Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Londonvilla on July 15, 2013, 09:39:18 PM
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Richard Dunne was he really that bad?
I was sitting in a traffic jam today when I heard on talk sport that Richard Dunne had been sold to QPR. I was surprised how much I wished him well, he was never one of my favourite players and I agree with most people that he was too slow, too fat and he was not a great leader, however there were times when I thought Martin O’Neill would get us that fourth place and at no time did I think that Richard Dunne was the weak link in the team. (No one can say he never gave 100%)
Am I just being sentimental because he never slag the club off or ask to leave?
When the history of Aston Villa is written, will Richard Dunne get a page, a chapter or just a paragraph? And what will it say?
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Not in his first season, no.
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not at eating no
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I think he did ok.
Was certainly better than last seasons defence and we wouldn't have conceded as many goals with him playing regularly.
Wish him luck
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Average centre half prone to dropping a major clanger in big games... behind the scenes I don't think he was a very good influence on the squad either.
That said we may have actually beaten a fourth division team in a semi-final if he had played.
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too many OG's for me
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He was not sold nor did he need to ask to leave. His contract had expired and he was a free agent.
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He was one of two people that attacked our Sid.Piss head.
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He would have made a significant difference playing next to Vlaar last season. He's a lot better than he's sometimes given credit for. He clearly had some issues behind the scenes and for him to have made the miracle recovery that he has something wasn't right.
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Great to start with, for a season, then considerably not great.
He always came back from a summer break looking overweight.
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Yes. Yes he was.
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It would have been nice if at any point of his time with he made it sound as though he wanted to be here.
It never felt as if it were ever any more meaningful than "well, Man City decided to sell me and here was as good as anywhere else"
But I've never had too many issues with (most of) his performances.
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Was on a downward slope after the cup final, for me. Cracking first season, can't take that away from him but in hindsight partnering him in defence with another pisshead was probably not the brightest idea.
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His heart was as big as his arse which is where we've been as a club for a long time.
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Started off well but he always had an error in him and it was usually a costly one. Angry at the way he behaved towards Sid
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Great to start with, for a season, then considerably not great.
He always came back from a summer break looking overweight.
I thought at the start of the McWaste season he looked in really good best shape. It just went downhill from there.
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He wasn't available for Villa the whole of last season. I recall it was somebody's (Gilmore's) groin that was the injury. It sounded terrible when I looked it up. I was dead sympathetic.
He was available for international duty this summer and now he's fit enough to be bought by QPR.
He is a consummate professional and so is his agent.
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Fat wanker. That is all.
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I remember seeing him hit a back pass to Friedel.
Dunne was pretty much the only person (other than Friedel) in our half. He turns around, tries to stroke it back to Friedel, and puts it massively wide, in to touch.
The entire Trinity Road stand erupted in laughter (and, let's be honest, we don't get emotional easily).
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For his first season, no. He was very, very good for us then.
Halfway through his second I was considering buying a bottle of Champagne to quaff upon his departure. Good job I didn't as it took him so long to fuck off that I'd have forgotten why I'd bought it by the time he left.
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After a few games I thought MON had made a masterstroke of a signing but after MON left we really needed his experience along with quite a few other players to stand up and be counted for and help the youngsters get used to the Premier league. But what happened was a shambles and him and a few others let us all down.
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I've never particularly liked the fat fuck. Was okay for a while the first season, helped cost us the 2010 final, always looked capable of majorly fucking up in a game. The disgraceful way he acted towards Sid, which as far as I was concerned should have seen sacked on the spot. And 'earnt' more money last year than most of us will see in our lifetimes while contributing fuck all because he was too busy yamming down cream buns in Greggs.
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Good first season, shite afterwards but we have had worse. Glad we've moved him on though.
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You're gonna need a bigger shirt.
(http://theoriginalwinger.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Richard-Dunne.jpg)
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He'll do well under Redknapp I reckon, I get the impression he only responds to 'old-school'. Won't be missed.
