Euro 2024: Eamon Dunphy slams James McClean as ‘a mouth’

Dunphy - who has himself been broiled in many media scandals in the past - wrote an article for The Irish Mirror in which he took a pop at both Derry native McClean and Irish footballing legend, Roy Keane.

McClean has been part of RTÉ’s Euros coverage this year, while Keane continues to be a leading figure for ITV during the tournament too.

“I’ve seen McClean a few times on RTÉ. Apparently, he is considered a find,” Dunphy states in his piece, which was published online on Wednesday.

“Well, whenever he appears on the screen, I switch channel because he can’t express himself.

“He is just a mouth and beyond the noise, there is no humour.

“From Keane, from McClean, you get rants. That wasn’t the case with John [Giles], Liam [Brady] or I.”

He continues: “Giles educated viewers on the game’s nuances and tactical trends.

“Neither Keane nor McClean do that because they don’t have the verbal skills to do so. Each man is addicted to stating the bleeding obvious.

“All you come away thinking is whether their personal prejudices are colouring their judgement.

“For example, McClean’s implied criticism of Stephen Kenny, the manager who got his career up and running when they were together at Derry, was cringeworthy.

“The Derry man doesn’t deserve to be on television. It was bad enough having to watch him play — now we have to listen to him speak.

“Spare me the trouble, especially if we have someone as intelligent as Souness or Wright on the other channel.”

Dunphy was ghost writer for Keane’s first autobiography in 2002 and took his side in his infamous falling-out with Ireland boss Mick McCarthy in Saipan, which led to his exit from the World Cup.

Some of Dunphy’s most memorable moments as an RTÉ pundit came when he was defending the former Nottingham Forest midfielder.

But, Dunphy later claimed that he and Keane fell out when he was critical of him as a manager in a column for The Irish Daily Star in the mid 2000s, and he says that’s when their previously cordial relationship broke down.

McClean has been creating headlines as a pundit on RTÉ during the current UEFA European Championship, by describing his former international team-mate, Declan Rice, as “overrated” and “not world class”, after two recent unimpressive displays in an England shirt.

Rice won three caps for the Republic of Ireland in 2018, when he was a team-mate of McClean, before switching international allegiance to England.

The England midfielder event suggested that McClean’s criticism of him may come from “bitterness towards me not playing for Ireland.”