Whether you love him or hate him, veteran RTÉ pundit Eamon Dunphy knows how to get people talking.
Never shy to speak his mind when he doesn't agree with something, or someone, Dunphy was speaking on RTÉ 2FM's Game On on Monday night when he took a leaf out of the UFC's book and called out Ken Early of the Second Captains.
Early had published an article for the Irish Times on Monday morning which offered a defense of Jurgen Klopp, who has come in for criticism regarding Liverpool's defensive struggles as of late.
Dunphy disagreed with the following point in particular:
That’s because Klopp, like Pep Guardiola, is one of those system managers who believes that the best way to defend is to play the game in the other team’s half, far away from your goal. And their systems appear to work, because City and Liverpool are also the two teams who have had most shots on their opponents’ goals.
This prompted Eamon to question why Early had taken such a stance, and while he admitted that he does enjoy his work, he was unimpressed with the lack of names mentioned when referring to football pundits, and he laid down the gauntlet for an unprecedented football debate.
Everyone knows about their defence except one very prominent writer, who I think is a nice writer but he wrote a piece today about defending. It was daft. He is a very good writer but he is the one on the attack without naming people, he mentions 'pundits' - who are the football pundits?
Why doesn't he come out and name people and have a proper debate? I'd love to debate him. You could sell tickets to that. If you want to put it on, bring it on baby!
I really admire him and they know that because I did programmes with them and I don't want to put them down but they seem to want to prove that you don't need to know anything about football to write about it or comment on it.
If you go on the offensive, you have to be prepared for the attacked person, the victim in this case, to say, hold on let's talk about this. I think John [Giles] upset him actually, John had a go at him and I didn't think John was right to do that because everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Giles did indeed have a pop at Early in the past, as he claimed that he wouldn't agree with anything he says, but when we welcomed Ken onto our Premier League review show last season he certainly did not seem upset about it as he joked that he was sad to learn that making cups of tea for people did not make them respect you, as a nod to when he previously worked with Giles.
How he reacts to this call out remains to be seen, although if he doesn't do it WWE style with some form of elaborate costume, we're going to be disappointed.
While Sky Box Office may not be interested in hosting the PPV, it certainly would generate interest among those who follow the work of both Dunphy and Early, which it's tough to deny is sizeable chunk of Irish sports fans.
More to follow, we hope.
You can listen to Monday's episode of Game On in full over on RTE.ie.
