Stephen Kenny has spoken in glowing terms about Damien Duff suggesting that the Celtic coach will become a full-time member of his coaching staff.
On Sunday the new Ireland boss announced his backroom staff which includes Duff who is currently first team coach at Celtic.
There was no simultaneous announcement from Celtic with the former Chelsea winger due to take up his new role on August 1.
Apart from a short spell in charge of Dunfermline, during which he led them to the final of the 2007 Scottish Cup, Kenny has spent his entire management career in Ireland with part of his new remit being to identify and develop players within the League of Ireland.
Balls report Kenny saying:
Damien done his Pro Licence initially. He started at the bottom by going in with the U15s at Shamrock Rovers, and the U15 international team as well, so he worked very hard for a long time.
He obviously did his pro licence this year with the FAI. Niall O’Regan, the head of coach education, asked me to come in at times and observe.
Damien was selected by the group to go to Switzerland to put on a session for all the other people who were doing Pro Licences in Europe, from all the pro licence groups in different countries.
He was the one selected from the Irish group to put on that session for everyone. He was brilliant. The thing about Keith and Damien, with technology changing so rapidly so has the job, they’re two modern-thinking coaches who both worked at club football and in the international setup.
That year at Celtic will be of huge benefit to him, because they’ve had good results in Europe this year. He’s had to adapt tactically to all of those games. I feel he will be a very good addition.
Use of ‘that year at Celtic’ suggests that Duff’s time in Glasgow is about to end. The 41-year-old took up a role assisting Tommy McIntyre with the Celtic reserve side in January 2019 but a month later joined Neil Lennon’s backroom team as first team coach.
Despite the FAI announcement of his new role on Sunday there has been no comment from Celtic.