The Stand With Eamon Dunphy

Never liked Dunphy always thought he was a little weasel. Have always respected John Giles and have listened to him on OTB since he staryed on it. I do agree though it is coming to an end and wont be long before John packs it in.

Once one door shuts another opens, though. We now have football podcasts left, right and centre. The likes of Jonathon Wilson, Lars Sivertson, Tim Vickery, Ken Early etc to entertain us. Football punditry is better now than ever imo.

Of current football-related podcasts, I really like "The rest is football" with Gary Lineker, Shearer and Micah Richards. Yes I know Richards can be a bit painful but overall it's a good show, plenty of honest and frank debate. The lads are definitely free'er with their opinions on it than they would be on MOTD.

Yea Nevin is good but i used only listen to him on OTB on a Monday but haven't in quite a while. I only mentioned the few i did as they sprung to mind but there are others i like the lads on Totally Football Show too, Dan McDonnell is usually quite informative especially on League of Ireland where him and his sidekick Johny Ward also have a good podcast. Plenty to go around.

Newstalk / Off The Ball are completely painful for the most part in my opinion. They're the guys who've lobbied for Stephen Kenny for the last few years, the great white hope for Irish football and look how thats turned out....

Their recent paid subscriptions model has gone down like a lead balloon too, so I believe.

Dunphy needs to have Brady and Giles on at the same time...there are certain obvious mistakes that they let slip. Certain type won't tolerate it which is understandable.

OTB generally take the PC line...you're not allowed give an honest opinion anymore don't you know.

It's topical with the book and documentaries recently...there is a doting element to it despite how good Brady was...I reckon it was more a case that he was somewhat forgotten/underrated in Ireland because he wasn't part of 88 and 90.. also it prob didn't help that he was playing in Italy rather than England. I've heard a few ex pros (most recently Matt LeTissier) say that they wanted to be like Liam Brady...that's the best measure of how good someone was.

Given the death of Terry Venables, I listened to the podcast today to hear if there was any reference to Eamon’s famous hatchet job when TV was being mentioned for the Irish job. Sadly it was all very polite and positive

So he made no reference at all to that hatchet job he did on him? Unbelievable. It’s there on YouTube for all to see! It was over the top, even by Eamon’s standards. If I vaguely recall, Venables considered taking legal action against him at the time for defamation.

He definitely lost any chance he had of getting the Irish job as a result. But then again TV never really had any serious coaching / management success after the England job. His stint at Leeds was a disaster and he had an ill-fated 2nd stint with England as assistant to McClaren which ended disastrously too.

Hearing Eamon & John talking about S.Bruce being a potentially good next appointment for Ireland sends a shiver down my spine. Seriously, pray to god it isnt him.

What’s this thing with Ruby Walsh on shilling the gambling / horse racing industry. I didn’t make it past 10 minutes.

It's very possible that a mediocre club manager could be a good international manager though and vice versa. A lot depends on the characters and attitudes. History shows that.

A top coach, maybe, but a total chancer in business. Disqualified in 1998 from acting as a company director for seven years for misdemeanours including bribery, deception, manipulation of accounts and misappropriation of funds intended for creditors. It's rumoured he often facilitated transfer dealings at clubs he managed by making illegal payments, "bungs" as they were called, to opposition managers and coaches in the form of cash in brown paper bags which would be handed over at motorway service stations. This kind of practice was rumoured to be rife in English football back in the seventies and eighties. There was always a whiff of sulphur surrounding "El Tel".

Many things are farcical with Dunphy but I cant help but like the man, he's not my type of politics either. But one thing you can say about his show is that its entertaining. Surprisingly, my favourite guests of his are Fionnan Sheehan, Tom Cloonan and J.Giles. Guys I doubt would be my cup of tea in real life.

He'd be gone in a heartbeat if a Premier league came calling.

I was just thinking the last time I was listening to Chris John’s on the stand that I haven’t heard Eamo mention Johns description of Boris Johnson’s Tory cabinet as “journalists, right wing hacks and after dinner speakers” in a while. At one stage he used to mention that like clockwork in every podcast with Johns much to Johns noticeable annoyance. He must have told Eamo he was done if he didn’t stop that constant reference!