Search icon

Sport

21st Oct 2016

Eamon Dunphy makes outrageous claim about Leo Messi and Barca – is instantly proved wrong

Well that went well

Robert Redmond

Eamon Dunphy has made a name for himself by making (presumably) deliberately outrageous comments in his role as a pundit for Irish TV.

The RTE football analyst was a professional for Millwall, Reading and Shamrock Rovers, played 23 times for the Republic of Ireland and has been a journalist for almost 40 years.

His diary Only a Game, is one of the best books about football you’re ever likely to read, and he was a ghost-writer for Roy Keane on his first autobiography. Dunphy’s been good value over the years in the RTE studio, shooting from the hip and never afraid to voice an opinion, or row back on one he made earlier.

So, while most seem to dismiss the 71-year-old, and call for him to be retired from the RTE panel, this writer still finds him amusing. Dunphy’s spiel is a break from the proper football men and boring, recently retired players (we all know who they are) that populate British football punditry.

However, you can’t make a claim like this and not expect to be taken to task over it.

Just before Barcelona and Manchester City came out for the second-half of their Champions League tie at the Nou Camp on Wednesday night, with the home side leading 1-0 thanks a goal from Lionel Messi, Dunphy made a bold claim about the best player in the world and the Catalan club.

“I think the Barcelona project is in decline,” Dunphy said.

“I don’t think they are the team they were. (Andreas) Iniesta is 32, (Sergio) Busquets is having a really poor time. And I think Messi is beginning to show signs of decline.”

Barcelona went on to win 4-0 and Messi scored a hat-trick.

He also won a penalty for Neymar, which the Brazilian missed, and made a mockery of Dunphy’s claim. Twitter was typically unforgiving.

https://twitter.com/AllOuttaAle/status/788829750190039040

https://twitter.com/DavidONeillRDS/status/788840965339488257

FFL new