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Decent player. Always gave his all. His time for us had passed though. Good luck to him at QPR.
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Good in his first season but then when downhill from there.
Massively unprofessional and hugely unfit. A piss artist who made some bad mistakes, if he'd have been brilliant we would have forgiven him, unfortunately, he was average overall. At best.
I'd nearly already forgotten about him to be honest.
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A waster. Ok to play for Ireland the minute the season had ended but couldn't be bothered to lend some experience to our embattled and young defence during the season. Good riddance to him and his 55k a week wage bill. I don't earn 55k in a year. That fat wanker got that every week!!
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As has already been mentioned, he mouthed off at Gordon Cowans whilst pissed up, was ridiculously overpaid for a player of his ability and was an accident waiting to happen in most games he played in. A fitting punishment for acting like a twat is that he'll be stuck with Redknapp for a little while.
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Good first season declining thereafter with a very brief encore when he put a couple of decent performances in at the end of the McLeish season.
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Excellent first season. Showed up overweight and unfit the second season; was largely shit and thus dropped, managed to play his way back into the side and was competent in second half of that season. Third season he was ok (on average), but inconsistent, and showed increasing evidence that his positioning (which could range from quite good to very poor) couldn't make up for his slowness. Fourth season nowhere to be seen (excluding jokes about pastry shops).
Even though he probably had some mental issues, you could probably argue that he responded well to a challenge: coming here after being rejected by Man City; getting back into the team after being dropped by GH; helping the team in TSM's relegation battle.
Maybe not really all that bad, but clearly not the kind of player we should have been signing to break into the top four.
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I'd love to know what really went on last season.
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I thought he was superb in his first season for us & when he came back for the last few games under McLeish.
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In patches he was good but over the course of his time with us he was overweight, unprofessional, disrespectful and full of errors. Very average defender who should never have been given such a stupid contract by us.
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I thought he was superb in his first season for us & when he came back for the last few games under McLeish.
Pretty much what i was going to put.
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Great first season, despite still having a couple of ricks/own goals. That is all
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I thought he was a decent PL player prone to a few too many gaffes, but not top 4 standard which is where we were, at the time of signing him, aiming to be. I think he was a bit too "old school" in terms of "diet" for that level although I'm not sure he was actually fat, just sturdy and not especially nimble or quick.
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I've never particularly liked the fat fuck. Was okay for a while the first season, helped cost us the 2010 final, always looked capable of majorly fucking up in a game. The disgraceful way he acted towards Sid, which as far as I was concerned should have seen sacked on the spot. And 'earnt' more money last year than most of us will see in our lifetimes while contributing fuck all because he was too busy yamming down cream buns in Greggs.
Nail. On. Head .
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I will always associate Dunne with the club's high point when Villa got to Wembley where they lost narrowly to Man United in the League Cup final (2010).
I often wonder whether Villa's recent history would have been significantly different had referee Dowd followed the rule book, when Gabby was tripped in the penalty box.
I never thought Dunne was a defender of the very best quality, and obviously Man City didn't either, but the £5m fee reflected that at the time, and for an ambitious club, which Villa were back then, his contract did not seem extravagant, for a rich club which was trying to achieve the same as Man City, but as we now know, for a lot less.
When he played for Villa he was a lot better than I expected and just as at Man City or playing for the Republic, he more than made up for his lack of finesse by his bravery and commitment.
Sadly, his reputation has suffered during the process of historical revision which has been required during the fans' adjustment to Villa's substantial reduction in ambition.
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You must be very young if you think losing a league cup final was the club's high point.
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No. He just had a bad mistake waiting to happen in him. He was a lot like David James. Could be really, really good, but prone to errors.
Was he at fault for Stoke getting those two late goals (or maybe just one of them?)?
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I will always associate Dunne with the club's high point when Villa got to Wembley where they lost narrowly to Man United in the League Cup final (2010).
