Just when you thought all was rosey in the garden the atmosphere in the RTE studio turned positively icy.
In a bizarre row, even by RTÉ football analysis standards, Eamon Dunphy turned on presenter Darragh Moloney before tonight's match and told him 'you don't know what you're talking about' when he quoted a stat from Irish Sun journalist Neil O'Riordan.
O'Riordan had pointed out in the build-up to today that Wes Hoolahan has not played two full matches in the space of four days since December 2011. A stat Moloney thought worth mentioning given that Martin O'Neill had just said Hoolahan actually told him he wasn't feeling fully fit, which was why he decided not to start him.
Dunphy however, was having none of it and said that the stat made him even more suspicious and questioned why O'Riordan said it.
I played the game for 17 years a professional and so did these guys. You [Moloney] don't know what you're talking about.
...
Why did that 'genius' from the Sun point out that statistic?
Thankfully, Liam Brady brought some common sense to the situation and said you had to take O'Neill at his word. However....
'I'm not going to let it go. This is important,' said Dunphy, before my favourite moment of the whole thing, when Brady went to Dunphy 'well go for it then' and threw his eyes to the air.
Meanwhile...
If Eamon Dunphy really called me a genius on @RTEsoccer I'm suing. That's defamation.
— Neil O'Riordan (@noriordan) October 11, 2015
Also read: Martin O'Neill Explained Why Wes Hoolahan Was Left Out Of The Ireland Starting Lineup
