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The ex-Republic of Ireland and Manchester City captain discusses his former clubs and his national team’s chances of World Cup qualification.
Despite their recent win against Armenia, former Republic of Ireland captain Richard Dunne still believes his national team have not progressed under manager Heimir Hallgrimsson.
With qualification matches still to play, Republic of Ireland are currently 750/1 in football betting odds to win the World Cup, with the ex-defender believing it will take a ‘miracle’ for his nation to even make it to the competition.
In our exclusive interview, Dunne also discusses Phil Foden and Tyrone Mings’ chances of making the England squad, as well as the Republic of Ireland’s standout players and Emi Martinez’s future at Aston Villa.
Jack Grealish has made a very good start to life at Everton, but do you believe he can get back to his very best under David Moyes? And do you think Everton will sign him on a permanent deal, if so?
I think he’s pretty close to his best at the moment. He’s had a great start since joining Everton.
He’s playing with a little bit more freedom than he did over the last couple of seasons. He seems to be playing with more consistency, and he has the full trust of the manager. So, I think that’s really helped him.
If he continues in the same vein of form that he’s in at the moment, there’s no doubt that Everton will be pushing to sign him. They’ve already agreed on some sort of pre-transfer fee, so I think it’d be a great signing for Everton.
He’s a very good player, but he sort of lost his way a little bit at Man City. But he’d be a top player if Everton can get him permanently.
Did the club do well to tie Michael Keane down for another year? Has he impressed you this season?
He’s been a really good servant for Everton, and he’s always been someone that they can rely on when they’ve needed him.
I know at times they’ve thought about moving on and bringing in centre-backs, and when Jarrad Branthwaite is fit, he’ll probably play. But every time Michael Keane’s called upon, he performs, he does well, and this season he’s been part of an Everton side which is looking up rather than looking behind them all the time.
So, I think it’s a justified extension of his contract. Whether he’s going to be the long-term, first-choice centre-half, I’m not sure. But to have a player of that quality in and around the squad is very valuable for Everton.
It took Jake O’Brien a little bit of time to get his chance at Everton, but he’s now the starting right-back under Moyes. How do you think he’s currently performing, and can he establish himself as a first-choice centre-half?
I think he can. He’s played there for Ireland for the last couple of games and done really well. I think he’s naturally a centre-half just because of his size.
He’s more suited to that position than playing as a full-back but he’s done really well. He’s looked very dominant in that position at times, and there aren’t many wingers who have got the better of him in the period that he’s been playing there.
Inevitably for himself, he’ll want to become a centre-back and get himself playing there more regularly at Everton.
But he doesn’t have much Premier League experience. So, to gain that, if it means having to play right-back for a period of time, then so be it. I think he’ll be at Everton for a long time, and I think, eventually, he will be moved back into the central area.
Despite Moyes’ reputation for being a defensively sound manager, Everton have only kept one clean sheet in the Premier League so far this season. Why do you think this is, and how can they improve that record?
I just think in the summer transfer window, they signed more attacking players. They’ve probably focused on that area of the pitch at the moment to try and win games.
For the last few years, they’ve been a team that needed their defence just to survive in the league because they weren’t a team that could create a lot of chances or score goals freely.
So, you’ve almost gone to the other side of it, where they’re a really attacking side now. They’ve got creative players and players that want to run forward, so it’s just finding that balance. With the experience that the manager has and the know-how of this league, it’s only a matter of time.
I think eventually they will start keeping more clean sheets and will become more solid. But for the manager, it’s trying to find that balance and allowing Jack Grealish, Iliman Ndiaye, Tyler Dibling, or Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, whoever it may be, the freedom to go and express themselves.
Sometimes there is a little bit of give on the defensive side, and you just have to work that balance out. But I don’t think it’s a major problem.
I don’t think it’s something that they’re going to suffer from, but it’s only a matter of time before they get themselves into a position where they’re winning games and keeping clean sheets at the same time.
Pep Guardiola has moved Josko Gvardiol from left-back to centre-back alongside Ruben Dias in recent weeks. Do you think this is going to be Manchester City’s new long-term defensive partnership?
Yeah, possibly. You can never know that with Pep because he likes to change things around and find new ways of getting the best out of players.
I think when Guardiola signed Gvardiol, he was sort of brought in as the next best centre-back in Europe but there’s a settling in period with the Premier League, and for Gvardiol that was playing left-back for a period of time – developing his game, getting the understanding of the league in that position and now Pep feels it’s time that he moves back into the centre and continues his career in that position.