I often wonder whether Villa's recent history would have been significantly different had referee Dowd followed the rule book, when Gabby was tripped in the penalty box.
I never thought Dunne was a defender of the very best quality, and obviously Man City didn't either, but the £5m fee reflected that at the time, and for an ambitious club, which Villa were back then, his contract did not seem extravagant, for a rich club which was trying to achieve the same as Man City, but as we now know, for a lot less.
When he played for Villa he was a lot better than I expected and just as at Man City or playing for the Republic, he more than made up for his lack of finesse by his bravery and commitment.
Sadly, his reputation has suffered during the process of historical revision which has been required during the fans' adjustment to Villa's substantial reduction in ambition.
There's no historical revision, most people with anything negative to say have stated he had a good first season, but after that he was largely unprofessional and average. Add in that he always had a mistake in him and he can only be viewed as a bad buy for the club.
His reputation has suffered because he came back for preseason overweight after 1 good year and then spent the next year bitching about being made to put effort in to training before topping it off by going on a 'clear the air' retreat with the team, getting pissed and attacking a club legend. The Houllier season showed up everything that is wrong with Dunne, 20 years ago he'd have been fine but football has moved on, fitness is taken seriously now and he wasn't willing to focus on it.
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No. He just had a bad mistake waiting to happen in him. He was a lot like David James. Could be really, really good, but prone to errors.
Was he at fault for Stoke getting those two late goals (or maybe just one of them?)?
He wasn't playing for us then so can't pin that on him. For me his whole career will be overshadowed by his complete absence last season. What was going on there?
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I will always associate Dunne with the club's high point when Villa got to Wembley where they lost narrowly to Man United in the League Cup final (2010).
Ah yes, the game when his mistake led to the crucial equaliser. And that was when he was good.
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I think Eigentors post just about sums Dunne up for me. I can see why he would divide opinion to be fair, very much a love him or hate him type.
Wasnt he part of the best Premier League defence that year under MON? And yet he holds the record for Premier League own goals.....
Throwing one thought out there, I reckon if he was fit last season to partner Vlaar, we'd have finished comfortably mid-table. How many would agree?
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I will always associate Dunne with the club's high point when Villa got to Wembley where they lost narrowly to Man United in the League Cup final (2010).
I often wonder whether Villa's recent history would have been significantly different had referee Dowd followed the rule book, when Gabby was tripped in the penalty box.
I never thought Dunne was a defender of the very best quality, and obviously Man City didn't either, but the £5m fee reflected that at the time, and for an ambitious club, which Villa were back then, his contract did not seem extravagant, for a rich club which was trying to achieve the same as Man City, but as we now know, for a lot less.
When he played for Villa he was a lot better than I expected and just as at Man City or playing for the Republic, he more than made up for his lack of finesse by his bravery and commitment.
Sadly, his reputation has suffered during the process of historical revision which has been required during the fans' adjustment to Villa's substantial reduction in ambition.
This is one hell of a funny post.
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First season excellent.
Coming back the next pre-season unfit, not so good.
His part, along with James Collins in that infamous training camp ruckus, not good at all.
Questionable dressing room influence to say the least, particularly in Houlliers reign because he was a manager who took a very hard line on fitness and discipline.
Last two seasons were a write off pretty much. I think his legs have gone. He'll be alright in a cotton wool/Ledley King kind of role for QPR. He'll play every other week (unless he's injured), not train much, and probably look quite good at Champ level.
I think what bugs people sometimes about Dunney was that he never really wanted to come here. He was probably content picking up a big wage to do very little at City. Also because he caused a bit of trouble to boot and seemed in some circles to be a negative influence, ultimately we're glad to see him gone.
That said, on the pitch, when he actually played, which in the last 18 months has been sod all, he was never less than fully committed.
