The news that Shane Duffy made the SPFL Team of the Month for January is as ridiculous as Neil Lennon’s recent assertion that he may try to get him back on loan for next season. These are clearly attempts at trolling.
Lennon’s is not particularly funny.
The SPFL at least has shown it has a sense of humour. There can be no other explanation.
Lennon’s comments are plainly ridiculous, the sort which call into question everything about his judgement. We can be glad he won’t be around to put such plans into motion.
The SPFL … I really have no idea what they are doing with their own nonsense.
I wrote lovingly about the idea of Duffy before he signed. I thought it was the move that put ten in a row in the back, a big no-nonsense centre back with top level experience after years in the Premiership. That he was an Irish international and Celtic daft was a bonus. It looked like a no-lose deal, the kind of signing we could celebrate.
God, that is the most wrong I’ve been about anything in a long time.
Duffy has been an unmitigated disaster in every way.
Whenever I think of him these days I think about what Nick Hornby wrote about Gus Caesar in Fever Pitch, his superb book about growing up an Arsenal fan.
That book is full of really great little stories; the one about Caesar (which in the book serves as a metaphor for how misleading self-belief can be) recalls one match where he “looked like a fan who had won a Be A Player For A Day competition”.
He has to be one of the worst central defenders I’ve seen at Celtic Park in many, many years.
With his foot on the ball he’s dangerous.
When trying to run against a forward who can muster any burst of speed he is flat-footed. For a big guy, and one who came with a bruiser’s reputation, he is astonishingly easy to push off the ball and bully.
There are some of our defensive woes which you say are down to bad defensive coaching; our positioning for set-pieces is abysmal for starters. But there are other elements which are simply down to individuals lacking in something whether it’s heart, or bottle or willingness … Duffy seems to lack all of it.
It is genuinely shocking how poor he’s been.
Duffy has proven to be a colossal waste of money and time. He has proved that having a big name isn’t any guarantee of success. He’s yet another EPL footballer who came down here thinking this was a holiday and got the rude awakening.
Not half as bad, though, as the one we’ve got watching him.