Shelbourne boss Damien Duff: ‘As long as I’m wanted here, I’m staying here’

Damien Duff expected his turbulent relationship with Bohemians manager Alan Reynolds to be a topic of conversation this week.

Speaking to the media a few days after Shelbourne shared a point with St Patrick’s Athletic at Richmond Park and three days before Bohs’ visit to Tolka Park, he was unwilling to stoke the embers from last season’s altercation between the two managers in Duff’s office.

“I think you’re a Bohs fan, aren’t you?” he asked the reporter who raised the issue. “You do your homework on me, I do mine on you!”

The 46-year-old had no interest in relitigating the incident with Reynolds, especially on a sunny afternoon in Drumcondra when he preferred to emphasise why his family’s settled life in north Wicklow could be the reason his fourth season at Shelbourne could evolve into a career-long project.

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“To prepare for a game, any game, whether it’s in Europe, the cup or the league is the hardest, most tiring thing I have ever done in my life. The game finished last Friday at 10pm, late home, you watch the Pat’s game, you’re up early the next day.

“The only day off is Sunday, but it’s not a day off because Pat’s and Bohs all roll into one. You are watching them all day and it soon rolls into Monday, and you’re planning the sessions. But it’s all Bohs, Bohs, Bohs ...

“My son, wife and daughter are critical: ‘you’re always on your laptop’ because it’s 24-7.

“It would be poor coaching and management from me to be looking at the manager as I would be taking my eye off the ball. I haven’t allowed myself even 1 per cent to think about Alan. Last week, Shels against Pat’s, and I wouldn’t allow myself 1 per cent to think about Stephen [Kenny].

“That is literally the truth.”

At one point during a freewheeling 20-minute press conference, Duff noted that he is “not a top manager”.

In his first season, Shels reached the FAI Cup final. They qualified for Europe the next year and topped the Premier Division in 2024.

“It’s not for me to say ... I always doubt myself, I always assess myself and I always have probably a little bit of paranoia which just drives you on.

“Yeah we won the league, but if I thought I was tops, I would come off it and probably not work as hard. It’s just me; it’s in my DNA and we’re all different.

“There is a phrase in football, ‘you’ve made it’. Maybe it’s sport, maybe it’s life but I was nearly 35 playing in the Premier League, probably not to a great level, but I didn’t think I had made it then.

“If I manage for another 20 or 30 years, I’d never think I have made it or think I was top, top as it’s just on to the next one.”

Duff is also adamant that further success at Shelbourne will not translate into a return to the Premier League.

“As long as I’m wanted here, I’m staying here. Sorry, I’m looking over your shoulder because that’s my son at the back of the room. I’m here because they are here and I want to be here.

“Celtic, over a year without them [in 2019], I will never do that again. Football is my life. The Bill Shankly [quote]: ‘It is more important than life or death’. But when you strip it all back, no, I’m staying with my kids and it’s that simple. I don’t look or picture myself anywhere else but Ireland.”