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He did well for us but was always prone to the odd error. Actually, a bit like Laursen. Unlike Laursen he blotted his copybook with the Sid affair. Also, when he played poorly he wasn't very good. We were crying out for him and his experience last season though. i really think we would have been top 8 if he had given us a season. i'm not totally convinced about the reasons for his absence either. Doesn't play all season and then as soon as the season finishes he turns out for Ireland and now signs for QPR.
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Throwing one thought out there, I reckon if he was fit last season to partner Vlaar, we'd have finished comfortably mid-table. How many would agree?
Quite possibly - I don't particularly rate Clark or Baker and they both probably contributed at least as many cock ups and ogs as Dunne would have. I think our defence would have been a fair bit more solid with him in it.
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I will always associate Dunne with the club's high point when Villa got to Wembley where they lost narrowly to Man United in the League Cup final (2010).
I often wonder whether Villa's recent history would have been significantly different had referee Dowd followed the rule book, when Gabby was tripped in the penalty box.
I never thought Dunne was a defender of the very best quality, and obviously Man City didn't either, but the £5m fee reflected that at the time, and for an ambitious club, which Villa were back then, his contract did not seem extravagant, for a rich club which was trying to achieve the same as Man City, but as we now know, for a lot less.
When he played for Villa he was a lot better than I expected and just as at Man City or playing for the Republic, he more than made up for his lack of finesse by his bravery and commitment.
Sadly, his reputation has suffered during the process of historical revision which has been required during the fans' adjustment to Villa's substantial reduction in ambition.
This is one hell of a funny post.
It's fine up till the last line, which is a total non-sequitur. It might have some value if Dunne had been an extravagant signing, but he wasn't, he was the sort of signing we could still afford to make today.
If people are remembering the poor side of Dunne as well as the decent one, it's because there was such a contrast between his first season and the subsequent three.
How, for example, was it possible for him not to kick a ball for us in the entirety of the last season, and then go on to play for the Republic days after the season ended?
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I've defended Dunne on here before and got slated for it. His first season was excellent, I think he exceeded most people's expectations. He never reproduced that form on anything close to a consistent basis, but then again very few players who have played for Villa in that time could claim to.
I do think he has been unfairly made a scapegoat for a lot that went wrong and some of the criticism has been way over the top. I always got the feeling that a lot of fans never wanted him here, begrudgingly admitted he was a good player after his first season, but then were very quick to have the knives out. There were a lot of players who were a lot worse than Dunne over the last couple of years and never got the same amount of vitriol. That always confused me. Then again, I will admit that the fact he has been such a legend for the Irish football team affects the way I look at him.
Regarding last season, he was told by Lambert in the summer that he wanted to sell him, but then because of the injury that didn't happen, so he was here in Spetember. After his operations, he broke down again and I imagine Lambert at some stage realised that he wasn't going to make it to a stage where he could be relied upon in a relegation battle. He played a small part in meaningless friendlies for Ireland after the season had finished, but I don't think any Villa fan would have been too confident relying on Dunne with question marks over his fitness, going into those last 2 months. Even if one was to subscribe to the view that Dunne was all about collecting his wages and wasn't arsed playing, why on earth would he not get himself fit to get a new contract at Villa or another PL club, if he could have??
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I've defended Dunne on here before and got slated for it. His first season was excellent, I think he exceeded most people's expectations. He never reproduced that form on anything close to a consistent basis, but then again very few players who have played for Villa in that time could claim to.
I do think he has been unfairly made a scapegoat for a lot that went wrong and some of the criticism has been way over the top. I always got the feeling that a lot of fans never wanted him here, begrudgingly admitted he was a good player after his first season, but then were very quick to have the knives out. There were a lot of players who were a lot worse than Dunne over the last couple of years and never got the same amount of vitriol. That always confused me. Then again, I will admit that the fact he has been such a legend for the Irish football team affects the way I look at him.
