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Eamon Dunphy Calls Out Roy Keane Over Declan Rice Comments On ITV | Balls.ie
Every time a major tournament rolls around, many Irish footballing fans tend to reflect fondly on previous eras of football punditry in this country. That is the case once again during Euro 2024, where many long for the days that John Giles, Eamon Dunphy, and Liam Brady anchored the football coverage on RTÉ.
That trio provided countless memorable moments for viewers down through the years, with the coverage on the channel never quite being the same after they were split up.
When it comes to current pundits, many feel that Roy Keane is the one that provides the most entertainment value. The Cork man certainly is not afraid to give strong opinions during his appearances on Sky Sports or ITV.
However, one of the previously mentioned former RTÉ trio is not convinced by his punditry during Euro 2024.
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Eamon Dunphy Calls Out Roy Keane Over His Declan Rice Comments
Roy Keane has been largely kind to England during his Euro 2024 punditry despite the nation’s struggles at the tournament, although there was one exception.
He would call out Declan Rice yesterday for his response to the criticism England have received, saying that it was something he had to accept if he and the team were failing to perform.
The modern player seems to be a bit more delicate to criticism, I know there’s more of it because of social media particularly, but again these players – I judge players by actions..
Declan Rice is talking about ‘show some love’. Listen, come on, it’s serious stuff. This is football stuff. People have made huge sacrifices to travel.
You get the love back when you perform. We all played at a decent level and when things are going great people are patting you on the back, but the reality is if you’re not performing you get criticised.
However, some have questioned the credibility of those comments.
Writing in the Irish Mirror, Eamon Dunphy admitted that he was not impressed with Roy Keane as a pundit, giving his criticism of Rice as an example as to why that is the case.
Fear is not a word you’d associate with Roy Keane. If anything, he is a box-office attraction with his willingness to lash into anybody.
While that’s all well and good, the fact remains that Keane is a poor analyst. His knowledge of the game is thin…
Now, in his second career in a television studio, he will slag off anyone.
You might think, ‘well, that’s great’. Except his credibility can be questioned by some of his statements…
[Declan] Rice, remember, played under Keane and Martin O’Neill for Ireland before defecting to England.
It was their own fault he switched allegiance. They could easily have capped Rice in a competitive game for Ireland had they had the foresight to do so. Instead they dithered. Rice disappeared.
Now Keane delivers scathing assessments of him and while this gives off the impression he is a straight-shooting pundit.
Roy Keane is one of the most popular pundits in the game at the moment, but it seems as though he has not impressed Eamon Dunphy.
Still, you get the sense that he will attract quite a few viewers to ITV over the remainder of Euro 2024.