Eamon Dunphy has taken aim at Ian Harte for his questionable remarks last week on the state of the League of Ireland.
Former Ireland international Harte spoke on the LOI in an interview with a betting site, erroneously referring to it as the 'Irish League' on multiple occasions.
Harte spoke positively on some aspects of the League's recent boom but his take on the transfer business carried out by LOI clubs was hugely questionable at best.
The 47-year-old, who has worked as an agent since his retirement as a player, suggested that League of Ireland clubs were hampering young players from developing and enjoying fruitful careers. Furthermore, he suggested that those same clubs were pricing overseas clubs out of moves for their young talent.
Understandably, these comments did not go down well with League of Ireland fans and punters. In typical fashion, Eamon Dunphy did not hold back one bit in going after Harte this week.
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"He can f*ck off" - Eamon Dunphy slates Ian Harte for League of Ireland remarks
Writing in his column in the Irish Mirror on Monday, Eamon Dunphy addressed Ian Harte's controversial remarks on the current state of the League of Ireland.
Dunphy accused Harte of being completely out of touch with the league, asking the ex-Ireland left back to give examples of players who had been prevented from making their 'big move' overseas by League of Ireland clubs in recent years.
That Dunphy was able to call on the examples of Sam Curtis, Mason Melia, and Evan Ferguson as counter-arguments only served to draw Harte's remarks further into question.
It wouldn't be a vintage Eamon Dunphy takedown without a Dunphyism, though, and that landed in perfect fashion with a completely unexpected reference to Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose death precipated the First World War.
I have no idea what Ian Harte is talking about. In fact, I am not sure Ian Harte knows what he is talking about, either.
Now let’s face it. He was not exactly Franz Beckenbauer. He was barely even Franz Ferdinand.
He was a poor left back. As for his views on the game, well, Stephen Kenny had it just about right when he called him ‘an empty vessel’.
Let’s be straight here. Harte’s view of the ‘Irish League’ was stupid, ill-informed and miles away from what is actually happening here.
Dunphy went on to deliver an impassioned defence of the League of Ireland, also calling Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrímsson and FAI Director of Football Marc Canham into disrepute for their engagement with it.
And, if anyone was in doubt about Dunphy's sentiment towards Ian Harte, he closed out his piece in ruthless fashion.
"To be perfectly blunt, he can f*** off with his viewpoint," Dunphy said, "We didn’t need to hear it."
We've been sorely lacking some box office Eamon Dunphy on our TV screens in recent years. Whatever your view on Ian Harte's contentious League of Ireland remarks, Dunphy has certainly made his presence known in explosive fashion once again.
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