Regarding last season, he was told by Lambert in the summer that he wanted to sell him, but then because of the injury that didn't happen, so he was here in Spetember. After his operations, he broke down again and I imagine Lambert at some stage realised that he wasn't going to make it to a stage where he could be relied upon in a relegation battle. He played a small part in meaningless friendlies for Ireland after the season had finished, but I don't think any Villa fan would have been too confident relying on Dunne with question marks over his fitness, going into those last 2 months. Even if one was to subscribe to the view that Dunne was all about collecting his wages and wasn't arsed playing, why on earth would he not get himself fit to get a new contract at Villa or another PL club, if he could have??
What he said...
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I cannot agree with that.
I was pleased with his first season and disappointed with the rest because his performances and professionalism merited those responses.
Dunne was not hard done by at all as you’re trying to portray.
He was/is over-weight and has a problem with alcohol. We’re a pretty understanding bunch here and don’t ordinarily hold that against a player. However, in Dunne’s case, there was a strong correlation between his weight issues and increasingly poor performances, to such a point where he couldn’t be bothered for an entire season. Fit and healthy players come back from worse injuries in less time than unfit and over-weight ones.
What you do not mention is that he also raised his hands to a Villa legend and coach, completely disrespecting the club in the process.
We’ve had a lot of great Irish players over the years, but taking off those green spectacles, you should be able to plainly see that Dunne does not hold a candle to the majority of them.
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Throwing one thought out there, I reckon if he was fit last season to partner Vlaar, we'd have finished comfortably mid-table. How many would agree?
If he was the same Richard Dunne we saw in 2009/10 then undoubtedly. However, if you consider that we came even closer in terms of both points and finishing position to relegation the season before with Richard Dunne as a regular in a more experienced back four within a more defensive side that should have shipped a lot fewer goals then the Richard Dunne who most likely would have turned up might not have made that big a difference especially if you consider that his proposed defensive partner, Vlaar, was far from blameless for last season's defensive woes.
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Spent much of his time with us overweight and unfit. Couple that with Champneys and broken trellisgate and I think it's fair to say he's been an expensive mistake. Not our first but hopefully our last for a while.
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He started pretty well but declined pretty sharply. MON signed a player for a chunk of money on a fairly big contract when, as it turned out, he was on the wrong side of his peak and looking down a pretty vertiginous* slope. I for one will always associate him with the era of the overpriced, overpaid, unprofessional, bucolic Britishers on whom MON wasted our best shot at the top in recent history.
*I know I should just have said 'steep', but I like this word, so do one.
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Excellent in 09/10 bar the error in the cup final. He made it in the PFA team of the year remember.
11/12 started off well and we missed him when he was injured.
The less said about 10/11 the better. Not a great case of his professionalism turning up overweight for pre season and then having a brawl with Sid and also falling out with Houllier.
Couldn've had Distin instead of him who's still first choice for Everton.
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He was good under MON but never the same once new managers came in.
I will never know if that was because the coaching and tactics were alien to him ( remember how we slipped from being set piece specialists to absolute liabilities ) or if he was just no that good to begin with, but the old MON magic had worked for a while.
My single biggest memory of him is that awful header to the feet of Drogba in the FA Cup semi in 2010. That completely blew the wind from our sails.
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He was good under MON but never the same once new managers came in.
I will never know if that was because the coaching and tactics were alien to him ( remember how we slipped from being set piece specialists to absolute liabilities ) or if he was just no that good to begin with, but the old MON magic had worked for a while.
My single biggest memory of him is that awful header to the feet of Drogba in the FA Cup semi in 2010. That completely blew the wind from our sails.
I don't see that as being as big an error as just passing straight to Berbatov.
The header was weak yes but wouldn't have matter if we'd simply bothered putting a player on the 18 yard box who could've just completed the clearance. Instead Ballack was just standing there and had a free shot which hit Drogba and went in or whatever.
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Sort of understand those who say that he has become a scapegoat -- though I don't agree. If I chose to ignore his attitude, fitness and wages -- and just considered his ability, I would probably argued that there would be nothing wrong with keeping him. A (mostly) competent central defender with extensive PL experience is something that our squad could need. However, looking at the whole package, I'm (like most) quite happy to be rid.