He gives City a really good balance. Obviously, Nathan Ake has played there on occasion, and Aymeric Laporte was probably the last proper left-sided centre-back they had on a permanent basis.
So, it’s getting more back to that. He adds a bit of speed to that central position as well. I can certainly see, for the time being, that’s going to be the partnership that City looks to be the mainstay.
There are other players. John Stones will come back in, and Ake will be back in at times. But I think I prefer Gvardiol and Ruben Dias too. They’re two top-class players, and the more games they play together, the better that partnership becomes and the better the side becomes in terms of their defensive solidity.
What advice would you give Abdukodir Khusanov to help him succeed at Manchester City?
It’s about that settling-in period, and some players adjust quicker than others.
I think Khusanov can still look slightly surprised by the pace of the league. He’s a really quick player, but sometimes he can be a little bit quick to make decisions and to make tackles, but with experience he will improve on that.
Obviously, City aren’t as dominant as they have been in previous years, so it’s probably not the time to be giving younger defenders their opportunity in the team. But over the course of the season, he will get enough games where he is learning and improving. The players he’s training with on a daily basis will also help him along as well.
I think he has to be patient because he’s at one of the top clubs in world football. He’s not going to walk into the team.
He has to convince the manager and improve on his decision-making processes in games. He’s got all the physical attributes to be a really good defender, and I’m sure the manager is helping him all the way through it and explaining about his positioning and what the right way to win the ball back is.
So, I think he was bought as a player for the future, and I still think he’s in that sort of mould where he’s not quite at the elite level, but he’s shown signs that he can certainly get there.
Have you seen signs so far this season that Phil Foden is getting back to his best?
I think he played really well in the Manchester derby, and there’s never really been any doubt about Phil Foden’s ability and what he brings to the team.
It’s about getting the consistency out of him. He didn’t have the best time last year and saw a drop off in form, but he’s one of those players that is world class on his day.
For Man City, it’s also about finding the correct environment for him and making sure he’s in his best position – playing with confidence and without any external worries.
Once you get that, you get a happy Phil Foden who’s enjoying his football, and who is certainly in the top four or five players in the league.
Man City would love to have him firing on all cylinders, and I think this season we’ve seen glimpses of it, and signs that he’s getting back to that top level. I think as the season progresses, he’ll become more and more important for City.
In terms of getting back into the England squad, if he ends up being one of the best players in the Premier League, well then England would be mad not take him.
But I think for Foden, his concentration is on Man City and getting them back to the top of the Premier League and doing well in Europe.
Unai Emery seems unsure of his best centre-back pairing at present, with Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres, and Tyrone Mings all coming in and out of the side on a regular basis. How unsettling can that be as a central defender?
The game’s moved on from when I was playing, and players are more used to that rotation. But I think there are certain positions on the pitch that you do need a bit more familiarity with, in regard to the player that you’re playing alongside.
Centre-back is one of those positions where you want to build up relationships, you want to build up partnerships if you get two set in position.
I’m sure if Emery had two centre-backs that he felt were dominant and playing great every week together, there wouldn’t be so much rotation. But at the moment, I think the whole Aston Villa team is looking for consistency.
I think Konsa would probably be the mainstay, and then Torres and Mings would be the two vying for a place alongside him.
Any centre-back would like to know that he has a partner – that every week it’s going to be the same guy. You know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, you know what the guy next to you is going to do and what he can’t do. So, it does really help your own game, and the sooner they can find that, the better. Then all of a sudden, you will see a more consistent Aston Villa.
Ezri Konsa seems to be in favour under Thomas Tuchel at this moment in time. Do you think he’s a guaranteed starter for England at next summer’s World Cup?
No. I think Harry Kane, Jordan Pickford, and maybe Declan Rice are players who can say they’ll definitely start for England.
I don’t think there’s any certainty of a place being nailed down by Konsa, Marc Guehi, John Stones, or whoever it may be that comes in.
But in the opportunities he’s had, he’s done really, really well. The one thing I would say about England and the games they’ve played, is they’ve not really been tested defensively, and that’s the comfort of friendlies and the build-up to the World Cup.
But you can only be tested against what’s put in front of you. And so far, it’s been a breeze for all the England centre-backs. So, Konsa is in a really good position where the manager seems to like him.
