goals from five matches. Even
after the final Dunphy brazenly maintained that Platini was simply a "good
player" on the basis that the French genius didn't have the right
"values" - whatever that meant. Maybe Dunphy's memoirs
will clarify matters all these years later.
More recently Dunphy has espoused controversially
contrarian views on other important figures in Irish soccer and beyond.
If it truly is an honest autobiography perhaps Dunphy will recant on his
view that Roy Keane
is a "gentleman", or that Niall
Quinn is a "creep", or that Steven Gerrard is a "nothing
player", or that Peter Schmeichel is a "big blonde baby
in a man's world", or that Cristiano Ronaldo is a "A
puffball. Will never be a player as long as he has a hole in his ****".
Surely he will have to recant on some of these views - but then maybe
not - we are talking about Eamon Dunphy here.
Finally I would like to think that Dunphy
will conduct a honest review and analysis of his comments on, and views
of, former Republic of Ireland
managers Jack
Charlton and Mick
McCarthy. Surely as the only two Irish managers that have succeeded
in leading the Republic to the finals of a major championships (something
that his fellow soccer pundit and friend Johnny
Giles failed to do). Charlton and McCarthy represent the two most
successful Irish football managers ever and have served Irish soccer well.
Surely if it is an honest autobiography Dunphy will admit that he was
wrong. In the TV3 interview he said that his working title for his memoirs
is "Wrong About Everything".
Is this tongue in cheek or does it suggest
that Eamon Dunphy will take the opportunity to come clean on his real
views in his autobiography? Only time will tell
John
Hogan
Eamon
Dunphy Football Player - Eamon
Dunphy & Saipan - Eamon
Dunphy's Autobiography
Eamon Dunphy Quotes
References :
Who Stole Our Game: The Fall and
Fall of Irish Soccer; Daire Whelan (2006); Gill & Macmillan
Ltd
The Team that Jack Built; Paul Rowan (1994); Mainstream
Publishing Company (Edinburgh) Ltd
Eamon Dunphy Wikipedia Entry
TV Interview; Eamon Dunphy & Ursula Halligan (2010); TV3, Dublin,
Ireland
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