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Great to start with, for a season, then considerably not great.
He always came back from a summer break looking overweight.
Yep he was a 90's player in 00's for me in his less than professional off season approach. 1st season he did well but sorry to be a bore I think Milner covered up a lot of people's one paced / slight sluggishness with his energy and Dunne, Collins and Stan were 3 who benefited. Let's face facts they all looked rubbish when Milner left for 6 months+.
Typical Brit/Irish style centre half - decent enough positionally/organised initially then ball watches, then throws himself in front of the shot last gasp style. Suppose Adams and Terry did ok for themselves with similar attributes.
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I cannot agree with that.
I was pleased with his first season and disappointed with the rest because his performances and professionalism merited those responses.
Dunne was not hard done by at all as you’re trying to portray.
He was/is over-weight and has a problem with alcohol. We’re a pretty understanding bunch here and don’t ordinarily hold that against a player. However, in Dunne’s case, there was a strong correlation between his weight issues and increasingly poor performances, to such a point where he couldn’t be bothered for an entire season. Fit and healthy players come back from worse injuries in less time than unfit and over-weight ones.
What you do not mention is that he also raised his hands to a Villa legend and coach, completely disrespecting the club in the process.
We’ve had a lot of great Irish players over the years, but taking off those green spectacles, you should be able to plainly see that Dunne does not hold a candle to the majority of them.
Well said.
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Lambert is trying to build a team based around young hungry players.
Dunne is not so young and ....
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In his first season, Dunne did better than we could have possibly hoped for when he had to fill Martin Laursen's boots. I recall Manchester City's fans being pretty upset that he'd been forced out. Unfortunately it all went downhill after that but he'll be a good signing for QPR.
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A great addition to the physio room, complete with vending machine.
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Great to start with, for a season, then considerably not great.
He always came back from a summer break looking overweight.
Yep he was a 90's player in 00's for me in his less than professional off season approach. 1st season he did well but sorry to be a bore I think Milner covered up a lot of people's one paced / slight sluggishness with his energy and Dunne, Collins and Stan were 3 who benefited. Let's face facts they all looked rubbish when Milner left for 6 months+.
That's a very good point.
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With my rose coloured glasses on ...he reminded me of Beckanbauer, but he was another Villa player, who was just there to pick up the cash!
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Like a rich mans Titus Bramble
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Great to start with, for a season, then considerably not great.
He always came back from a summer break looking overweight.
Yep he was a 90's player in 00's for me in his less than professional off season approach. 1st season he did well but sorry to be a bore I think Milner covered up a lot of people's one paced / slight sluggishness with his energy and Dunne, Collins and Stan were 3 who benefited. Let's face facts they all looked rubbish when Milner left for 6 months+.
That's a very good point.
Except Stan actually played well when Milner left. But yes, Collins and Dunne were shite.
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Our midfield -even including Stan pre illness- looked far from robust.
He was popping forward a bit more and chipping in with a few more long range shots, but we often lost the midfield battle, even against supposedly inferior teams.
He was noticeably tiring from about the 60th minute onwards in 2010/11. 12 months on, with more miles on the clock and with an even bigger workload due to Milner's departure, that situation wasn't improving.
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Our midfield -even including Stan pre illness- looked far from robust.
He was popping forward a bit more and chipping in with a few more long range shots, but we often lost the midfield battle, even against supposedly inferior teams.
He was noticeably tiring from about the 60th minute onwards in 2010/11. 12 months on, with more miles on the clock and with an even bigger workload due to Milner's departure, that situation wasn't improving.
I'll agree on the sluggish part, and we certainly did miss Milners energy for sure. I felt in terms of performance though, Stan still hit the mark. 7/10 most weeks for his last 18 months. He was pretty solid, but he, or perhaps to Houll's instruction, took a lot of running out of his game to conserve energy. O Neill ran him ragged (and everyone else). I actually felt Stan was better after O Neill left than he had been in 09/10.
