On Friday, Shane Duffy put in a man of the match display against Switzerland on his second international appearance.
In doing so, he probably secured his ticket to France.
But he was asked afterwards if he thought he had done enough to make the 23-man squad and the Derry man seemed genuinely taken aback.
It was like that was a question which had come completely out of nowhere and if he showed he was even pondering that idea, he would have somehow come across as brash.
“I’m probably miles off it,” Duffy just dismissed the notion instead.
We loved that modesty. Fair play to him, keeping his head down. Good Derry breeding, you see.
The reality is if he had said anything differently, if he even hinted that he was hoping to stay in Martin O’Neill’s plans, we would have been taken aback ourselves. Jesus, your man’s getting ahead of himself, isn’t he? Shane Duffy thinks he’s a superstar now. Don’t like that, comes across as a bit arrogant. He should just let his football do the talking. That sort of thing.
The fact that Jack Byrne’s self-assurance is even an issue sums it all up, really. Martin O’Neill has commented on it three times already – a lot of it in jest in fairness but all of it as a thing. All of it, noticed.
Some try to defend him because of his youth. Some call it the Conor McGregor generation but why on earth is he being defended in the first place? Why can’t he talk about his game or what he can bring to a team?
Imagine a modern day footballer – our idealistic shtum footballer – going for a job interview in this day and age.
– Why do you want to work here?
– Listen, it’s not a case of wanting to work here. I can’t be coming in here and thinking it’s any different to any other place I’ve worked. It’s just another job at the end of the day.
– What can you offer us?
– It’s not about what I can offer. It’s about what the team can offer. All I can do is put my head down, keep working and hope that it’s good enough. If it is, then it is. If it’s not, well…
– Do you think you have the skills and experience to perform the tasks in the job description?
– You’ll have to ask the manager.
– Do you have any questions for us?
– No.
So Jack Byrne came out after the under-21 game with Italy – after his week of training with the seniors – and he delivered a measured, careful, humble interview and we marvelled at it. Suddenly, he was our kind of player. He had learned and he had turned away from the devil of confidence. Rule number one of being Irish.
To a lesser extent, one idea suggesting how Johan Cruyff and his free genius might have inspired people across the world in different sports to lose their inhibitions and create their own magic seemed to offend plenty.
Maybe it was the GAA comparison – soccer and GAA in the same sentence is just ridiculous, verging on blasphemy. Maybe using his sad passing to talk about other moments of brilliance genuinely upset some people. Maybe it was just an Irish thing.
Maybe it was more ridiculous to think that an Irish man was really capable of producing an iconic sporting moment. Maybe an Irish man should never have been mentioned in the same breath as Johan Cruyff. Maybe it was too much that one of our own could inspire the next generation too – their own generation – like the Dutch man did. It might’ve been too much to expect that of an Irish man, no less a GAA man.
You’re not supposed to try that stuff, you see. That’s not the way we do it here.
How often do you go to an underage game – even a primary school match – and there are parents and coaches scowling at young footballers because they’ve tried something audacious? How many times does the manager praise the young defender for lumping the ball forward as hard and as directionless as he can?
How many times has Wes Hoolahan been questioned for God’s sake?
Unfortunately, that’s the way it is in these parts. If you’re a footballer who even thinks about trying something, you’re a risk. If you’re a man who thinks he can be remembered, you’ve lost the run of yourself.
Keep your head down, keep it simple and, for the love of God, don’t talk about anything that might make you seem more interesting.
Just get on with it.
