Eamon Dunphy's most savage punditry putdowns as legendary RTE analyst turns 80
As an RTE pundit alongside Johnny Giles and Liam Brady, the group became unmissable viewing under the stewardship of presenter Bill O'Herlihy on the national broadcaster and often provided more entertainment than the game itself.
While Giles and Brady produced their finest moments on the field as two of the greatest Irish footballers of all time, Dunphy really shone under the spotlight of the TV cameras.
In 2018, he stepped back from his RTE TV duties and he has been sorely missed by football fans on the box. His acid tongue and brutally honest opinions were often the highlight of any live TV game on RTE.
As a long-time pundit, Dunphy watched some of the finest players in the history of the game and has been suitable unimpressed by quite a lot of them. The following are players Dunphy has described as 'not great on TV:
Steven Gerrard (a nothing player)
Zinedine Zidane (not a great player)
Michel Platini (not a great player, no bottle)
Diego Maradona (not a great player)
Dunphy could wax lyrical about a player when he wanted to but it's the cutting comments that will live longest in the memory. As the legendary Dubliner turns 80, we look back at his 10 best one-liners and putdowns.
1. On Harry Kewell: "He's fat and a clown, a fat clown for all to see"
2. On Niall Quinn: "Niall Quinn is a creep. The man's an idiot, a Mother Teresa"
3. On Cristiano Ronaldo: " Ronaldo is a disgrace to the game. His petulance, temperament, throwing himself on the ground. It was a disgrace to professional football. This fella Ronaldo is a cod."
4. On Mick McCarthy: "He's one of the biggest whingers in world football… he's a bloody eejit." Bill O'Herlihy, Johnny Giles, Liam Brady and Eamon Dunphy in the RTE studio
5. On Steve Staunton: "Would you let him drive the train to Cork?"
6. On John Giles: "Usually it takes a bottle of Bacardi and a gallon of Coke to get John out of his seat."
7. On Garth Crooks interviewing Sven Goran Eriksson on BBC: "That's the first time I've seen sex between two men on the BBC."
8. On the very hostile boardroom at Real Madrid: "Bill, Bill... those directors over there are on another planet. They're on mushrooms or something...they're on acid, Bill."
9. On John Hartson: "I have a clip here of why Hartson is NOT a £7million player....Roll it there Bill! (1 second in to the clip) Ok, hold it there Bill. (Draws a circle around Hartson's arse) Bill, that is NOT the arse of a £7million player!''
10. On the Alex Ferguson-Gordon Strachan feud: 'Scots they're either nice or they're horrid and these two are horrid.
Bill: 'The Scots wont like that Eamon, that's bordering on racism'.
Eamon: 'It's not racism, it's ethnic criticism, Bill'.
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