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I will always associate Dunne with the club's high point when Villa got to Wembley where they lost narrowly to Man United in the League Cup final (2010).
I often wonder whether Villa's recent history would have been significantly different had referee Dowd followed the rule book, when Gabby was tripped in the penalty box.
I never thought Dunne was a defender of the very best quality, and obviously Man City didn't either, but the £5m fee reflected that at the time, and for an ambitious club, which Villa were back then, his contract did not seem extravagant, for a rich club which was trying to achieve the same as Man City, but as we now know, for a lot less.
When he played for Villa he was a lot better than I expected and just as at Man City or playing for the Republic, he more than made up for his lack of finesse by his bravery and commitment.
Sadly, his reputation has suffered during the process of historical revision which has been required during the fans' adjustment to Villa's substantial reduction in ambition.
This is one hell of a funny post.
It's fine up till the last line, which is a total non-sequitur. It might have some value if Dunne had been an extravagant signing, but he wasn't, he was the sort of signing we could still afford to make today.
If people are remembering the poor side of Dunne as well as the decent one, it's because there was such a contrast between his first season and the subsequent three.
How, for example, was it possible for him not to kick a ball for us in the entirety of the last season, and then go on to play for the Republic days after the season ended?
It is hardly beyond the possibilities of reason that Dunne was unable to line out last season due to injury and was able to play a barely above training pace end of season friendly with Ireland. He has been left out of the Irish squad for the upcoming friendlies so those injury worries are still an issue, also evident in that his deal with QPR is pretty much pay as you play.
Some of the crap posted about him here in relation to his absence last season aint half libellous. if only to get a decent contract elsewhere, he would have given anything to have been able to prove his fitness last season playing regularly. The conspiracy theories being spouted are a crock of sh*t frankly.
As a player Dunne was a very solid central defender but he certainly had his flaws on and off the pitch. For one, he never worked hard enough at his game particularly in his younger days to be up there with the John Terry's but he wasnt that far off. Particularly at Everton and his early days at City, his off the field lifestyle was terrible. Have a look at the size of him in the WC2002 qualifier at home to Holland where Roy Keane was immense. The honeymonster was in shocking condition there was also reports of him getting rowdy with Irish journalists at the World Cup that time. Keegan finally got him sorted out and he turned his career around.
Irish fans tend to forget that Dunne was awful at international level until Trappatoni took charge. Managers like MON and Trappatoni who preached structure, prioritised set pieces and limited football suited him perfectly. He was a stopper to the core with outstanding physical attributes and brave to a fault. Qualities that were found badly wanting in our defence last season. He was also well able to organise a defence around him. At international level that included such luminaries as Kilbane, Ward, St Ledger, O'Dea and McShane. He was never a centre half that was going to be comfortable taking the ball out from the back or having to thrive in a situation of managerial instability like when Houllier, McDonald or even Staunton and Brian Kerr at international level were in charge. He tended to slip back into his bad old ways then.
In the aftermath of the failure of Ireland to qualify for the WC in 2010 and MON leaving, he did go back to the back old days in terms of his conditioning off the pitch. The game against Bolton at Villa Park where he had to be taken off was the nadir but he bounced back pretty well when he got back in the side. Not that it was hard but he was our best defender under McLeish too. We went to absolute crap when he got injured that season and old when he came back did we steady the ship some bit. He wasnt the only player that lost their way in the 2 seasons after MON left. The boy hero from Erdington a case in point and the atmosphere around the club was rotten. Yet Dunne always seemed to get the abuse far more than most. Popular players like Carlos Cuellar werent fit to lace his boots lets be honest.
An old school manager like Redknapp who prioritise man management will get the best out of Dunne next season provided his injury troubles clear up. I wish him all the best.