He can play in a couple of different positions. And the first step to playing in the World Cup is getting into the squad. I think he’s certainly got one foot on the plane already. So as long as he continues his form over the season and keeps fit and healthy, he should definitely be in the squad.
Do you think there is any way Mings can play his way back into the England setup?
Of course there is. The manager looks like he prefers other players at the moment, whether it’s Dan Burn that goes in there, I don’t know. But there’s a long way to go until the World Cup.
You look at it and think, they’ve qualified – let’s pick the squad now and see who’s there. But there’s a long way to go.
There are a lot of games to be played, so anyone still has an opportunity, and certainly people on the periphery like Mings still have a chance. If he performs at the real top of his game over the next six or seven months leading into the World Cup, then the manager won’t ignore him.
The manager won’t have any preconceived ideas about people. He’ll be looking for the best players, and if Mings’ form is of that standard, then 100 percent the manager will be looking to get him into the squad.
Emiliano Martinez looked as if he was leaving in the summer, only for nothing to materialise. Do you expect him to move on in January?
It probably won’t happen in January. I would expect him to stay until the end of the season now. I was surprised firstly that he was leaving and then secondly that nobody seemed to want him.
I think he was probably surprised by that as well, and it was likely a little knock to his ego.
But I don’t see it materialising in January that he would move on. I think he’s sort of upset the apple cart a little bit in the summer transfer window, and I would imagine the deal is, you’re going to stick around for the whole season. We’re not going to have any more disruption in that area of the pitch as far as the club are concerned.
Aston Villa need to know who the number one is for the rest of the season, so I presume that Villa will be looking at him and banking on him being there for at least the rest of the season.
He’s still a top keeper, so he just needs to get back to the top form that he was playing at.
For Villa, it’s actually great because he has a World Cup coming up and Martinez needs to be sharp and in good form for when that comes around.
Nathan Collins has impressed for Brentford in recent times but has struggled to replicate that form for his national team. Why do you think that is?
I don’t know if I agree with that. I think because Nathan Collins is the captain of Ireland, everyone looks at his performances and tries to judge him on what he’s doing with Brentford.
But Brentford is a much different team to what he’s playing in with the Republic side.
I think Brentford are a side that can defend the edge of the box. They can defend deep, they’ve got players who can hit you on the counterattack, and there’s no real space between the defence and midfield. It’s a really compact setup and they all work together to keep that shape in place.
Ireland played Portugal and that was the sort of performance that Ireland put in. They all defended deeply. They sent the ball wide; they put crosses into the box and defended as a team.
Nathan Collins was brilliant in that game. I think his problem has been when we actually play lesser nations – we try to open up a little bit and get a bit more expansive.
He can get isolated and caught in 1v1s high up the pitch, which is probably not his strength. So, he gets a lot of flak and a lot of attention for that side of his game.
You can look at a lot of the Irish players and think they’re probably not performing to the same levels as they do for their clubs. That’s probably down to the way the team is set up and the confidence we have as a group at the moment.
Everyone gets a little bit of stick and some noise around them. Nathan Collins being the captain, means he is probably getting the most of it at the moment.
But I think in a confident Irish side, Nathan Collins would flourish and be a really important player for us.
Caoimhin Kelleher finally left Liverpool on a permanent basis in the summer for regular first-team football. How surprised are you that the likes of Chelsea, Newcastle & even Manchester United weren’t in for him?
I was very surprised he ended up going to Brentford in the end. I think Kelleher always did it in short bursts at Liverpool. He’s been outstanding when he’s played, but he’s never had a consistent three or four seasons where he’s been the number one choice.
So, the other clubs might have possibly been put off by that and whether he was capable. We’ve seen with Ireland for a long time now that he is an outstanding goalkeeper.
Brentford will benefit massively from having him in the side, but I’m not sure Brentford is his final destination.
I think more clubs will become interested in Kelleher the longer he performs for Brentford, and certainly, what he does at the international level is outstanding.
A couple of the clubs may have missed out on signing him for a reasonable price. I think in the future his price will be at least double what Brentford paid for him.
Like I say, he’s got the capabilities to step up and play at another level, which might be Champions League level or the top end of the Premier League.
It’s no disrespect to Brentford. They’re a really good side and they’ve done really well since becoming a Premier League club. They’ve given Kelleher a really good opportunity to shine as a number one, but eventually I think sides of a higher caliber will come looking for him.
