It is safe to say that Eamon Dunphy is not excited about the future of football.
The RTÉ pundit was speaking on 2FM's Game On on Monday evening where he declared the end of soccer as a sport due to a lack of talent worldwide and a lack of people playing the sport.
Louis Van Gaal came in for criticism, with Anthony Martial's injury at the weekend used as an example of his failings, while the Brazil team from the 2014 World Cup was again brought up to outline who crap everyone now is.
You can't celebrate mediocrity, that's the road to hell. What we are seeing at the moment is the end of soccer as a sport in my opinion. The beginning of the end.
There are no players to thrill you and there are managers like Van Gaal who make you feel depressed. I know real Manchester United fans, real football fans, would look at that game [vs Norwich] as hard work to watch it. It was boring and dull.
If you look at United's bench, they had about £200m worth of talent, including Schneiderlin, Memphis who came on in the end. Martial pulled his hamstring in the warm up. That's the second time this season. This £35m player, £50m when you add in appearances and that, has pulled his hamstring in the warm up. Now what's going on with the fitness coach? How come he keeps pulling his hamstring in the warm up.
This is not acceptable and the manager is responsible for that.
He also said last week that he was a great coach. He has won things in the past but if that was the way you kept the score, all the has-beens would be out in their glory.
One thing that was not used as a stick to beat the Dutchman with was his spending since taking over as Manchester United boss, perhaps surprising as many other had pointed to that as one of his biggest problems, but instead Dunphy claimed that if someone was to be given £2bn to spend, they would struggle to come up with something better.
If you had £2billion to spend, this is soccer's problem, you would not know where to go because there are no (players). Don't forget the Brazil team in the last World Cup. They were beaten 7-1 in their home country in the semi-final of the World Cup by a pretty ordinary German team, one that we beat 1-0 in the Aviva Stadium.
That's where world football is and there is no getting away from it. Other sports, rugby, golf, hurling, horse, flat jumps - it's getting better and better and better and more exciting. Soccer is going rapidly in the other direction because people don't play it any more.
He's right about flat jumps, it's a fantastic time to be a fan of that thrilling sport.
But there you have it. Forget Messi, Neymar, and Suarez, forget Ronaldo and all his records, forget the thrilling young talent coming out of France such as Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann, and Anthony Martial, or the Leicester side that just broke the "big club" monopoly on the Premier League... Football is going down the drain.
