Damien Duff passionately explains why Irish football doesn’t produce top players anymore

"I get slaughtered for training lads five times a week."

Damien Duff has a theory about why Irish football isn't producing talented players the way it once did. According to the former Chelsea winger, young Irish players don't spend enough time playing football or being coached. Duff is currently a coach with Shamrock Rovers' Under-15 side. He said on RTE on Tuesday evening that he has been criticised for insisting that his team train five times a week. https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/935181284661489665 Duff believes that young Irish players should be training more and we cannot expect the country to produce professional footballers doing two training sessions a week. He also said the underage seasons in Ireland are too short. "My problem is, kids - and I think the kids themselves can take responsibility as well, and coaches at their clubs - kids don't touch the ball enough," Duff said on coverage of the Champions League tie between Manchester United and Young Boys.

"They can train more at their clubs. I get slaughtered for training lads five times a week. That's dinosaur mentality, you have to train five times a week. I went to play Chelsea during the season, they train seven times a week. "But most (Irish) teams train twice, maybe three times a week. So, that's a problem already. Do we play enough games? Absolutely not."

Duff went on to say that his Under-15 side played for roughly six months of the year. He said that this wasn't enough, and they needed to be playing for 11 months of the year. Didi Hamann backed up Duff's point and said that in the south of Germany, where he is from, they play for 11 months of the year at underage level, and have indoor facilities for when the weather gets bad during the winter. You can watch Duff here: https://twitter.com/RTEsoccer/status/1067501698346708992