Jayson Molumby missed out on the last squad but found himself starting against Portugal and Armenia. Are you surprised it’s taken this long for him to be a regular in this Ireland team?
I think he’s had opportunities, and he’s always been in and around the squad, but I thought his performances over the last two games were great.
He added energy and a bit of mobility in midfield, which the team had been lacking. He always brings that aggression to win the ball back and wants to be forcing the team forward.
It is a surprise that he’s not had more starts, certainly under the current regime. I think there are a few players who are in that category, who have not been in the squad and then suddenly start in the next round of games.
I don’t think the manager has been able to find his best squad or his best group of players. Molumby is just one of the players who, unfortunately, hasn’t been recognised as being as important as he can be.
I think he’s suspended for the next games, but I think he should be a player that the manager is looking at every time he’s available.
How would you describe Heimir Hallgrimsson’s reign as the Republic of Ireland manager? Has the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup qualification campaign been a success in your opinion?
In terms of the manager’s reign being a success or not, I just think it’s never settled down. He’s never found a system, a structure or a group of players that he’s fully bought into.
I think there have been too many changes within the squad. We spoke about it after Armenia, the fact that they’ve played four games and used 24 players in those four games. It’s a lot of players. Although he was late coming in, he’s had enough time to be able to identify what our best group should be.
I don’t think we have 24 world-class players. I think the group should have been a lot tighter. He should have had more players that he relied on, and I don’t think the chopping and changing has helped us.
The performances haven’t been great. We won the game against Armenia, but the first half was really, really poor. Until Armenia got a man sent off, we didn’t look like we were going to do anything against them.
In the end, we could have scored a couple of goals. The keeper pulled off some great saves. But the campaign is a weird one. It’s not been great, but it’s probably better than what we’ve seen in previous years because we’re going into the final round of games, and we still have a hope of qualifying.
That hope relies on us probably beating Portugal at home and Hungary away, so it is a big ask, but this belief is still there.
If we can get through it, it would be a miracle, but I don’t think we’ve progressed to be honest. I don’t think we’ve progressed over his reign, which is a sign that it’s probably not been as successful as he would have wished.
The Republic of Ireland has some promising young talents, such as Evan Ferguson, Kasey McAteer, and O’Brien. Who are you most excited about?
I will always think that Ireland’s hopes of qualification and success over the next 10 or 15 years, will unfortunately lie heavily on Evan Ferguson’s shoulders. He’s still a young lad, and he shouldn’t have that amount of pressure put on him, but he is our main hope for the future still.
Jake O’Brien is a very good centre back, but if we’re going to go and win games, we need goals. I think one of the highlights of this campaign is that we start to see Evan Ferguson deliver.
He’s starting to score goals regularly, and he’s starting to get some service into him, which is important.
I found from my generation, when I played, we had Robbie Keane in the team and opposition defenders were afraid of him. Opposition teams would look to cover him and maybe take a step backwards at times.
If we can get that fear factor from Evan put into opposition teams, then that might give us a little bit more help in terms of more time with the ball and a bit more respect when we go and play big teams.
You need your big players to perform, and I think Evan is certainly one of our big players. He’s starting to deliver in terms of the goals that we would need from him.
At the moment, nothing looks great. We don’t look like a good team, but we look like we have the makings of a really good centre forward who can hopefully lead us to better things in the future.
A couple of your ex-teammates (Stephen Ireland & Nedum Onuoha) are making noise on social media playing in a Sunday vets league in Manchester. Would you ever consider continuing to play in that sort of capacity?
Probably not as far as I’m concerned. I played a charity game for Stiliyan Petrov 18 months ago, and I’m still struggling to recover from it.
Playing on a regular basis wouldn’t suit me at all. I enjoyed my career, but I know Stephen Ireland, he’s as fit as a fiddle, so he can run around all day.
I’m sure he probably plays two or three times a week, and as for Nedum, he’s just a complete athlete, so it doesn’t surprise me. Fair play to them both for still playing, but for me, definitely not.
Was Stephen Ireland the most talented player you’ve ever played with?
He was brilliant. The problem for Stephen was that he couldn’t translate it consistently onto the big pitch, but at training, there were times when you couldn’t get near him.
He reminded me of a Brazilian player. The time it felt like he had, and the touches he would take were just incredible.
Unfortunately, he only really had a couple of seasons at his very best, and it wouldn’t translate over a period of time or in the big games when it was needed.
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