Omens are good that Damien Duff will be back
In the days following Damien Duff's abrupt departure from Shelbourne, the focus was on what the effect might be on the League of Ireland.
Duffer's Stardust had propelled it to the back and occasionally, the front pages. And while the surge in popularity over the last few years feels like it is sustainable, there's no doubt that this is a setback for a league that was only getting used to being the centre of the national sporting conversation.
But whatever about what's next for the league, one wonders what will be the next step for Duff? Even allowing for his interview on Shels' in-house channel two days before his resignation, where he lamented the fact that all the energy had to come from him, his decision last Sunday still felt hasty and impulsive, the sort of thing he may have been regretting in the car as he drove back to Wicklow. Damien Duff. Pic: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile
His exit, just two weeks before a massive Champions League local derby against Linfield, created loads of memes about the fact that Duff leaves once the going gets tough, which is a little unfair, considering where he has brought this club over the past three and a half years. But his track record of hasty retreats from Ireland, Celtic and now Shels does not make for good reading.
There may have been different reasons for each departure, but it may give any ambitious chairman of a Championship club in England pause for thought if they were thinking of appointing the Ireland legend.
Duff has always claimed that he wants to remain in Ireland, but that he could also never see himself managing another team in the league. Damien Duff. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
So, that just leaves Shelbourne as his only avenue back into management. Over the past few years, Duffer has proven to be impossible to second-guess. But if he regrets his decision last Sunday, might there be a way back for him at Tolka Park? Maybe this decision was not final.
A European showdown with the champions of the North, a winnable tie even for a Shelbourne team who have been struggling for form, and then Europe might open up into an odyssey.
It is just the sort of thing that could make Duff have second thoughts. Perhaps, where he will end up next is the place he left so abruptly last Sunday? Stranger things have happened.
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